Reader Pam Ward does an excellent job presenting the story.
William French, the long-serving missionary for the institution. Horn bases this history on newspaper accounts, annual reports of the Department of Public Charities and Corrections, and the notes and journal entries written by the Rev. An alarming, heartbreaking history of the handling of poor, ill, convicts, vagrants, and child criminals in NY City starting in the mid 19th century. Calls for reform, including an inside account by Nellie Bly, largely went ignored. Insufficient funding was provided for food, lodging, and clothing, and unqualified and cruel staff mistreated the inmates. Corrupt politicians controlled the island's budget and staffing decisions. Prisoners, the destitute, and the infirm were treated horribly. Today we call it Roosevelt Island, but in the 19th. Though these institutions were intended to reform criminals and provide aid and comfort to the poor and ill, the reality was far different. Find items like Damnation Island: Poor, Sick, Mad, & Criminal in 19th-Century New York at Daedalus Books. Over the next 100 years, the city government built a lunatic asylum, a prison, a hospital, a workhouse, and an almshouse. Horn ( The Restless Sleep) gives us the harrowing story of life on Blackwell's Island, located in New York City's East River.
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