The Vernon C. Bain Center, also known as “The Boat,” is perhaps the only floating jail in the country. Advocates have equated it to a slave ship. It’s an extension of Rikers Island. I know both The Boat and Rikers Island well, since I’ve been detained at both places, and I know they both deserve to be a chapter in the history books and not part of anyone’s present.   The Boat opened in 1992 to make room for the ballooning population held pre-trial at the height of mass incarceration. Thirty years later, it’s still in use, even with the

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