DESCRIPTION: Today it is known as Roosevelt Island. In 1828, when New York City purchased this narrow, two-mile-long island in the East River, it was called Blackwell’s Island. There, over the next hundred years, the city would send its insane, indigent, sick, and criminal. Told through the gripping voices of Blackwell’s inhabitants, as well as … Continue reading DAMNATION ISLAND, POOR, SICK, MAD, & CRIMINAL IN THE 19TH-CENTURY NEW YORK, by Stacy Horn, Algonquin Books