Mary E. Buser

Lockdown on Rikers was borne of Mary Buser’s desire to share her personal experience of working in the Mental Health Department on New York City's Rikers Island. Disturbed by the brutality she witnessed, disillusioned by the failures of the criminal justice system, and horrified by the rigors of solitary confinement, Ms. Buser was determined to speak up for society’s sick, disdained and forgotten.

Since leaving Rikers, Ms. Buser continues to advocate for the incarcerated through writing, public speaking, and working with such groups as “Social Workers Against Solitary Confinement,” and the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. Her Op-ed piece, “The Horrors of Solitary Confinement” appeared in the Washington Post. In 2016, Lockdown on Rikers was awarded the Brooklyn Eagles literary award for non-fiction.

Ms. Buser received her Master’s degree from Columbia University, where she was the recipient of the Overbrook Award, in recognition of outstanding clinical and academic achievement.

Prior to Rikers Island, she was co-founder and first director of the Samaritans of New York, a suicide prevention hotline.

Ms. Buser lives in Brooklyn, NY