This content provides an inside look at the complex and challenging operations of the kitchens at Rikers Island jail, highlighting the daily realities, security measures, and human dynamics involved in preparing meals for thousands of staff and incarcerated individuals within one of the US's most scrutinized correctional systems.
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This is [music] one of the kitchens
behind New York City's most infamous
jail, Riker's Island.
Here, chefs work 24/7 [music] making
every meal for 3,800 staff and people in custody.
custody.
>> People say so many things like the the
inmates cook the food. It's not true. We
cook the food.
>> But while chefs are on their shift,
Inmates work alongside them in the
kitchen, washing dishes and moving carts.
carts.
>> There's a distance between us here. You
can't treat them as friends. You know
why they're here.
>> Any given moment, violence could happen.
You got to have a sense of urgency when
you're working back here.
>> Knives are chained to machinery
and can lids slide down a caged trash bin.
Riker's Island is part of one of the
costliest jail systems in the US. Yet,
it faces scrutiny over [music]
conditions and food quality.
We went inside the jail's largest
kitchen to see how thousands of meals
are made and to find out how chefs,
officers, and detainees work together
behind the walls of Rikers.
Riker's Island is a complex of 10 jail
buildings and the second largest jail in
America. It sits in the waters between
the Bronx and Queens. Planes take off
from LaGuardia Airport right next door.
The only way onto the island is this
Many chefs take public transport to get
to work,
>> passing through half a dozen security
gates on their way to the kitchen.
The first time I felt nervous is when I
heard that gate close behind me. That's
>> Inside, it doesn't feel any less like a jail.
jail.
There are cameras everywhere. All of
them are monitored from the guard's office.
office.
Eight officers watch the feed, guard the
doors, and search every food delivery
for contraband.
People in custody or PIC's can't touch
the food. They're only allowed to wash
dishes, clean, and push food wagons.
Most people held at Rikers haven't been
convicted of a crime. They're awaiting
trial. Those who are serving time are
Only chefs are allowed to touch the
knives. They're chained to heavy
machinery at all times.
>> There's a reason for the knife on the
chain. It's for security.
>> When chefs need to change stations, they
get a guard from the office to unlock
the knife and move it.
>> When you first started, it's a little
awkward, like the chain is either
touching your hand or something, but you
get used to it.
>> But officers also keep watch over
objects that might seem harmless, like
lids, which go straight into a caged
trash can.
>> It's a lot of things. There's a lot of
sharp objects here. A lot of things that
could be used as a weapon.
Metal spoons and ladles have to be
checked out from a locked cabinet in the
guard's office.
Today, the chefs are working on a big
batch of pepper steak.
In a place like this, food is very important.
important.
I like to make other people happy. It's
like they made people make me sick, but
they still got to eat.
>> Taking it in.
>> Good morning, Cat. Naen Leech had been
incarcerated at Riker for 17 months at
the time of filming. She was a chef
before serving time here, but she's only
allowed to push food carts and can't use
her cooking skills. I wish I could. I
think I'd be making some good stuff if I
could cook. Yeah.
>> Why did you want a job in the kitchen
with those other places?
>> The money and um I like to serve people.
It's a privilege cuz um you have to stay
ticket free. You can't be in trouble. So
you have to be like safe, like a safety net.
net.
>> Rey, good morning.
>> Good morning. Good morning.
>> The city pays incarcerated kitchen
workers like Naen $1.45 an hour [music]
even though minimum wage is 17 in New
York City. The federal minimum wage was
introduced in the 1930s, [music]
but courts have ruled that it doesn't
apply to incarcerated workers because
they aren't considered employees under
federal labor law. The agency that runs
the jail, whether that's state, city, or
federal, sets the pay rates for
detainees who work. New York City's
Department of Corrections said in a
statement, "The wage for each position
was determined by a DOC leadership
committee [music] that assessed the
number of PIC's needed in each facility.
You know, in other states, they don't
pay them at all."
>> That's Ruvane Blau, a criminal justice
reporter and the author of Rikers, an
oral history. [music]
>> Studies have shown that if they do get
money and they have money to come out,
they're have much more successful
[music] transition.
>> And what do you do with the money that
you make? Um, I save it cuz I have
grandchildren. So, you know, I take care
of my grandchildren so I make sure they okay.
okay.
>> PIC's at Rikers aren't required to work,
[music] but Naen says she clocks in
every day for 56 hours a week just to
stay busy.
>> Me, I don't take a day off because I
like idle time. Idle time is the devil time.
time.
>> Back in the kitchen, chefs face other
challenges, including a ban on certain
ingredients like salt. Former mayor
Michael Bloomberg cut it out of the
Riker's diet as part of a city-wide
nutrition initiative that took effect in
2014. Chefs can use spices in soup bases
to add flavor. But detainees have other
methods of spicing things up like with
ramen seasoning.
>> Or the oodles and noodle pack. They got
the seasoning. Just jazz it up, make it
comfort or throw some cheese on it.
>> PIC's can buy ramen from the commissary,
a shop for people inside the jail. But
for many, the commissary is expensive.
>> The people in Riker's Island are not,
you know, generally a wealthy group of
people. And, you know, these dollars
make make or break, you know, a family
or, you know, somebody locked up there.
>> In 2024, a $33 million no bid contract
went through for a company called KE to
stock the commissary. The contract said
commissary prices were supposed to be in
line with those at local stores. But a
study that Ruvane led in 2025 found that
many products [music] were pricier than
they were supposed to be.
In a comment, the DOC said the prices
being offered are comparable to local
New York City area stores. There is a
product that is too expensive. The
department can remove it.
For many detainees, the kitchen is their
only source of food.
Much of it arrives in cans, including
veggies, and frozen like the meat.
Jamac, a Jersey City company, got a
nearly $1.2 million contract to supply
meat for New York City's Department of
Correction. Creoleand, another Jersey
company, has a $673,000
contract with the city to provide dairy
products to its prisons. You'll find its
milk jugs and many bodeas around the
city, too.
Despite working with limited
ingredients, chefs in Riker's kitchens
still have to feed over 7,000 people in
one sitting.
The day we visited, they were preparing
large batches of tartar sauce for
tomorrow's fish. And that pepper steak,
a favorite here.
>> It's fastpaced. It's a lot going on at
all times. But it's organized. Every
section of the kitchen, everybody know
they roll. So, it's everything is done smoothly.
smoothly.
>> But this operation is only getting more
expensive. In 2024, a DOC spokesperson
said the annual food budget at Rikers
was about $19 million. But the actual
costs were expected to climb to about 23
million or roughly $9 per meal per
detainee. The Department of Corrections
said this is because the cost of living
for nearly everything [music] in New
York City is more expensive compared to
other states.
Despite this high price tag, Naen says
the meals are hit or miss.
>> What do you think about the food here?
>> Disgusting. Nah. Um, it depends on the
meal. Great. The chili again get jiggy
with it. But everything else is pretty
decent. I can't complain.
>> Even though chefs are required to cook
recipes mandated by the city, many still
take pride in the work.
>> What do you think of the food that you
make here? Is it good?
>> It's good. Once you love cooking,
everything you do, you have to do it
from deep down inside. So I go around
make sure my cooks they're doing the
best to put it out there because someone
Early on, some of the food at Riker came
from the island itself.
In the 1920s, before it became a modern
jail, Riker's Island was a city-owned
penal farm where incarcerated people
were required to grow food and raise
livestock for the jail and other New
York City institutions.
A meal might have included asparagus,
lima beans, and pork. When the modern
jail complex opened in the early 1930s,
Riker shifted to bulk food production.
In the 1950s, it had a chicken coupe, a
200 acre farm that provided inmates with
veggies, and a bakery, pumping out 2
million loaves a year. But the
population was growing, and poor
sanitation plagued the jail. In 1959,
about a 100 people got sick from eating
bad, boiled tongue. 40 ended up in the
prison hospital.
In the 1970s, grilled chicken was a
favorite among PIC's, but they also
might have eaten liver or mutton.
In the early '7s, William Vandenhuvel,
chairman of the board of correction,
invited a New York Times food critic to
try the city's prison food.
>> He knew what the outcome was going to
be, and he was trying to make a point.
Why are we spending all this money to
serve, you know, terrible food? You
know, it was, you know, for lack of a
better term, it was a stunt, but it
worked and the food really changed. They
kind of really improved what they were serving.
serving.
>> In 1980, inspectors began checking the
temperature of the food to improve food
safety, and chefs served pork chops. In
the9s, there was still a farm in a
bakery. A meal might have included hot
dogs or oxtail. Carrot cake served at
Christmas was a hit. In the 2010s, Mayor
Bloomberg [snorts] led an initiative to
make the food healthier and cheaper in
the city's jails. He not only cut salt,
but reduced carbs for menus and added
more vegetables.
Bloomberg's influence is still seen
today and the food spooned into hotel
pans and loaded up onto wagons.
>> I'm checking the wagon according to what
it's supposed to have in the wagon for
the meal today.
>> Each pan serves about 25 people.
>> The men get more a few more ounces than
the women. The women get less ounces of what?
what?
>> Every day.
>> That's rude. I
>> No, but we always make sure there's
enough food to go around.
>> We caught up with the wagons at the
Rosem Singer Center, the women's facility.
facility.
>> 15 PIC's unload them from the truck,
including Naen.
>> I'm looking for three. Where three?
Three East End.
>> They sort the wagons based on which of
the eight housing units they'll head to.
>> Officers then check the wagons for any damage.
damage.
They're looking for chipped off plastic
that could be used as a weapon or contraband.
contraband.
>> You just never know. So, just to check,
you just still got to do security.
>> Naen is one of the PIC's approved to
deliver the carts for meal times.
>> I wake up happy every day. So, I want to
be happy and this right here is like my
sanctuary. So, when I come here, it
don't feel like I'm in prison. I'm in
jail. It just feel like I'm at my
restaurant and I'm serving people.
But then the reality comes when I go
back and then be like, "Oh, I'm here."
But this is my sanctuary. So I come here
to get away from everything else.
>> But even in her sanctuary, she's patted
down before she goes out for a delivery.
>> That's their job. They have to do it.
They doing their job. I'm I'm doing my time.
time.
It's two different worlds. But they
don't treat me like an inmate or PC or
PIC, whatever. They treat me in a human
>> It's a delicate relationship between
PIC's, chefs, and officers in here.
>> There's a distance between us here. You
can't treat them as friends. You know
why they're here.
>> Now, you be buddies and they get
complacent and they start [music]
asking for things.
>> Do you ask people what they done?
>> No. Sometimes they just volunteer the
information to me.
>> Sometimes I do, but I don't expect to
get the good answers. at all times. You
know, I don't really judge them, but I
treat them with respect cuz you have to
treat them with respect. They're humans.
>> But a lot of people like tend to know
your case and then they turn down their
nose to you because of your case or
something like [music] that. And I don't
feel that's right cuz only God could
judge you. I don't want to feel like
that. I want to feel like I matter.
>> No matter how familiar a detainee
becomes, officers say they can't let
their guard down. [music] When they've
been here longer, do you feel like you
can relax a little bit around them?
>> Still, you never know. You get [music]
too relaxed. You just You just never
know. So, you can't [music]
[music]
>> n this only one. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> An officer follows Naen at all times as
she pushes the cart down the long
hallways to the women's housing units.
Valin area.
>> Yeah. Beet um salad and this is tuna.
This is
tuna fish.
>> Nadine's also approved to serve up the food.
food.
>> You're like a fairy godmother of food in
>> I love it. I love it. I love it.
Everybody smile. I always like them to
be happy.
Today's lunch is tuna salad and pasta
salad served at 11:00 a.m. Here you go.
>> Breakfast is like 5 5:30.
>> Like 5:00 a.m. is so early
Every day, hundreds of detainees at
Rikers are bust off site for court appearances.
appearances.
Meal times are built around these
departures [music]
>> and that process involves getting woken
up at 3 4 5 in the morning and then
dragged to court. And sometimes it's for
like a minor hearing and you're stuck in
a bullpen all day. Bullpens are holding
areas inside courouses. While detainees
wait, they might get a sandwich for lunch.
lunch.
>> Peanut butter and bit jelly, [music]
cheese, bologn, salami, and guess what?
When you come back to the the facility,
a lot of times you've missed your meal.
>> Dinner is served as early as 400 p.m.
>> And then they have to constantly do this
sort of cycle of getting woken up,
spending the entire day in a bullpen,
and getting this disgusting food. A lot
of times, people are just exhausted.
[music] In October 2019, the city
council voted to close Rikers for good
by 2027, [music]
citing years of violence and
unmanageable conditions. The city agreed
to open four new smaller jails in
Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the
Bronx, which are currently under
construction. Together, they're designed
to hold 4,160
detainees. But in 2025, Riker's
population alone reached nearly 7,000,
its highest level in six years.
An independent commission said Riker's
Island is unlikely to close by the
city's 2027 deadline.
>> Because of the delays in construction
right now, the the earliest that might
happen is is 2031.
>> Ruvane said it would be easier to get
food to the burrow jails than to
Reikger's Island. The facilities would
also be closer to detainees court
hearings and more accessible to visitors.
visitors.
And it's a plan the city's new mayor,
Zoramani, has endorsed.
Before Riker shuts down completely, a
new menu is set to shake things up. In
2024, New York City received a $100,000
grant to develop healthier plant-based
menu options at Riker's Island,
including dishes such as chana masala
and spinach artichoke pasta.
I'm excited about it because we had a
little bit of training on it and to me
it is so good. My curry chickpeas, I
can't wait. I can't wait. It is so good.
>> Something Mr. Aja, who's from Guyana, is
most excited about.
>> Oh, you know Guyana's curry.
We do curry, we do pepper pot, we do
cook up rice. Yeah.
the city's tap nonprofit hotbread
kitchen to develop the new menus so they
would be low in sodium, plantforward,
and scalable. But Naen isn't entirely convinced.
convinced.
>> Our meat, they're trying to take the
meat from us. They don't want us to eat
>> But I think it should be a choice
>> because in here a meal can mean
everything. when they come to you and
they can tell you, you know, I had a
good breakfast or I had a good lunch.
It's really nice. So, it's important to
whatever you do, you put that love into it.
it.
>> Three meals a day. It's important for
>> Do you think you'll try and get a job in
a kitchen or something?
>> No, I'm open back up my restaurant. I'm
I like to cook, so I'm gonna make people
happy with my restaurant. I mean, I got
to do baby steps to get back to where I
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