MARY BUSER worked as the Assistant Unit Chief in the Mental Health Department on Rikers Island from 1995 to 2000. She co-founded the Samaritans of New York suicide prevention hotline, which she directed from 1984 to 1990. She is an outspoken advocate against the inhumane treatment of inmates, especially those in solitary confinement. She has been published in The Washington Post and featured in The New York Times and the NY Daily News. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.