NEW YORK — It’s probably the last place a mother would want to spend Mother’s Day with her children. But a family visiting room at New York City’s infamous Rikers Island prison complex is a little more kid-friendly after a colorful redesign by the Children’s Museum of Manhattan.
The prison opened the new play and learning area for the children and grandchildren of female inmates on Tuesday, a few days before the Sunday holiday.
“Mother’s Day means the world to me,” said Rikers inmate Nadine Leach, 43, as she watched her 3-year-old granddaughter Queen excitedly explore the sound machines, coloring books and toys.
One interactive wall display shows a map of the five boroughs. The buttons below activate city sounds, such as the screech of a subway.
Leach’s daughter Lashawna Jones, 27, said the play facility is beautiful compared to her last visit. It used to be a mostly bare room, with a few books. Jones said the design focused her children’s attention on imaginative play, instead of their grandmother being in jail and awaiting trial on a drug abuse charge.
“It makes me sad that she’s not really with us for Mother’s Day. Because I feel a little sad when I come here to visit her here because I’m used to having her physically in our home. For example, right now I’m a big girl; I’m holding back tears,” Jones said.
To reach the facility, families take a bus, go through security and drug screenings and pass walls lined with six layers of barbed wire. Outside the new play center, a sign on a blue cinder block reads: “Inmates may hold their children during the visit.”
Designed and installed by the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, the visitors center replicates exhibits in the museum’s home on the Upper West Side.
The exhibits teach preschool skills: communication, sharing, literacy and executive functions, said Leslie Bushara, the museum’s chief program officer.
Lynelle Maginley-Liddie, commissioner of the New York City Department of Correction, cut a giant green ceremonial ribbon to open the room.
“We want mothers to interact with their children,” Maginley-Liddie said. “You know, being incarcerated can be very difficult. It can be difficult for the children. It can be difficult for the mothers. And it’s important that they have those connections even while in our care, so that when they are released, that bond is maintained during incarceration.”
Rikers Island consists mainly of men’s prisons housing about 6,000 people. Child-friendly exhibits will be added to these facilities in the coming year, the museum said in a statement. Funding for the exhibits allows approved inmates to travel to the Children’s Museum of Manhattan twice a month.
People incarcerated at Rikers are charged with crimes that are tested in court or serve short sentences. City officials voted to close the entire complex in 2026 and replace it with smaller neighborhood facilities that would be easier for family members to visit, but the deadline was pushed back. Bad conditions have raised the prospect of a federal takeover.
The women’s prison, called the Rose M. Singer Center, currently houses about 370 people, according to the Department of Corrections. State officials transferred hundreds of women to state facilities in 2021 in an effort to improve security.
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Associated Press writer Cedar Attanasio contributed to this report.