ABC 7 NY

Advocates support Mayor de Blasio's decision to close Rikers, with conditions there rapidly deteriorating - it is dangerously overcrowded, filthy, and severely short-staffed. Many at Rikers are still awaiting trial, and are innocent until proven guilty. "They're not just inmates or people that are sitting there because they committed a crime or like I like to say, they were accused of a crime. They haven't had a day in court," said Edwin Santana.

CBS News

When a correction officer doesn’t come to work, people don’t eat. People miss medical appointments. People are committing suicide. People are dying,” said Brandon Holmes co-director of Freedom Agenda. “Now, this vaccine mandate, yes, can be a tool to make sure that they are held accountable.

Queens Daily Eagle

 The degree of civilization in the city can be judged by entering its jail, and it would be fair to say that we are living in a state of barbarism,” said Darren Mack, the co-director of Freedom Agenda. “I urge [the City Council] to move forward with the borough based plan if we want to rid ourselves of a barbaric system.

Gothamist

"The Mayor has failed to address the fact that thousands of guards are still collecting their paychecks without working, while incarcerated people have been abandoned in de-facto lockdown without adequate food, recreation, medical care, access to courts and more for months,” said Darren Mack, co-director of Freedom Agenda, an organization pushing for decarceration. “The guards who are working have also been abandoned by their co-workers who are abusing leave policies, and by COBA, whose leadership seems more concerned with the nearly one-third of their members who aren't working with incarcerated people than the 70% who are putting in overtime to cover for them.”

AM NY

“This latest controversy comes amidst the hellish conditions at Rikers Island that have left 14 incarcerated individuals dead this year. The Nov. 8 rally outside City Hall with a coalition of activist organizations including #HaltSolitary, the Freedom Agenda, and more took local government to task for the seeming lack of compassion.”

NY Daily News

“The prison-industrial complex is and has always been at odds with the labor movement, whose leaders have made it perfectly clear where their loyalties lie: with the victims of mass incarceration, not its facilitators. COBA may use the language of labor, but it is not defending the rights of its workers. It is defending the system of mass incarceration that continues to give them influence.”

AM NY

“With deaths and life-changing injuries continuing to occur at an alarming rate, the advocate groups consisting of #HaltSolitary Campaign, the Freedom Agenda, and more called for the prison to be decarcerated before the number reaches 15.”