In February, we looked at the New Year’s celebration at Hong Kong.  This month for the Pléiades 1 – Pléiades Neo Point of Interest, we check out Rikers Island in New York.

About the Point of Interest: Rikers Island, located in the East River between Queens and the Bronx, is one of the most infamous detention facilities in the United States. Established in 1932, Rikers Island originally was built as a workhouse but instead is used as a sprawling complex of jails that currently houses thousands of inmates awaiting trial or serving short sentences. The facility has 10 jails with a daily population that fluctuates depending upon the city’s crime rates and judicial processes. During its busiest time of use, Rikers held more than 20,000 inmates. However, the United States Department of Justice produced the “Report on Conditions of Confinement at Rikers Island” in 2014 that revealed severe deficiencies in the treatment of inmates at Rikers, highlighting issues such as excessive use of force, overcrowding, inadequate medical and mental health care, and the widespread use of solitary confinement.

These two satellite images show Rikers Island, New York from above. In the August 19, 2022 30-cm Pléiades Neo 4 photo, we peer down at Rikers Island and its myriad of buildings scattered across the island. The second photo captured September 4, 2024, a 50-cm Pléiades 1A image, also shows an over-head view of the island. These images have custom processing and color balancing applied by Apollo Mapping. PLEIADES © CNES 2025, Distribution Airbus DS.

Fun Factoids: (1) Rikers Island was privately owned starting in 1664 by Abraham Rycken (later Riker), for whom it was named. When New York City annexed the land in 1884, it consisted of about 87 acres and now consists of more than 400 acres. (2) In the past two years, more than 30 people have died while in custody at Rikers Island and there have been reports of use of force by correction officers as well as inmate violence, including slashings, stabbings, fires and fights on the increase. (3) There are seven special centers and units at Rikers Island, a hospital and two other centers not used to house inmates. (4) In May 2013, Rikers Island ranked as one of the 10  worst correctional facilities in the entire United States, based on reporting in Mother Jones magazine. A documented increase in violence on Rikers Island was reported in the 2010s. That same year, on December 21, 2010, the United National General Assembly proclaimed March 24 as the International Day for the Right to the Truth concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims. The date was chosen because on March 24, 1980, Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero of El Salvador was assassinated after denouncing violations of human rights. In 2015, there were 9,424 assaults at Rikers Island, the highest number reported in five years. (5) The island was used as a military training ground during the Civil War. The first regiment to use the Island was the 9th New York Infantry, also known as Hawkins’ Zouaves, which arrived there on May 15, 1861. (6) Pointing to nearly a decade of violence and failed promises by city leaders, Manhattan federal judge Laura Swain said that she is “inclined” to appoint a third-party authority known as a federal receiver to take over control of city jails. The statement was part of a major November 27 ruling in which Swain sided with federal prosecutors and Legal Aid Society lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the long-running Nunez v. the City of New York lawsuit. In her scathing 65-page opinion, Swain held the city in contempt for failing to curtail violence, deaths, and the use of excessive force at Rikers, clearing the way for receivership.

The 50-cm Pléiades 1 High-Resolution Satellite Constellation

The Pléiades 1 constellation (or at least part of it!) has been in orbit since December 2011 and if you have not had a chance to check out any sample imagery, take a few moments and have a look at the gallery on our website. If you work with high-resolution imagery, you should consider Pléiades 1 and Pléiades Neo for your next geospatial projects.

A variety of Pléiades 1 products are available from both a well-established archive and as a new collection, including 50-centimeter (cm) pansharpened imagery and 50-cm panchromatic – 2-meter (m) 4-band multispectral bundles. We are happy to discuss the technical specifications, pricing and tasking options available with both of these satellite constellations.

The 30-cm Pléiades Neo High-Resolution Satellite Constellation

Pléiades Neo is our newest high-resolution satellite constellation. The first Neo satellite went up in April 2021 and the second in August of the same year. This 30-centimeter resolution constellation will add two more satellites in the next few months and upgrade from daily to intraday revisits. Pléiades Neo has six multispectral bands with 1.2-meter resolution, including a deep blue and two infrared bands, along with a 30-centimeter resolution panchromatic band.

The archive is growing every day, and the satellites are available for new collections, making Pléiades Neo the perfect solution for site monitoring. Check out our beautiful sample images in the Pléiades Neo gallery.

More sample images and technical information about Pléiades 1 can be found on our website here; while the same can be found here for the Pléiades Neo constellation.

The Apollo Mapping sales team can answer any questions you might have about Pléiades 1 and/or Pléiades Neo. We can be reached at (303) 993-3863 or sales@apollomapping.com