Hart Island | Silentbeaches

Hart Island in the 21st Century: Moving Forward with NYC’s Public Cemetery

Advocating for Increased Access to Hart Island

New York City’s Hart Island has a vast history—a history that deserves telling. Due to this fascinating past, Hart Island should be opened up to the public, where the stories of those interred on the island can respectfully be told.

Initially, access to Hart Island should be limited to the families of those buried. Currently, this process exists, but it is slowed down significantly due to bureaucratic red tape. Going forward, this process should be streamlined to allow for family members to visit their loved ones in a timely manner. However, as time passes, and the process of allowing family members to visit is ironed out, access to the island should be opened up to the general public. Granting access to the masses is important because it will allow for the history of Hart Island to become more well-known. Hart Island has served many purposes; it was bought in 1865 and has served as a potter’s field for the city since then. However, it has also been used as a prison, an asylum, a missile base, a rehabilitation center, and fit various other government needs (“City Cemetery Hart Island”, pars. 2-8). New York City should curate exhibits detailing the various uses of Hart Island since 1865. The story of Hart Island coincides with the story of New York City. By creating these exhibits, the city will do justice to those interred in the mass graves, as well as those who have worked or lived on the island. Hart Island’s history explains how the marginalized have been treated in life and in death—New Yorkers have been imprisoned and laid to rest there. Although the narrative of the island does not tell the story of the city’s brightest moments, it tells a story that is necessary to hear.

After the existing structures on Hart Island are repaired and transformed into exhibits detailing the past history of the island, the island should not be used as a burial site for any longer. This would present too many logistical issues with ferrying in visitors, inmates, and the bodies to be buried. However, if this were not feasible—if the city needs to use Hart Island as a public cemetery, precautions should be put into place to ensure any visitors do not witness open graves or the process of burying the caskets. This may entail closing the island to the public on weekends and allowing the inmates to inter the caskets at these times.

As it stands, the Department of Corrections facilitates the day-to-day operations on Hart Island. However, this seems like a duty that the Department is ill-prepared for. Instead, the responsibility of burials should be turned over to the New York Department of State’s Division of Cemeteries. This division is responsible for other public cemeteries in New York (“Cemetery FAQ’s”, par. 2). If the island is used for public education exhibits, those should fall under the Department of Parks and Recreation. Visitors should be charged for admission, as well as for the ferry ride to and from Hart Island. These funds can be used for upkeep of the island, as well as to finance the burials on the island, if they were to continue.

Advocating for Restricted Access to Hart Island

As it stands, the public has limited access to Hart Island. The immediate family of someone interred at Hart Island can visit the grave site, but the general public is limited to only a gazebo visit that provides a view of some of the island (“Hart Island,” par. 3-5). Recently, the city has been hounded with requests to grant greater access to the island. However, the island should not be opened up to the public further.

Hart Island is the resting place of over one million New Yorkers, mostly the destitute and marginalized. The mass graves they rest in are not tourist attractions or future museum sites. Out of respect for those interred at Hart Island, access to the island should remain as limited as it is now. However, the policy in place to allow families to visit the grave site and the public to request a gazebo visit should remain in place. It is important to allow the family of the interred to pay their respects, as well as the public to be able to see the island. It is not necessary for them to have free roam of the island, as the infrastructure is not in place to support that.

The island has a long and colorful history, but this history lends itself to limiting public access. Hart Island is home to ruins from an asylum, a tuberculosis hospital, and a boys’ reformatory, making it unfit to host extensive visits from the public (Sicherman and Dickbauer, par. 26). The remnants from these buildings are not only unsightly, they are potentially dangerous. Having previously served as host to a missile base early in the Cold War, Hart Island is potentially home to radioactive material. If access to the island were unrestricted, the current contents of the island would pose health risks to those who decided to visit. Thus, the island should remain restricted in access for the time being.

If the island were to be opened up to the public, it would first need to undergo serious work. The aforementioned buildings and hazardous materials would first need to be torn down and cleaned up. This is a process that is time-consuming and costly, especially because of Hart Island’s hard-to-reach location. As it stands, Hart Island is managed by the Department of Corrections, meaning it derives its funding from there as well. In recent years, Department of Corrections funding has decreased (Johnson et al, 3). Adding a multimillion-dollar renovation and restoration to the Department of Correction’s already lowered budget may result in costly budget cuts elsewhere. Rather than pursue an unnecessary project on Hart Island, the Department of Corrections should continue their efforts to improve the state’s correctional facilities.

Personal Impressions

My own views of burial rites are far from the realities of those interred at Hart Island. When I die, I will be buried in a cemetery plot near my parents and the rest of my Dad’s side of the family. The cemetery I plan to be buried in is located near my Dad’s childhood home, a house I have many fond memories in. I cannot imagine me or someone I love being interred in a public cemetery—I have been fortunate enough where this is not something I have to worry about. Before this class, I had never even thought about what happened to those who died without the means to pay for a burial.

I believe that a deceased person’s family should follow their wishes regarding burial. Most of the time, this is through a will, but just knowing a person’s wishes is enough to carry them out. Most people in the United States either have enough money to pay for their burial, cremation, or other ritual, or have family that can step in and pay for the ritual. The issue of the family’s rights becomes more complicated in the scenario where they cannot afford to pay for a burial. In this scenario, the state can step in and they are buried in a public cemetery, not unlike Hart Island. I believe it is the role of the state to try and best accommodate the family’s wishes, within reason. The role of the government is to serve the people—this role is to be carried out in life as well as in death.

There has been criticism that it is prisoners from Rikers Island that bury the dead at Hart Island. The critics allude to it being disrespectful to the dead to have them buried by prisoners. Personally, I do not see an issue with prisoners burying the dead at Hart Island and at other public cemeteries. I do, however, object to the prisoners earning between 16 cents and $1.14 an hour for their labor (Robbins, par. 1-6). This is a fraction of the New York State minimum wage of $11.80 an hour, and the New York City minimum wage of $15.00 an hour. The correctional system is supposed to be focused on rehabilitation and stabilization of those it comes in contact with. Currently, prison labor is tough work, often for private companies. In a just system, prison laborers would earn the minimum wage for where they work. This will allow them to earn decent money and either save it for when they are released or send it home to help support their families. The disrespectful aspect of prisons and public cemeteries is the wages they are paid, not the fact that they provide a service for the state.

As it stands, Hart Island is managed by the Department of Corrections. This seems unfit, as the Department of Corrections does not operate any other public cemeteries. Due to this, the responsibility to operate and maintain Hart Island should be transferred to the New York Department of State’s Division of Cemeteries. As mentioned above, they run other public cemeteries in New York. Unifying Hart Island and the Division of Cemeteries will benefit the island, as it will be run by those with a better sense of how to handle the unique issues that come with a public cemetery. Additionally, it will remove a burden from the Department of Corrections, as it is not within their skillset to run a public cemetery. If Hart Island were to be transformed into a public park as well, it would not be inappropriate for the Parks and Recreation Department to facilitate the park, while the Division of Cemeteries handled the burials on the island.

Mass Burials Moving Forwards

As time passes, more people die. This premise is obvious, but is poses the question: where will all these people be buried? Each day, cemeteries grow fuller. It is growing rarer that these cemeteries are able to expand, so the space they currently have will likely have to do. In certain European countries, like Germany, plots are simply reused after a certain number of years. The older, now decomposed bodies are removed and buried deeper in the ground, while the plot closest to the surface is opened up for use again (McManus, par. 14-15). Although this idea seems strange to most Americans, it is a reality we may have to get used to. As for mass burial sites, this could entail burying deeper graves to allow for many more caskets to be buried below the surface.

Another alternative to the current system of mass burials is the concept of green burials. In a green burial, the body is not embalmed or preserved, and it is set in a biodegradable coffin. The surrounding grave site is allowed to return to its natural state (Harris, par. 1). Moving forward, this seems like a more space-efficient, environmentallyfriendly, and less costly alternative to the way we bury the dead now. Other cemeteries—public and private—should look into this as a way to be more environmentally conscious. Because this form of green burial is more naturally sound and less expensive, it should be promoted heavily as the future of burials in the United States.

A final idea regarding mass burials, specifically those on Hart Island, has been posed by James Carroll. He proposed building upwards and burying the bodies in a series of mounds that grow taller as time passes (Carroll, 28-33). I am a fan of this idea, particularly for use on Hart Island. The island has the particular problem of being subject to erosion from the tides that makes existing and future underground burials vulnerable. Carroll’s solution avoids this problem and is as sustainable as other forms of green burials. The ingenuity of James Carroll and others is allowing Hart Island to evolve over time, as well as respect those already interred there.

Works Cited

Bernstein, Nina. “Unearthing the Secrets of New York's Mass Graves.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 15 May 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/05/15/nyregion/new-york-mass-graves-hart-island.html.

Carroll, Jame. “Necropolis, New York: Envisioning the Future of Hart Island .” Issuu, City College of New York, 17 Mar. 2017, https://issuu.com/jamescarroll6/docs/hart_8.5x11_finalrevised_lores.

“City Cemetery Hart Island (Potter's Field).” Hart Island, Department of Corrections.

“Frequently Asked Questions.” Division of Cemeteries, New York Department of State's Division of Cemeteries, https://www.dos.ny.gov/cmty/cemfaqs.html.

“Green Burial, An Environmentally Friendly Choice.” Funeral Consumers Alliance, Funerals.org, https://funerals.org/?consumers=green-burial.

“Hart Island.” Department of Correction, Department of Corrections, https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doc/about/hart-island.page.

Johnson, Corey, et al. “ Report of the Finance Division on the Fiscal 2019 Preliminary Budget and the Fiscal 2018 Preliminary Mayor’s Management Report for the Department of Correction.” The Council of the City of New York, Finance Division, 15 Mar. 2018

McManus, John. “The World Is Running out of Burial Space.” BBC News, BBC, 13 Mar. 2015, https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-31837964.

Robbins, Christopher. “NY's New License Plates Will Still Be Made By Prisoners Earning 65 Cents An Hour.” Gothamist, Gothamist, 23 Aug. 2019, https://gothamist.com/news/nys-new-license-plates-will-still-be-made-by-prisoners-earning-65-cents-an-hour.