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Hart Island in the 21st Century
Located just off the shores of the Bronx lies Hart Island, New York City's public cemetery and the final resting place of over one million people. It is the largest public cemetery in the United States, has been in use the longest, and is "the largest tax-funded cemetery in the world," (Albert 11). The island's long history is filled to the brim with intriguing details and stories, but its role in the 21st century is still being decided. Should Hart Island remain open to the public? How can the final wishes of its inhabitants be preserved? Should inmates be performing the burials? These questions are among the many that thrust the island into a heated debate over its general existence and purpose.
The island was closed to the public until 2012, when limited visitation finally began (Yuan 16). The family members of those who have passed can only visit the island once a month on pre-scheduled visits. They have limited access, and can only pay their respects from a predetermined viewing point. Their phones are confiscated as well. In my humble opinion, this process can be best described as a catastrophe of grief and public policy. The family members of the deceased deserve to visit those who have passed, especially under the stressful situation that a public burial already provides. That being said, the island should be a site of respectful reverence and love, not one of abandonment and anguish, as its history would suggest. Seeing the piles of caskets stacked on top of each other provides a difficult scenery for the family members of the deceased. It would be hard to resist the feeling that those on the island are truly not at rest.
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Those that wish to visit Hart Island deserve access to it on a regular basis. That being said, it is important to maintain structure in the visitation process due to the environmental hazards the island possesses, but it should not be as complicated to schedule a visitation to the island as it is currently. Due to the system in place now, the city is conveying the message that they will allow as little visitation as possible. This should not be the case, especially since the cemetery is funded by the tax-paying public. Reforming the visitation process will be an enormous step towards removing the stigma around the danger of Hart Island. The dead deserved to be buried with respect and dignity, so making their burial sites more accessible and well managed is important to preserving those rights.
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Even though Hart Island and its inhabitants have important ties to the mainland, the environmental cautions of the island are difficult to ignore. Following World War II, "the northern end of the island was taken over by the US Army for a Nike missile base," so the consequences of the missile testing are still unknown (Albert 11). These missiles could be fixed with nuclear warheads, so the soil and waters can be polluted with radiation that damages all people on the island, both living and dead. This creates an ethics debate surrounding the nature of who should even have access to the island. The Rikers Island overseers and inmates that dig the mass grave are being put at an extreme risk. Given these circumstances, it can be argued that being assigned to work at Hart Island as a prison job, surrounded by death, decay, and desertion, is worse than even being in prison to begin with.
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In addition to radiation, the island’s shores are eroding into the surrounding waters. As a result, this creates the opportunity for caskets to float into the water and dead bodies to unwillingly be exhumed from their resting place. Unfortunately, this is a tragedy that has already begun. This phenomena, although horrifying, is natural, and it will take significant funding and science to fix the erosion problem. Even if temporary solutions are crafted, the larger issue of global climate change is an enemy to Hart Island’s survival. The New York City government could pour immense amounts of time and money into this project only for rising sea levels to claim the island entirely. Even further these restorations will cause this taxpayer funded public cemetery to claim even more taxpayer money. It is unclear whether or not New Yorkers would fight this measure, making the resolution all the more complicated.
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In turn, proposing completely unrestricted access to the island would be even more disastrous than the current situation. As mentioned before, the island is a nuclear and natural warzone. If there was unlimited access, the possibility of someone stepping into an unsafe building or becoming injured in such a remote setting is simply too high. The subsequent legal and environmental fallout from that situation would be too great for the city to risk. As a result, visits to the island should be as plentiful as possible, but still within reason. On the other hand, limiting visitation too much would prompt rogue citizens to take it upon themselves to visit the graves. Author Jada Yuan writes, "Some use small boats to sneak on, though, resulting in vandalism to the abandoned buildings and the graves. “I’ve been told it was a rite of passage for City Island teenagers to go out there,” [Melinda] Hunt said," (Yuan 16). Melinda Hunt, founder of the Hart Island Project, recognizes the dangers of this, as well.
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As long as the inmates from Rikers Island perform the burials, the Department of Corrections should oversee the process of burials on Hart Island. It does not make sense to remove them from the equation if they are supplying the manpower for the operation. That being said, the Department of Parks and Recreation truly deserves to oversee the island due to its physical nature and state. In order for this transition to occur, inmates should be removed from their posts as grave diggers. The Parks Department could turn Hart Island into a public service project, where eager members of the city come together to restore the island. With regards to the position of digging graves, the city should allocate part of the budget for restoring the island to paying a new labor force of undertakers. Doing so would create jobs that the city would undeniably benefit from and end the misery of the inmates. This in turn becomes an issue of both prison reform and public cemeteries.
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This whole restoration project will need taxpayer money to fund it, but New York City residents are already paying taxes for the public cemetery on its own, and for the jails that manage its upkeep. However, I would argue that the city needs to investigate the ethics of even having the prisoners from Rikers Island perform this task. After all, "[Mayor] De Blasio... agreed to close the jail complex by 2026 and open four new jails at a total cost of $8.7 billion," so the city’s cheap labor force will be diminishing anyway (Gonzalez 11). With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, prisoners have been released from Rikers in order to reduce crowding and due to the lower severity of their crimes and subsequent sentences. And as the pandemic has called for racial and societal justice for all, prison reform is within that same realm. As prisoners will eventually be released from Rikers due to the pandemic, prison reform, or the jail closing altogether, any money that taxpayers will save from not having to pay for their incarceration should be directed toward the Hart Island transformation process. This plan would provide minimal tax increases on hardworking New Yorkers.
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One very real issue that Hart Island faces is that the island will run out of space to bury the dead. This makes a process like cremation seem like a very appealing alternative to the current system. However, this is not an option for two main factors: exhumation and relocation need to remain feasible, and that it can go against the wishes of the deceased. In the event that an individual who rests at Hart Island needs to be exhumed or relocated, it is important that their body remain intact within the box. If the recently deceased were automatically cremated, then there would be no opportunity to exhume them (if need be), and it could go against that individual’s own religious beliefs. In addition, due to the coronavirus pandemic, many individuals that are buried on Hart Island may be there only temporary. In an article from The New Yorker, author Daniel A. Gross writes, "temporary interment, by contrast, would take place if morgues run out of space, with the expectation that many remains would be exhumed and relocated when the [coronavirus] crisis is over," (Gross 8). Even when the possibility of damaging religious beliefs is removed from the situation, New York State prevents cremation. According to a Washington Post article, "The state does not allow for the cremation of unclaimed human remains," which solidifies the elimination of cremation as a solution (Yuan 13). In the Catholic faith, it is important that your body remain intact in burial because in the event of the resurrection, it is important that you can partake in the Second Coming. Lawmakers have considered the possible offenses that cremation could bring, as well: "Brooklyn Councilman Chaim Deutsch... [feared] NYC Parks work could open the door to inadvertently disturbing graves and worries religious customs could be violated,” (Spivak 9).
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Unfortunately, the situation is extremely complicated, so making changes to the mass burial process requires immense time and collaboration between the government and its citizenry. On a general note, every individual deserves a respectful burial, but it is difficult to give every casket ample time, especially since so much is unknown about every person that is buried on Hart Island and the type of burial that they would prefer. Given the current situation, adding any personal detail to each individual's burial, no matter how small, would be a better alternative to what is being practiced currently. Therefore, I am suggesting that in every situation possible, the family members of those scheduled to be buried on Hart Island should have the opportunity to place personal items in the caskets of their loved ones. That way, as the dead are put to rest, they can possess a token of their families with them, which will provide closure and comfort to those that survive them. Even in nonpubic burials, this is done, so there is no reason to deny the families of the deceased this personal aspect to the burial.
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Given the limited space on Hart Island, the current method of burying bodies is less than ideal, to say the least. As a result, alternatives to the plain, wooden caskets should be considered. Green burials are a different method of burials that would be more friendly to the environment, given that they use significantly less resources than traditional funerals. Rather than requiring a casket, mausoleum, or tombstone, green burials work hand in hand with nature to allow a body to decompose. Every year, "US cemeteries bury over 30 million board feet of hardwood and 90,000 tons of steel in caskets, 17,000 tons of steel and copper in vaults, and 1.6 million tons of reinforced concrete in vaults," to cater to the needs of the deceased and their families (funerals.org). Even though the wooden caskets used on Hart Island are simple themselves, providing a green burial as an option to those who have a loved one on Hart Island is a step in the right direction within the realm of environmentalism.
The past of Hart Island is tainted with misuse and trauma, but I am hopeful that its future can be secured with the correct management and care. Even though the island is physically small, its presence looms before it, and its reputation precedes it. The future is uncertain for the island and its estimated one million inhabitants, but there is optimism that time will present the island with new opportunities and a new life. It may seem like time is running out for the island due to the threat of climate change, but only time will heal the island's wounds and find a solution to its unique situation.
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Works Cited
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Gonzalez, Kimberly. “A Timeline on the Closure of Rikers Island.” City & State NY, City & State New York, 20 Oct. 2020, www.cityandstateny.com/articles/policy/criminal-justice/timeline-closure-rikers-island.html#:~:text=Following%20longtime%20calls%20for%20its,and%20negligence%20toward%20its%20prisoners.
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“Green Burial, An Environmentally Friendly Choice.” Funeral Consumers Alliance, Funerals.org, 17 Dec. 2020, funerals.org/?consumers=green-burial#:~:text=WHAT%20IS%20GREEN%20BURIAL%3F,without%20a%20concrete%20burial%20vault.
Gross, Daniel A., and Susan B. Glasser. “The Transformation of Hart Island.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 10 Apr. 2020, www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/the-transformation-of-hart-island.
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“Hart Island.” Silent Beaches Untold Stories: New York City's Forgotten Waterfront, by Elizabeth Albert et al., Damiani, 2016, pp. 10–19.
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Spivack, Caroline. “Hart Island Will Become Publicly Accessible Parkland.” Curbed NY, Curbed NY, 14 Nov. 2019, ny.curbed.com/2019/11/14/20963508/hart-island-new-york-public-parkland.
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Yuan, Jada. “Burials on Hart Island, Where New York's Unclaimed Lie in Mass Graves, Have Risen Fivefold.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 17 Apr. 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/national/hart-island-mass-graves-coronavirus-new-york/2020/04/16/a0c413ee-7f5f-11ea-a3ee-13e1ae0a3571_story.html.
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https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Hart_Island%2C_Bronx%2C_2012_%28cropped%29.JPG
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https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/hartislandstill.jpg
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