NY Post
“‘To find out not even after a week of the first anniversary of my son’s death that someone else has died in a shower cell is heartbreaking. Have they learned nothing?’ Carter, a member of the advocacy group Freedom Agenda, said in a statement.”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.”Gotham Gazette
"Now my son is considering taking a plea. It’s really tempting – he wants to be home, and he especially wants to get out of Rikers. But it’s not fair. My son, like so many others, was harassed by the police for being homeless, held for ransom by a judge, and denied due process by guards who don’t care about doing their jobs. Where’s the justice in that?" - Freedom Agenda Member, P. MassQueens Daily Eagle
“Angel Tueros, a Wooodsite resident and member of the Freedom Agenda, called for the city to push forward with its plan to close Rikers Island.”The Dartmouth
“Co-head of DSPI Esme Lee ’24, who organized the webinar, said that she reached out to The Freedom Agenda –– an advocacy group pursuing decarceration and investments in communities disrupted by punishment –– to see what DSPI could do on campus to advocate for the end to mass incarceration.”CBS News 12
“For them to sit here in the conditions that they are - any human being - it becomes an issue of human rights. It’s no longer a thing of right and wrong. The basic needs need to be met,” said Hope Sanders from Freedom Agenda.NYN Media
“I was a teenager when I spent 19 months on Rikers Island, when the population was over 21,000. It was a crisis back then. Decades of lack of transparency, decades of lack of accountability contributed to the crisis. And the pandemic exacerbated the crisis. Jail guards not going to work exacerbated the crisis” said Darren Mack, formerly incarcerated activist and organizer at the Freedom Agenda."Prism
“Darren Mack, who is the co-director of Freedom Agenda, the leader of the coalition that forms the Campaign to Close Rikers, spent 19 months at Rikers when he was just 17 years old in 1992... 'Rikers is managed through terror, through brutality,' Mack said. 'The same thing that was plaguing Rikers Island then is plaguing Rikers Island now.'”Queens Daily Eagle
“Darren Mack, the co-director of the Freedom Agenda, said that he worries the city will respond to the hunger strike the way New York State responded to striking incarcerated people at Attica Correctional Facility in 1971, an incident that led to the deaths of over 40 people, including 33 detainees.”The Broadsheet
"A contribution (of $150,000) went to the Freedom Agenda project at the Urban Justice Center (located on Rector Street), which seeks to empower formerly incarcerated individuals.”© 2023 Urban Justice Center | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
