PR Newswire

Change.org and New York-based community foundation, North Star Fund, announced more than 35 Black-led organizations across the United States that will receive grant funding from Change.org's $5.5 million Racial Justice Fund... The grant recipients [including the Freedom Agenda of the Urban Justice Center] work on the frontlines of Racial Justice to disrupt anti-black racism and empower communities of color.”

City Limits

“We’ve had stories of people telling us they’ve had to bend down and put their lips on the ground to suck air from under the door because it’s so hot and humid inside those cells that they’re literally sucking for cold air from the door from any cracks they can find,” said Brandon Holmes, of the Urban Justice Center.

WNYC

Freedom Agenda & MOCJ Task Force member Marco Barrios: "Most of the people that go to the city jails have a trauma, so they’re being re-traumatized because of the punitive model they have in place right now. And I lived that experience at one point, so I know firsthand about it. As a member of Freedom Agenda, we’ve tried to close Rikers Island to make sure there’s also accountability and oversight, and those things are lacking right now."

Queens Daily Eagle

"COBA's leadership has convinced themselves that officers should not be held accountable for failing to report to work or demonstrating callous neglect for incarcerated people while there, and the mayor has shamefully let them act accordingly,” said Darren Mack, co-director of Freedom Agenda. “COBA has also taken every opportunity to argue for more incarceration.”

Gothamist

"Brandon's death is tragic but entirely unsurprising,” said Darren Mack, co-director of the jails reform group Freedom Agenda. “There have already been reports of entire housing units completely unstaffed for hours at a time. On Rikers, that means there is no way to get medical attention or anything else you may need.”

City Limits

“To the degree that any access to voting is happening at all in the city jails, it’s because some volunteers or some individual took some initiative,” said Sarita Daftary, co-director of the Freedom Agenda, a project of the Urban Justice Center.