The City

"Darren Mack, co-director of Freedom Agenda at the Urban Justice Center and an organizer of the campaign to close Rikers, described frustration at a climate of disinvestment in city communities that rely on government for services and opportunities."

Queens Daily Eagle

“Being in jail, in the first place, is inherently traumatic and not having access to recreation exacerbates that,” Darren Mack, the co-director of Freedom Agenda [part of the Urban Justice Center]."

Gothamist

"Jail chaplain Victoria A. Phillips [of the Mental Health Project], another detainee advocate who signed the letter to the mayor, said women should have their own facility where they don’t risk contact with male detainees."

Harlem World

The New York Community Trust today announced more than $7.7 million in grants to 39 nonprofits... [including] Freedom Agenda: $150,000 to advocate to repurpose Rikers Island and reform the city’s approach to incarceration.

NY Daily News

"Solitary confinement killed my son, Brandon Rodriguez, on Aug 10,2021. It is wrong and disgusting for Mayor Adams to lie to the public and say the city jails don’t use solitary confinement and haven’t used it since 2019." - Tamara Carter, Freedom Agenda member advocate

Gothamist

"Darren Mack, an advocate for incarcerated people and their families with the organization Freedom Agenda, said many detainees were harmed in other ways despite the decline in deaths."

Amsterdam News

“[Rikers Island] continues to kill our neighbors and leave more families devastated,” said Darren Mack, co-director of Freedom Agenda.  “Instead of continuing to send people there, the Mayor needs to make the investments that will keep people safe: housing, mental health treatment, and other services to support people in our communities.”

AM NY

"Darren Mack, co-director of the Freedom Agenda, which has been lobbying for Rikers’ immediate closure — said Luna’s death was yet another sign that the facility’s days of holding incarcerated individuals must be numbered."

Norwood News

"Darren Mack, co-director of Freedom Agenda, gave his reaction to Williams’ death, saying, “Today, yet another family is grieving the loss of their loved one in the custody of the City of New York. This shameful tragedy makes the stakes even more clear – we need to stop sending people to Rikers to die right now."

NY Daily News

"Call it what you want, Erick died after being locked alone in a cell in solitary confinement with nobody watching him." - Op-ed by Freedom Agenda member Amariliz Torres Tavira