​Jeremy Mejia
Ms. Albert
Waterworld NYC
22 September 2020
Hart Island is located at the western end of Long Island Sound, in the northeastern Bronx in New York City. It has quite a long and unusual history. Originally, the island's served the public by providing a training ground for the Colored Troops of the US Army. Since 1864, Hart Island has been the location of a Civil War prison camp, a psychiatric ward, a tuberculosis sanatorium, a potter’s field with man burials, a shelter for the homeless, a boys reformatory, and a drug rehabilitation center. Several other structures, such as an amusement park, were planned for Hart Island but never made it to development and the last inhabited structures were abandoned in 1977. As a result, Hart Island currently serves as the city's potter's field, run by the New York City Department of Correction until 2019, when it was voted to transfer jurisdiction to the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. As of today, the remains of more than one million people are buried on Hart Island, though since the first decade of the 2000s, there are fewer than 1,500 burials a year. Burials on Hart Island include individuals who were not claimed by their families or did not have private funerals; the homeless and the indigent; and mass burials of disease victims. The list also includes mothers of still born babies who did not have other options or were simply not informed as to the fate of their child’s body and signed releases allowing for their infant to be buried in mass graves, each containing 1000 corpses.
Despite the mass of buried souls, access to the island was heavily restricted by the Department of Correction, which operates an infrequent ferryboat service and imposes strict visitation quotas. This can be incredibly painful for family and loved one’s who have to hop through numerous complicated hoops in order to visit the island. Besides the restrictions, even the burials themselves are shrouded in controversy as they conducted by inmates from the nearby Rikers Island jail. The Hart Island Project, a public charity founded by visual artist Melinda Hunt, has tried to improve access to the island and make burial records more easily available. This has resulted in many improvements, but there is still much unresolved: prior to 2019, several laws to transfer jurisdiction to the Parks Department had been proposed to ease public access to Hart Island.
Proponents of increasing access to Hart Island cite the rights of those who have loved ones or relatives buried on the site. The push to improve access to Hart Island gained steam in recent years after activists discovered it was the final resting place for thousands of AIDS victims who were “denied proper burials because of the stigma surrounding the disease” (NY Post). People felt there was enormous injustice in having mass burials and then sectioning off— quarantining— those with AIDS. This actually came full circle with the emergence of COVID-19. Recently, Mayor Bill de Blasio has responded to concerns over “possible mass burials from the pandemic: ‘There will be no mass burials on Hart Island,’ de Blasio tweeted Friday. ‘Everything will be individual and every body will be treated with dignity’” (CNN). Paying respects to the dead is pretty universal in terms. Sure there are different methods and customs depending on individual culture or heritage, but most are in agreement that a proper burial is just as important as being able to pay respect to those who have passed. As a result those with kin buried on the site feel that they deserve the right to visit the island on a more timely basis. With that said, the demands are simple: easier access to the island, and in general more funding for the upkeep and expansion of Hart Island. Currently, its quite the challenge to even make it on the ferry due to “a number of bureaucratic hurdles” (Daily News). Obviously that’s something that can be changes with funding and more access to ferry’s and appointment times. However, the issue isn’t only limited to transportation: “once on the island, families were restricted to an area near the dock and not allowed to visit the graves themselves. The suit, filed in December, called that ‘a disgraceful policy’ and sought a court order compelling the city to facilitate access to the graves’” (Daily News). People want to pay their respects and if this suit proves anything it’s that they will fight for that right.
Despite the calls for increased access to the site, there are also those who believe access should remain limited. However, maybe there is some merit to the arguments surrounding limiting access to Hart Island. The most convincing one simply comes down to a matter of safety. With COVID-19 running rampant, people cannot gather in large numbers. This means the transportation necessary to visit the island— ferry— would be terrible inefficient both economically and physically. A quick search of the NYC DOC website revealed : “In an effort to limit the spread of COVID-19, all public visits to Hart Island have been suspended until further notice. All burial operations on Hart Island remain uninterrupted.” Besides safety there is also the issue of even raising the money necessary to promote better access to the island. 2020 has been rough on the world but, it has very harshly impacted the New York budget with a “$14 billion budget deficit” (NPR). With the budget deficit looming over New York State, there are those who may argue against directing funds towards Hart Island. This comes at a time when enormous strides were being made for those with kin buried on the island: “Last December, Mayor de Blasio signed four bills that transfer oversight of the island to the city’s parks department and add more public ferries” (National Geographic). Aside from the actual funds, access may have to remain limited to those only with people buried on Hart Island. The parks department does not want control and jurisdiction of the island: “'The operation of a public cemetery falls well outside of the agency’s expertise and available resources,’ Matt Drury” (NY Times). This means plans to use some of the land on the island to create some recreation space goes down the drain. With that plan looking unlikely, that is just another thing to limit funding going towards any projects coming down the line. Harsh truth is New York has more pressing matters to deal with.
Personally, I find it almost unbelievable that up until 2014, family members and friends of the deceased were barred from visiting the potter’s field and even now, visits were tightly controlled by DOC, the agency whose prisoners at nearby Rikers Island dug graves. However, while I do feel for those who have lost loved ones, I cannot ignore the blatant health risks and what I would consider a waste of funding were money to be allocated towards Hart Island related projects as of right now. If it were not for COID-19 I would be in complete agreement with those who have kin being buried. I do think that because Hart Island serves as public cemetery that it should use taxpayer and well as any other social program. This means burials, general maintenance, and travel would be provided for. If anything they could charge a small ferry fee, but other than that, I see it as disrespectful. For years, inmates were exploited for cheap labor to cut costs and yet the DOC still made it almost impossible for visitors to reach the island. That is a great injustice. That needs to change by either them getting paid a fair wage or by creating a jobs program from the need for diggers. I personally have not lost anyone yet, so I guess when the time comes to bury a loved one I will more clearly understand the pain of those who had to bury someone who passed. Still my family does not have any really culturally inspired burial customs and in fact I would say its a standard American burial: tombstone and a regular old burial and cremation depending on the persons wishes. Pretty tame in all seriousness. Despite all that, even I can see the need for respect for the dead. Therefore whoever is in charge needs to put those who have buried loved ones on the Island first, above all else.
Going forward much can be done to make the Hart Island experience more efficient. Besides all the reform that needs to happen to ensure that people who want to visit Hart Island actually have the chance too, focus must be directed towards creating more environmentally friendly burials in general. One of the best models brought up was planting trees on grave sites. For one thing, it is a cash cow: buy the rights to plant a tree that will grow from the buried remains of a loved one. It is symbolic and profound as from one end there will literally sprout a new beginning. This would give back especially since the city already lacks so much vegetation. This also gives people the choice to implement themselves into the program or not— it is completely optional. It will also allow people to return again and again to check the tree’s progress. A beautiful cycle of life.
Works Cited
Blau, Reuven, and Stephen R. Brown. "GRAVE DECISION City Making Kin Visits to Potter's Field Easier." New York Daily News, Jul 08, 2015, pp. 23. ProQuest, https://search-proquest-com.jerome.stjohns.edu/docview/1694722646?accountid=14068.
Kilgannon, Corey. “Dead of AIDS and Forgotten in Potter's Field.â€Â The New York Times, The New York Times, 3 July 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/07/03/nyregion/hart-island-aids-new-york.html.Â
Sanchez, Ray. “NYC's Hart Island and Coronavirus: 'A Meaningful Place in a Dark Time'.â€Â CNN, Cable News Network, 12 Apr. 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/04/11/us/hart-island-coronavirus-burials/index.html.Â
Department of Correction, www1.nyc.gov/site/doc/about/hart-island.page.
Bernstein, Nina. "Officials Criticize Proposal to Turn Potter's Field Over to Parks Dept.: [Metropolitan Desk]." New York Times, Jan 21, 2016. ProQuest, https://search-proquest-com.jerome.stjohns.edu/docview/1758303817?accountid=14068.
Meier, Allison C. “Pandemic Victims Are Filling NYC's Hart Island. It Isn't the First Time.” New York City's Hart Island Has a Long History as an Epidemic Burial Ground, 15 Apr. 2020, www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/04/unclaimed-coronavirus-victims-being-buried-on-hart-island-long-history-as-potters-field/.
DeWitt, Karen. “New York Has Lost A Greater Share Of Revenue Than Most States Due To COVID-19.” NPR, NPR, 3 Aug. 2020, www.npr.org/2020/08/03/895384547/new-york-has-lost-a-greater-share-of-revenue-than-most-states-due-to-covid-19.
