CBS News
This city is incapable of protecting the people in their custody. So then no one should be in their custody,” said Brandon Holmes of Freedom Agenda.The City
Sarita Daftary, co-director of Freedom Agenda, an Urban Justice Center project that advocates for decarceration, argued that the high AWOL rate makes it “harder for [the officers] who do show up for work — and of course, dangerous for the incarcerated people who aren’t getting to their court dates, to visits, to medical, to commissary, aren’t getting mail, and all other kinds of human rights abuses.”NRDC
In 2016, Pastoressa joined a small but rapidly growing group of advocates, including formerly incarcerated people and their families, in calling for the complete closure of the Rikers Island jail complex. Soon after, she became a leader in the movement to close Rikers, and later one of the founding members of Freedom Agenda, a project of the Urban Justice Center helping to organize the fight to dismantle New York City’s unjust incarceration systemGothamist
“The 50-a data shows that the so-called reforms at DOC is just rhetoric,” said Darren Mack, a co-director of Freedom Agenda at Urban Justice Center. “And it's evidence of what advocates and survivors of Rikers already knew. That the brutality and violence will not be eliminated until there’s a total dismantling of DOC.”NY Daily News
As an advocate for closing Rikers Island, I encounter a common assumption: that correction officers are our main opposition. But when we look beyond the badges, we see that many officers are people of color from the same communities as those in the jails. Could we, together, envision good jobs that aren’t dependent on mass incarceration?City Limits
This week, after a year-long delay, a commission to make recommendations on reinvestment in communities impacted by Rikers Island will convene for its first meeting. The work of this commission is essential and long overdue.Queens Daily Eagle
I’ve been incarcerated in the jails on Rikers, and in the Queens jail before it was closed. All of them are decrepit dungeons unfit for human beings. As a member of Freedom Agenda and leader in the movement to close Rikers, I have fought to reduce incarceration in every way possible.The Daily News
“Rikers is a human rights crisis,” said organizer Darren Mack of Freedom Agenda NYC. “We are here today standing with family members of people who had died on Rikers. We are here today with survivors of Rikers Island.”Bronx Net
Host Daren Jaime sits down with the Co-Director of Freedom Agenda, Darren Mack discussing the work the Freedom Agenda does, Systemic Decarceration, Closing of Rikers Island, and the dismantling of the new Jim Crow practices.Gotham Gazette
New Yorkers are beyond tired of the tale of two mayors: one who claims to be committed to substantive reform of New York City’s criminal legal and jail systems and another who resists, delays, and undermines efforts to address the deep injustices of those same systems.© 2023 Urban Justice Center | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
