PART 3   

      Hart Island, through my research, paints a scary picture. Bars and barbed wire, do not trespass signs, and the heavy legal process to get on Hart Island resemble restrictions on Rikers Island. A mass burial island should not have the immediate impression of a prison; however, Hart Island resembles such. Families have gone without closure and furthermore, had to “suffer the indignity of mass burial and then suffer the added insult of being forsaken by a city policy that barred family and friends from visiting” (Kramer). Families should have a legal right to bury their dead with their own religious or ethnic traditions. If the family is not present for a proper burial, then Rikers prisoners may bury them. However, if the family chooses to have a burial, the DOC should grant free interment so families can bury their loved ones in peace with their own ethnic or family traditions. 

       As an Indian Syrian Christian, several days worth of prayers and ceremonies are performed before the body is buried. On the day of the death, family and close friends gather at the mortuary where the priest prays for the deceased and comforts the family. That very evening or the next day, the first of two wakes are held at the deceased’s mother’s house. The day after that is another wake, held at the deceased person’s house. This would be much longer and usually served with food. The next day is the burial. After a mass, the family carries the casket to its tomb. Lowered in, the family covers the casket with flowers and pebbles before the final layers of dirt cover the casket completely. For forty days, the family will not eat meat in reverence, and on the fortieth day, the family will gather at the tombstone for one final ceremony. This is just one religion’s ceremony. New York’s five boroughs are one of the most diverse areas in the country-- all types of religious, ethnic, or family traditions must be held in their funerals. 

      In the present moment, Hart Island is a problem. Not only in its ridiculous once a month visitor’s policy but in the outrageous amount of cadavers that end up there unnoticed. Those who donate their body to science “sign forms assuring them that their remains would be either returned to their families or cremated once the school finished using them” (Dyer). Yet, these bodies somehow end up in a trench on Hart Island. Universities send them to morgues that dispatch them to Hart Island, costing them significantly less than cremation (Dyer). The present situation, although better than in the past, is still a work in progress and will continue to be until Hart Island takes an organized approach to collect names and other data of all its bodies and grant public access for outsiders and loved ones. 

      In the future, Hart Island must become a public space and families should bury the dead in their own manner. To do so, the island must move departments to the DPR for better access to the public and efforts to fix the environment. The DPR could then work on board with federal ecological projects to fund the effort to fix the receding shoreline, and the DPR should work with the Department of Transportation to provide accessible ferries. Opening to the public for an admissions fee for the ferry, museums, and bird sanctuaries could fund the island’s necessities The DPR would also use their authority to restrict burial grounds so as not to cause desecration or disrespect. Making this area public would also mean unlimited access to low-income families to both bury their relatives for a low price while performing their own traditions. If the family is not present or eventually, does not wish disinterment, then the DPR can work with the DOC to bury the bodies by prisoners or some other paid labor force. The future should work on improvements for families, the public, and especially a change in the mass burial process.