Among the islands that make up New York City is Rikers Island, the city’s jail complex. Between boroughs in the East River, off a runway of LaGuardia Airport, on the Q100 bus route, connected by a sole bridge, Rikers demonstrates the contradictions of visibility and invisibility that define mass incarceration. For many New Yorkers, Rikers is routine; it’s where they await sentencing, often for months; it’s where they visit people; it’s where they feel they may one day find themselves. For others the island exists out of sight, even though it influences the culture, infrastructure, and daily life of the city. On and off maps, Rikers appears in urban oral histories, notably hip-hop and rap, as well as dress and slang. But how New Yorkers see Rikers is colored by where they live, their race, their health, their wealth or poverty.