Damnation Island: Poor, Sick, Mad, and Criminal in 19th-Century New York

"Enthralling; it is well worth the trip. --New York Journal of Books Conceived as the most modern, humane incarceration facility the world had ever seen, New York s Blackwell s Island, site of a lunatic asylum, two prisons, an almshouse, and a number of hospitals, quickly became, in the words of a visiting Charles Dickens, "a lounging, listless madhouse." Digging through city records, newspaper articles, and archival reports, Stacy Horn tells a gripping narrative through the voices of the island s inhabitants. We also hear from the era s officials, reformers, and journalists, including the celebrated undercover reporter Nellie Bly. And we follow the extraordinary Reverend William Glenney French as he ministers to Blackwell s residents, battles the bureaucratic mazes of the Department of Correction and a corrupt City Hall, testifies at salacious trials, and in his diary wonders about man s inhumanity to his fellow man. Damnation Island shows how far we ve come in caring for the least fortunate among us and reminds us how much work still remains.