Harvey Weinstein is opening up about life at Rikers Island.
In his first major sit-down since being transferred to the maximum-security prison in New York six years ago, the disgraced film producer, 73, told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published March 10 that his experience at Rikers has been an isolating “hell.”
“I just speak to the guards. And the nurses. That’s the extent of my socializing here,” Weinstein said. “There’s no socializing in my wing. Because it’s Rikers Island and it’s hell.”
Comparing his quality of life at Rikers to his experience at state prison, Weinstein emphasized that the two couldn’t be more different, noting that he’s been “begging” to go back to state prison.
Spencer Platt / POOL / AFP via Getty
“I got up in the morning, I had breakfast, I saw friends, I spoke to people,” he recalled of his brief stints at Wende Correctional Facility and Mohawk Correctional Facility. “We all watched TV together. I’ve been begging to go to state, but the DA’s office says, ‘Because you have a trial upcoming, you stay at Rikers. We want to keep an eye on you.’ They kept an eye on me for 19 months now. I don’t know where they think I’m going.”
In June 2025, Weinstein, as part of a split verdict, was found guilty of one count of a criminal sex act related to a 2006 incident in which he forced himself onto former TV production assistant Miriam Haley. Although he sought to appeal his conviction, alleging juror misconduct, a judge denied the request during a court appearance on Jan. 8.
Weinstein was also convicted in California in 2022 on charges that he raped an actress in a Beverly Hills hotel. That conviction, which netted him a 16 year sentence, still stands.
Ahead of his upcoming retrial for a third count of a criminal sexual act relating to aspiring actress Jessica Mann, Weinstein claimed he had been the victim of violence while behind bars at Rikers.
“One time while I was waiting to use the phone, I asked the guy in front of me if he was done,” he recounted. “He got off and punched me hard in the face.”
“I fell on the floor, bleeding everywhere,” he added. “I was hurt really badly. The cops asked me who had done it, but I couldn’t say. You can’t be a rat. That’s the law of the jungle.”
Indeed, Weinstein said that “isolation” had become the safest option for him when surviving among his fellow inmates as a “celebrity.”
“Here at Rikers, it hurts me because it forces me into isolation,” he said. “It’s too dangerous for me to be around anyone else. Other inmates get to go to the yard. But every time I’m out there, I feel like I’m under siege. They come up and say, ‘Weinstein, give me some money.’ ‘Weinstein, give me your lawyer.’ ‘Weinstein, do this.’ ‘Weinstein, do that.’ I’m constantly threatened and derided. I wouldn’t last long out there.”
Weinstein’s prosecution followed two investigations published separately in October 2017 by The New York Times and The New Yorker magazine that propelled the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements against sexual assault in the entertainment industry and other workplaces.
His lawyer Imran H. Ansari told reporters in December 2024 that Weinstein is being “completely mistreated” during his incarceration at Riker’s, and Weinstein was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia in fall 2024.