Damnation Island

"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 Yorks Blackwells 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 islands inhabitants. We also hear from the eras officials, reformers, and journalists, including the celebrated undercover reporter Nellie Bly. And we follow the extraordinary Reverend William Glenney French as he ministers to Blackwells 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 mans inhumanity to his fellow man. Damnation Island shows how far weve come in caring for the least fortunate among usand reminds us how much work still remains.