FILE - In this March 16, 2011, file photo, a security fence surrounds inmate housing on the Rikers Island correctional facility in New York. H…

FILE - This June 20, 2014 file photo shows the Rikers Island jail complex in New York with the Manhattan skyline in the background. Health exp…

Something was wrong. The chow hall line at New York’s Rikers Island jail had halted. For three hours, the men stood and waited, without food, …

FILE - In this Aug. 12, 2009, file photo, President Barack Obama presents a 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom to the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery n …

FILE - In this July 2, 2008, file photo, the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery speaks at the National Press Club in Washington. In the background is an im…

FILE - In this May 1970 file photo, Leonard Woodcock, newly elected president of the United Auto Workers Union, in glasses and dark suit, lock…

FILE - In this Jan. 20, 2009, file photo President Barack Obama embraces civil rights icon the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery during Obama's inaugurati…

FILE - In this April 21, 1988, file photo, Coretta Scott King, widow of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, pr…

FILE - In this April 1968 file photo, the Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy, center, talks with aides, the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, left, and the Rev. And…