Candie Hailey spent roughly 912 days in solitary confinement at Rikers Island Correctional Facility for a crime she was never convicted of committing. The “bing” as it is called by inmates is merely a 6×20 foot cell that has a toilet. Hailey spent 23 hours a day alone in this cell where she racked up infractions for lashing out and failing to comply with officers. However some of her infractions come as a surprise. One was for the refusal to stop trying to commit suicide, and the other was for using her jumpsuit to stop her bleeding because she was refused sanitary napkins. You clearly don’t have permission to be human or a woman in jail.
Now that she is out of Rikers, she finds it hard to adjust. Her two children were taken from her and she lost her apartment. Hailey now finds herself sleeping on trains when she can. Even though jail seems more promising than homelessness because of free meals and a place to sleep, Hailey agreed she could never survive the bing again.
