Inmates at Rikers Island can refuse visitors — fans take note! By Jayson Rodriguez New York’s Rikers Island Prison Photo: MTV News Once Lil Wayne has turned himself in to begin his one-year prison sentence in New York, his label, the Miami-based Cash Money outfit, is expected to relocate its operations to the Big Apple both to be closer to its franchise artist and to show him support. That support, one assumes, will include plenty of visits to Wayne on Rikers Island, where the rapper will reside at the Eric M. Taylor Center, according to a corrections officer who spoke with MTV News. According to the New York City Department of Correction Web site , the rapper is afforded a number of visitation options during his incarceration. Each week, inmates are permitted two visits, which can last up to an hour and occur any day of the week except Monday and Tuesday, when the facility is closed to all visits. On those days when visitors are welcomed, hours for visits range from 12:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Within those options lie scheduling blocks dictated by a sliding-scale that is determined by the first letter of a prisoner’s last name. The schedule is available by accessing the DOC Web site. For instance, next week (the week of March 14) inmates whose last names begin with the letters A-L, which would include Lil Wayne (real name: Dwayne Carter), are permitted visitors on Sunday and Wednesday only (on Friday each week all prisoners are permitted visitors). The following week (beginning March 21), inmates whose last names begin with the letters A-L have just Thursday allocated for visitors. During the following week (beginning March 28), Lil Wayne will have Sunday and Wednesday available for visitors. People who wish to visit inmates on Rikers Island don’t have to register ahead of time to schedule trips to the prison. The DOC advises visitors to take public transportation to the compound, although a small amount of parking spaces are available. And while anyone can visit, the inmate must approve the visitation, and the facility’s security personnel have the authority to reject any potential visitor (fans take note). Once visitors arrive at the facility, they are directed to the Central Visit Control Building, where they must complete a registration form and pass through a number of security clearances. Visitors must go through a metal detector and all of their items will be searched. In addition, visitors may also be selected for an ION Scan Test, which checks for the presence of narcotics or explosives. Canine searches may also be performed as well. Once the security posts are cleared, visitors then wait to be transported by shuttle to the specific prison (there are nine different jail houses on Rikers Island) that houses the inmate they came to see. Three visitors at a time are permitted to visit inmates; visits by an attorney, counselor, religious adviser or member of the media do not count toward the imprisoned person’s visits per week. Conjugal visits are not permitted unless the inmate is married to the visitor. During visits, inmates and family or friends can chat, and items can be given to incarcerated individuals; clothes are primarily permissible items. For Wayne, his visits may be the the only time he gets to interact with individuals beyond the guards assigned to protect his safety. A corrections officer, who didn’t wish to be identified because of the classified information he shared, told MTV News late last month that the rapper will be placed in a unit with inmates that meet a certain classification. “He’ll be housed with inmates who are classified in his category, and he’ll be able to be a regular inmate,” the guard said. “He’ll be able to watch television, go into the day room and congregate with people of his classification.”It’s a high-class area where he will be segregated from [the general] population,” the guard added. Related Videos Lil Wayne Goes To Jail Related Photos Lil Wayne Heads To Rikers Island Related Artists Lil Wayne
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Who Can Visit Lil Wayne In Jail, And When?
