Oral history interview with Elliott Boone, 2018

Biographical Note

Elliott Boone was born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Queens. He was a corrections officer at Fishkill Correctional Facility in New York for 33 years

Scope and Contents

Elliott Boone discusses his time as a corrections officer at Fishkill Correctional Facility: the logistics of working in a prison, the physical layout of the facility, and differences between prisons of different security levels. He talks about the racial makeup of the inmates and the corrections officers, and reflects on the effects of having so few Black officers. He speaks about the drug crisis in the 1980s and how mandatory minimum sentences lead to high incarceration rates of Black men. Boone reflects on inmates he knew who passed away from AIDS, as well as the types of healthcare that are accessible to inmates. He describes corrections officer abuse against inmates in the 1980s, and the relationship between guards and inmates at that time

Subjects

• Boone, Elliott--Interviews.
• Boone, Kurt B., interviewer.
• Correctional personnel--Interviews.
• Families, Black--Effect of imprisonment on.
• Interviews.
• Mass incarceration--United States.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Prison discipline--United States.
• Prisoners--United States.
• Prison gangs--United States.
• Prisons and race relations--United States.
• Prison sentences--United States.
• Prison violence--United States.
• Rape in correctional institutions--United States.

Access Conditions

Copyright by Elliott Boone. The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York hold a non-exclusive license to enable library activities