Riverdale Press

“I know there are lots of people in the community that already care about these issues,” said Ryan Acquaotta, the campaign coordinator for the Freedom Agenda..."It’s not just demanding more police, more weapons, more surveillance, more cages. We also need more housing, more treatment, more jobs, more health care and education.”

Reinvent Albany

"Darren Mack, co-Director of Freedom Agenda, a project of the Urban Justice Center: “New York’s courts, like Rikers Island, live largely out of sight and out of mind for most New Yorkers. And when the people don’t know what’s going on, there can be no accountability."

NY Times

"When [Freedom Agenda member] Nathaniel Evans, 51, started as a peer specialists for one of those teams, run by a nonprofit called CASES, in 2019, he shared a caseload of more than five dozen people, he said. One of his clients was a man named Elijah Muhammad."

CBS News

"I got the worst call September 22nd that my son was dead. I didn’t get a call from DOC. I didn’t get a call from any commissioner. I got a call from a friend in there that was frantic,” [Freedom Agenda member Lezandre Khadu] said."

Amsterdam News

Freedom Agenda co-founder Darren Mack, a member of the Campaign to Close Rikers, believes the jail complex cannot be reformed regardless of who takes over. “I hope that this mayor appoints a new commissioner who clearly understands that Rikers can’t be fixed,” he said.

The Star

Darren Mack, co-director of the advocacy group Freedom Agenda, described the boat as a “modern day slave ship” used by the department to warehouse detainees, mostly Black and Latino men, with minimal oversight. While noting the closure was long overdue, he added, “shifting people to the same hellish conditions on Rikers is not the answer.”

Yes!

“It wasn’t until I actually went back to Rikers as a volunteer for a restorative justice pilot project for adolescents that, for the first time, I saw a sign that said ‘Don’t drink the water,’” says Mack, co-founder and co-director of a grassroots decarceration organization called Freedom Agenda. Though visitors were advised to avoid drinking it, “people who are detained there are forced to drink the water,” he says. “That was a red flag.” 

Mott Haven Herald

As criminal justice advocate [and Freedom Agenda member] Marco Barrios noted, taxpayers in New York City spend more than $550,000 per year to incarcerate a single individual, while public housing and mental health services face budget cuts.

Post-Gazette

Darren Mack, co-director of the advocacy group Freedom Agenda, described the boat as a “modern day slave ship” used by the department to warehouse detainees, mostly Black and Latino men, with minimal oversight.

Amsterdam News

“Mayor Adams is also questioning the plan to close Rikers now, saying that he expects the jail population to increase instead of shrink. With the return to broken windows policing, his massive cuts to social services, and his frequent fear-mongering, he’s worked hard to make his prediction come true.” - Edwin Santana, Freedom Agenda