Gothamist

“Darren Mack, co-founder of the advocacy group Freedom Agenda, criticized the proposal to add more beds. "You could touch the person right next to you and right behind you if you reach your hand out.”

Black Agenda Report

“Darren Mack is co-founder and co-director of Freedom Agenda , an organization devoted to decarceration and system transformation, including closing the Rikers Island jail."

Amsterdam News

““It’s been two decades since I was on Rikers Island going back and forth to court, but what I recall is they wake you up between 3 a.m. [and] 4 a.m … they load everybody basically on the bus,” said Freedom Agenda co-director Darren Mack. “You probably won’t see a judge until after one o’clock. Some people don’t see a judge at all.”

Gothamist

“But [Freedom Agenda's Darren] Mack said if Rikers Island is ever renamed, it should only happen after the facility is shut down, not before. “To change the name now while the Rikers is still functioning as a penal colony doesn’t move the work of ending the torture forward,” said Mack.

Queens Eagle

“It is unconscionable that the mayor continues to avoid putting in the work necessary to close the pipelines that feed incarceration and expedite the closure of Torture Island,” Daren Mack, the co-director of advocacy group Freedom Agenda."

NY Daily News

“We are again grieving the loss of another life on Rikers Island,” said Darren Mack of Freedom Agenda, noting Powell’s death is the 34th since Mayor Adams took office in January 2022."

Prism Reports

“Launched in 2018, the Rikers Public Memory Project (RPMP) was founded as a joint project by the decarceration initiative Freedom Agenda [and others]...to collect and amplify the voices and stories of those who have been most impacted by Rikers Island"

NY Daily News

“Darren Mack of Freedom Agenda, an advocacy group, said that 'Sending legally innocent people there to be picked off by ICE is yet another reason Rikers needs to close as quickly as possible.'”

NY Daily News

“Mayor Adams says he will always follow the law, but is clearly making no effort to do that,” said Freedom Agenda co-director Darren Mack."

Queens Daily Eagle

“Sarita Daftary [Freedom Agenda co-director] also urged the city to get the jail built “as swiftly as possible” during the hearing.”“These buildings are necessary both for the moral purpose of ending the human rights crisis that is produced by the horrific conditions on Rikers, but also the legal requirement of closing the Rikers Island jails by 2027."