Liza Jessie Peterson’s “All Day” is a moving account of her career working with young men at New York’s notorious Rikers Island. Legendary in the world of detention facilities for its violence and brutality, Rikers is scheduled to be closed within the year.
Peterson’s career took a circuitous and surprising path. A high-fashion model working in what she described as a world of “luster and glam,” an actress, poet and playwright, she is hardly the stereotypical worker at Rikers. By her own account, she “stumbled” into teaching incarcerated boys as she searched for a steady job. She also thought it would be a temporary one, but it turned into an 18-year career (so far). This book is about what she experienced in that first year as a GED (General Education Diploma) teacher.