-This is Hart Island in New York City.
For over a century, it served as the final resting place
for people who were unidentified or unclaimed
at the time of their death.
More than 1 million people are buried on the island.
The site is receiving renewed attention
as coronavirus ravages New York,
turning the city into one of America's largest epicenters.
-What we have seen is an increase
in the number of people passing away overall.
If there are people who pass away
and there is no family member,
no loved one, no one who we can find,
who our Office of the Medical Examiner can find,
who has a connection to that person
and is going to take responsibility for their burial.
-City officials have said that unclaimed victims of COVID-19
will be buried on Hart Island,
which is located about 11 miles from Manhattan,
in the northeast Bronx.
-"Unclaimed" simply means that a family did not hire
a private funeral director.
It doesn't mean that the person was unwanted.
It doesn't mean even that the person,
that the family, was impoverished.
It just means that they didn't, for whatever reason,
hire a private funeral director.
-The idea of mass-burial graves today is so --
is so problematic because it's so rare.
It would have been more common in -- in -- in earlier times.
-Hart Island is the largest mass grave in the US.
At least 1,000 coffins are buried there per year.
But data from the Department of Corrections
shows how the first three months of 2020
saw much higher burial numbers than the previous five years.
From 2019 to 2020 alone,
there was a 96% increase in burials for this period.
Burials also now take place five days a week instead of one.
-This system of burials has been in place
on Hart Island since 1872,
and it has served the city through many epidemics
where you have, you know, a scale of death
that is unprecedented for that particular generation.
-In response to the severe uptick in deaths,
the New York Medical Examiner's Office
changed the waiting period for families
to claim the bodies of loved ones from 30 days to 15.
This may have impacted the increase in burials
but is also a sign of an overwhelmed system
that cares for the dead.
-The thing is the rapidity
of this particular infectious disease,
so you're seeing the complete inability
of the private funeral industry to keep up.
-New York City has traditionally relied on prison labor,
specifically inmates from Rikers,
to bury the dead on Hart Island.
-You hear people who say, "If you go to Hart,
you're gonna be haunted the rest of your life."
-Saxon Palmer was a Rikers inmate
for the last four months of 2019
and worked on Hart Island for most of that time.
He always tried to bring honor to the people he buried.
-Most people wouldn't come back the next week.
They'd just -- They'd say, "I can't do this."
Tuesday and Wednesday was generally setting up
the burial plots,
and then Thursday and Friday -- Thursday was adult burials,
and Friday was babies, stillborns.
Yeah, I can just say it humbled me.
It was a humbling experience in the best --
in the best way possible.
I would jump at the opportunity to be back on Hart
to do that kind of work again.
-New York State issued a stay-at-home order
in late March, closing all non-essential businesses,
but Rikers inmates continue to work on Hart Island.
Drone video shows inmates dressed in white and orange
on one of their last days of work, on April 2nd.
The city contracted a private landscaping company
which took over burials on April 6th.
A spokesperson for the mayor
pointed to a dwindling number of Rikers inmates
as the reason for the change.
The city also faced public outcry about inmates
being exploited for cheap labor during the coronavirus pandemic.
As COVID-19 deaths increase in places like New York,
Detroit, and other large cities with the potential
to become hot spots, officials will have to face
how best to handle the rise in burials.
-We need to just show people the bodies,
that we have this real problem here, that --
that this many people are being buried
every single day in New York City.
We need help. A huge number of people dying.
-The images showing the reality in these cities are disturbing,
but for some, burials on Hart Island
are the best way to preserve dignity for the deceased.
-There's always been an effort to maintain the kind of decency
and order of burial under normal circumstances,
and that we're now more sensitive
to maintaining a certain honor in death.
-We want for people to be able to stay connected
and to know where your neighbor is buried
and have the option to visit whenever you feel,
because that's what is going to make us feel safe in the end,
that the city has honored every life.