When I arrived on Rikers Island in January 2019 to await trial for an assault charge, I knew it would be dangerous — after all, the women’s jail is notorious for chronic abuse, unsanitary conditions and violence. But what I did not know was that I would become one of hundreds of inmates at Rikers to contract the coronavirus.
I remember watching the TV in early March 2020 when a lawyer from Westchester County was reported to be the source of several cases in New York.
In the beginning, none of...