AM NY
"It’s now been just over a year since my son’s death in that place, and three more people have taken their own lives in the past month alone. I don’t know what the Mayor is waiting for to do something. Does he even care?" - Freedom Agenda Member Tamara CarterNY Post
“What are we going to have to do? Do they want us to film each funeral to see the families’ pain up close and personal? Doing nothing equals more death. The humans on Rikers are screaming for help. Is anybody going to help them?" - Freedom Agenda member Tamara CarterAM NY
“I experienced Rikers Island firsthand as a teenager,” said Darren Mack, co-director of Freedom Agenda. “Rikers Island cannot be reformed. The only solution for Rikers Island is closure.”News 12
"People just think that you get arrested and you go to court. No, you get arrested and you have to wait for your court date. And before you even see a judge or go to trial, Boom, something happens and you're dead." - Freedom Agenda organizer Edwin Sanatana (1:35 mark in video)Gothamist
“How could a place be so evil?” asked Carmichael, who is now an activist [with UJC's Freedom Agenda] pushing for better conditions at Rikers. “Right here in the biggest city in the country and arguably one of the most progressive, loving cities. How could this be happening?”NY Post
The advocacy group Freedom Agenda said Nieves bled to death while corrections officers and a captain watched. 'While Mayor [Eric] Adams was publicly questioning whether we should or could send less people to jail, a man with serious mental illness was clinging to life after guards ignored his suicide attempt,' the group’s co-director, Darren Mack, said.AM NY
Monday’s death prompted stern reaction from the Freedom Agenda, a criminal justice advocacy group calling for Rikers Island’s closure. Tamara Carter, whose son Brandon Rodriguez died on Rikers Island last year, excoriated the Corrections Department for the latest fatality.Daily Eagle
Darren Mack, the co-director of [UJC's] Freedom Agenda, said closing and transferring facilities would be a win for everyone involved, pointing to the potential for correction officers to not be stretched as thinly and, in turn, enable detainees to have better access to medical services and programming....“We hope this mayor will follow the law that's been established by the Renewable Rikers Act,” he added. “At this moment this administration is operating outside of the law… and I think this administration needs to take the next step, which is transfers.”Gothamist
“Detainee Brandon Rodriguez [son of Freedom Agenda member Tamara Carter] died by suicide in such a shower last year, and people can be held inside these stalls for as long as a day, according to NBC New York.”AM NY
“What do judges and prosecutors have to say to the thousands of New Yorkers who are terrified that their loved one will be the next to die on Rikers?” said Darren Mack, Co-Director of Freedom Agenda.“
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