News & Press

Queens Eagle

"Darren Mack, the co-director of Freedom Agenda, railed against the DOC, prosecutors and the courts for detaining Savage despite his illness. “No one should die in confinement,” Mack said."

NY1

“We’re here because Mayor Adams proposed a budget which is a recipe for keeping Rikers open by maintaining the Department of Corrections bloated budget,” said Darren Mack, co-director, Freedom Agenda at the Urban Justice Center."

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

Queens Eagle

“I think it's fair to say that since Molina was commissioner, he worked hard to stifle transparency  at DOC and hide the abuses as well,” said Darren Mack, the co-director of Freedom Agenda."

Queens Eagle

"The most important tangible step Mayor Adams can take to show his commitment to closing Rikers is to finally make this month’s land transfer deadline and start the process of closing jails like [the Anna M. Kross Center] that are not in current use...” [said] Darren Mack, the co-director of Freedom Agenda."

The Root

"Brandon Rodriguez died by suicide at Rikers island in 2021. Last year, his mother, [Freedom Agenda member] Tamara Carter, testified in support of the [solitary confinement] ban at a City Council hearing last year."

NY Times

"[Freedom Agenda member] Tamara Carter, whose son Brandon Rodriguez died by suicide at Rikers in 2021, testified in support of the ban [on solitary confinement] at a City Council hearing last year."

Gothamist

"Darren Mack, cofounder of Freedom Agenda, a nonprofit that helps formerly incarcerated people and their communities, said Adams could show he’s serious about closing Rikers by meeting this month’s land-transfer deadline under the 2021 Renewable Rikers Act."

Gothamist

"Darren Mack, the co-director of criminal justice reform organization Freedom Agenda, said Rikers was irredeemable “no matter who is running it.”

News 12

“The public health aspect is people with mental health conditions are not getting adequate care, especially in prison you're not gonna get that so we're trying to change that whole system,” said Marco Barrios, a representative from the Urban Justice Center Mental Health Project."

Riverdale Press

“I know there are lots of people in the community that already care about these issues,” said Ryan Acquaotta, the campaign coordinator for the Freedom Agenda..."It’s not just demanding more police, more weapons, more surveillance, more cages. We also need more housing, more treatment, more jobs, more health care and education.”

Reinvent Albany

"Darren Mack, co-Director of Freedom Agenda, a project of the Urban Justice Center: “New York’s courts, like Rikers Island, live largely out of sight and out of mind for most New Yorkers. And when the people don’t know what’s going on, there can be no accountability."

NY Times

"When [Freedom Agenda member] Nathaniel Evans, 51, started as a peer specialists for one of those teams, run by a nonprofit called CASES, in 2019, he shared a caseload of more than five dozen people, he said. One of his clients was a man named Elijah Muhammad."

CBS News

"I got the worst call September 22nd that my son was dead. I didn’t get a call from DOC. I didn’t get a call from any commissioner. I got a call from a friend in there that was frantic,” [Freedom Agenda member Lezandre Khadu] said."

Amsterdam News

Freedom Agenda co-founder Darren Mack, a member of the Campaign to Close Rikers, believes the jail complex cannot be reformed regardless of who takes over. “I hope that this mayor appoints a new commissioner who clearly understands that Rikers can’t be fixed,” he said.

The Star

Darren Mack, co-director of the advocacy group Freedom Agenda, described the boat as a “modern day slave ship” used by the department to warehouse detainees, mostly Black and Latino men, with minimal oversight. While noting the closure was long overdue, he added, “shifting people to the same hellish conditions on Rikers is not the answer.”

Yes!

“It wasn’t until I actually went back to Rikers as a volunteer for a restorative justice pilot project for adolescents that, for the first time, I saw a sign that said ‘Don’t drink the water,’” says Mack, co-founder and co-director of a grassroots decarceration organization called Freedom Agenda. Though visitors were advised to avoid drinking it, “people who are detained there are forced to drink the water,” he says. “That was a red flag.” 

Mott Haven Herald

As criminal justice advocate [and Freedom Agenda member] Marco Barrios noted, taxpayers in New York City spend more than $550,000 per year to incarcerate a single individual, while public housing and mental health services face budget cuts.

Post-Gazette

Darren Mack, co-director of the advocacy group Freedom Agenda, described the boat as a “modern day slave ship” used by the department to warehouse detainees, mostly Black and Latino men, with minimal oversight.

Amsterdam News

“Mayor Adams is also questioning the plan to close Rikers now, saying that he expects the jail population to increase instead of shrink. With the return to broken windows policing, his massive cuts to social services, and his frequent fear-mongering, he’s worked hard to make his prediction come true.” - Edwin Santana, Freedom Agenda 

Gothamist

“Darren Mack, Freedom Agenda co-director, said its network of advocates for incarcerated people hoped Mayor Eric Adams would work with the commission on its goals.”

The City

"[The process of] getting a video visit was a nightmare,’” Melissa Vergara [a member advocate with our Freedom Agenda project], whose son was locked up on Rikers last year, told THE CITY. “They’d [DOC] always cancel them. They’d alway say we don’t have enough staff.”

NY Daily News

“‘This is what happens when DOC is allowed to operate a penal colony with little to no oversight, and yet another reason to accelerate the closure of Rikers Island,’” said Darren Mack of Freedom Agenda."

Hunts Point Express

“Darren Mack, co-director of Freedom Agenda, also released a statement last month that the city should halt any considerations of housing asylum seekers on The Boat or Rikers Island.”

NY Daily News

“‘The people incarcerated at Rikers are at a grave risk of immediate harm’ This declaration by Manhattan Federal Judge Laura Taylor Swain, tasked with deciding whether or not to strip control of Rikers Island from New York City, is an affirmation of a truth groups like Freedom Agenda have long known to be self-evident: Rikers Island is beyond repair.”

AM NY

"We need to invest in housing, mental health treatment, and other services to support people in our communities, improve safety, and keep people out of Rikers. And we have to close that death camp down quickly,” said Freedom Agenda Co-Director Darren Mack."

NY Daily News

“‘Rikers Island continues to kill our neighbors and traumatize our communities and somehow Mayor Adams thinks this is a path we should continue on?’ said Darren Mack of Freedom Agenda.”

Queens Eagle

“Sarita Daftary, the co-director of Freedom Agenda, blamed the mayor and his administration’s policies – including the NYPD’s recent increase in issuing criminal summonses and budget cuts that have led to the elimination of social services intended to keep people out of the criminal justice system – for Rikers’ ballooning population. “

Philanthropy NY

“I'd like to highlight the issue of foundations cutting back on funding for mass incarceration reform efforts. Campaigns in this space often span multiple years, yet many grants are awarded for only one or two years." - Darren Mack, Freedom Agenda

News 12

"If passed, the DOC would be given specific procedures to follow after someone dies in custody...It's a move that that could have saved [Freedom Agenda member] Tamara Carter a lot of heartbreak. Her son, Brandon Rodriguez, died in custody in August 2021. She says it took a week to receive any information about his death."

The City

“The dysfunction, unbearable environment, and neglect took my son’s life,” said [Freedom Agenda member] Tamara Carter, whose son Brandon Rodriguez, 25, reportedly took his own life inside a shower in August 2021."

Gothamist

[Freedom Agenda member] Loray Hodge said her son — who is currently detained at the OBCC facility on Rikers — told her there are “worms and bugs” in the food. She and other family members are currently sending him about $100 per week to spend at the commissary, she said.

Columbia Spectator

“He’s gotten away with not saying that he doesn’t want Rikers to close, even though all of his actions say that very thing,” [said John Proctor, the communications and digital organizing manager of the decarceration organization Freedom Agenda.]

Queens Daily Eagle

“'It seems that the new chair has the idea that his objective is to prevent the department from being portrayed in any negative way, which is not at all his job,' Sarita Daftary, the co-executive director of Freedom Agenda."

Amsterdam News

"A spokesperson for Freedom Agenda...pointed to the Mayor’s frequent use of a Bishop Desmond Tutu quote about going “upstream” to address Rikers’ problems as an initial, unfulfilled indicator for alternatives to incarceration."

News 12

"The barge is going to close, but what's up with Rikers," said Edwin Santana, community organizer for the Freedom Agenda and a formerly incarcerated person at Rikers and the Vernon C. Bain Center. "Don't just deal with one problem and neglect the next issue..."

NY 1

"I'm glad that the boat is closing. I am glad,” said Edwin Santana, a community organizer with the Freedom Agenda at the Urban Justice Center….[But] "All they're doing is shifting people from one terrible area to another terrible area."

NY Daily News

“The Boat, like Rikers Island, should have closed a long time ago,” Lezandre Khadu, a member of the Campaign to Close Rikers [co-founded by UJC’s Freedom Agenda], said in a statement."

Gothamist

“I'm glad to hear that 'the Boat' is going to close in October,” Santana [a criminal justice advocate with the Urban Justice Center's Freedom Agenda] said. “But I'm saddened to hear that they're going to put the people that are on the boat on Rikers, because no one should be at Rikers."

Queens Eagle

“'We call on the mayor to take every necessary action to do what he said he would do, to do what is legally required, and to do what is right,' Darren Mack, the co-director of Freedom Agenda, said during the rally."

Pix 11

“Let the mayor know that he has an obligation to close this place down,” said Ashley Conrad of the advocacy group Freedom Agenda. “This is law. It’s a plan that was well thought out and curated by years and years of organizing by directly impacted people.”

Queens Daily Eagle

"Sarita Daftary, the co-executive director of Freedom Agenda, told the Eagle on Friday that the DOC had recently confirmed to her organization that the facility had been closed...."

Amsterdam News

"A Campaign to Close Rikers organizer—Freedom Agenda’s Ashley Conrad—recalled knowing Ubiera when they were youngsters living in Queens..."

NY Amsterdam News

“The mayor knows that Curtis Davis, like thousands of other people at Rikers, was at great risk, harm, and death every day he was there, and Adams is telling New Yorkers he’s fine with that—but we’re not,” said Freedom Agenda co-director Darren Mack."

CBS News

"'[Rikers] was very dangerous. I remember, 16 years old, I got jumped like two times by 20 people, people try to cut me, stab me,' said Nathaniel Evans, of the Freedom Agenda."

BK Eagle

"Critics [of Mayor Adam’s approach to borough-based jail expansion], including Darren Mack of Freedom Agenda and Megan French-Marcelin of the Legal Action Center, have criticized the mayor for expanding the jail facility while decreasing the therapeutic units."

Norwood News

"Meanwhile, Freedom Agenda co-director, Darren Mack, a survivor of Rikers, also released a statement saying Davis, 44, was the third person to die in the New York City jail system this month, the 26th person since New York City Mayor Eric Adams took office, and the 42nd in the past two years."

Queens Daily Eagle

"Mayor Adams ran for office saying he would get Rikers closed, but has been doing everything in his power to fill it up with more and more people struggling with addiction, mental health needs, and unstable housing,” [Darren] Mack, [co-director of the UJC's Freedom Agenda] said.

Gothamist

"Darren Mack, an activist for the group Freedom Agenda...criticized Adams for his role in increasing the population of Rikers with more detainees struggling with addiction and mental health needs."

Queens Eagle

"Darren Mack, the co-director of Freedom Agenda, called the administration's elimination of the therapeutic beds at the proposed Brooklyn facility “shameful and tragic.”

BK Daily Eagle

“Is three deaths in one month still not enough to make him stop?” [Darren Mack, co-direction of the Freedom Agenda] asked, referring to Mayor Adams.

AM NY

"'Why is Mayor Adams continuing his crusade to condemn more and more people to a place that either can’t or won’t keep them alive,” said Darren Mack, co-director of the Freedom Agenda."

City Limits

"The city must pay nearly $143 million to over 40,000 people who were held in a city jail longer than they should have after having posted bail. The Freedom Agenda...shared information about the settlement with their clients and members."

NY Amsterdam News

“If the mayor actually plans to invest in mental health, we’d see people like Mr. Valles getting the help he needed in the community,” said Freedom Agenda’s Darren Mack."

Hip Hop Wired

"They have to fix this problem, and hiding it is not fixing it,” said Lezandre Kahdu, [a member of Freedom Agenda] whose son died in a city jail in 2021."

NY Daily News

"Lezandra Khadu, [a member of Freedom Agenda and] the mother of Stephen Khadu, a 24-year-old inmate who died at Rikers in April 2022 from meningitis, confronted Adams at an event in Brooklyn earlier this week to ask him if he had an update on what’s going on with a city investigation into her son’s death."

News 12

"Advocacy groups and concerned New Yorkers joined together outside of City Hall on Thursday to call on Mayor Eric Adams to shut down Rikers Island for the safety of inmates and New Yorkers."

Chief Leader

"Nationally, on average, for every four people in jail, there is one correction officer on staff, whereas on Rikers, for every four people in jail, there are four and half,” wrote [Darren Mack of Freedom Agenda & Councilwoman Carlina Rivera] in a piece advocating for the closure of the island penal colony by 2027.

Epicenter NYC

"After Mayor Bill de Blasio agreed to close Rikers in 2018, three organizations, Freedom Agenda, Create Forward and the Humanities Action Lab, came together to collaborate on how Rikers should be remembered."

NY Daily News

As next year’s budget is negotiated, our city faces an unacceptable status quo, in which our neighbors are languishing on Rikers for longer and longer periods of time, while effective and affordable alternatives exist.

Queens Daily Eagle

"Darren Mack, the co-director of Freedom Agenda, accused the mayor of paying “lip service to investing in mental health” while the “number of people with serious mental illness locked up at Rikers keeps growing under his watch.”

NY Daily News

“Darren Mack of Freedom Agenda called Rikers Island a “death camp.”

FPCFH

"Join us during our service as Marcos Barrios of Freedom Agenda discusses criminal justice and mental health. May 21, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM, 70-35 112th St, Flushing, NY 11375."

Amsterdam News

“It’s unbelievable that Governor Hochul is holding the whole budget hostage just to lock up more Black and brown people in these deathtrap jails,” said Lezandre Khadu, advocate and member of Freedom Agenda."

Atmos Earth

"There are more promising steps with the feasibility studies regarding the plans for the island once the jail has been closed that look at the wastewater treatment plants and the renewable energy proposals... Freedom Agenda is one of the main organizations doing lots of advocacy and holding the city to account."

News 12

"Groups at Thursday's rally include New York Communities for Change, VOCAL-NY, and Freedom Agenda. They stood alongside the former incarcerated persons, including D'Juan Collins, who says he was at Rikers Island for 15 months when he couldn't afford his $30,000 bail."

Norwood News

Riley, who represents parts of the north Bronx, and Restler, who represents parts of Brooklyn, were joined at the event by advocates from the Freedom Agenda..."Closing Rikers is a foundational part in addressing the injustices of systemic racism in our criminal justice system...” said Riley.

NY Daily News

"As of April 6, there were 1,080 people who had been in Rikers awaiting trial for a year or more.“So far, the mayor has failed to tackle these issues and the City Council is taking direct action here,” said Darren Mack of the Freedom Agenda."

City&State

"We are family members of people who died at Rikers. If Rikers had killed white people, the governor would close it, not condemn more people there." - Co-Authors Tamara Carter and Lezandre Khadu are members of Freedom Agenda.

NY Daily News

"The pain of losing my son has been unimaginable. But it deepens my pain to hear Mayor Adams talking about creating a “Plan B” to closing Rikers, and pointing to shootings like those that killed my son as the reason.” - Peggy Herrera, advocate and member of Freedom Agenda

Queens Daily Eagle

“Six more years of humanitarian catastrophe at Rikers Island is unacceptable,” said Edwin Santana, a community organizer with Freedom Agenda."

NY Amsterdam News

"Rally speakers included representatives of several organizations involved in the campaign...including Freedom Agenda co-director Darren Mack, who MC’d the demonstration."

NY Amsterdam News

"We know that the safest communities are the ones with the most resources, not the most incarceration,” said Darren Mack, co-director of Freedom Agenda at the Urban Justice Center."

AM NY

"At the rally, hosted by the criminal justice group Freedom Agenda, the speaker repeated her calls to close Rikers by Aug. 31, 2027 — a date required by the 2019 City Council law that mandates the complex be shutterered."

Brownstoner

"Rikers should have been closed decades ago and this administration should be exercising leadership to find every way possible to do it faster,” said Darren Mack, co-director of Freedom Agenda...How many more lives is this mayor willing to see lost or forever damaged in that hellhole?”

NY Daily News

"Freedom Agenda co-director Darren Mack agreed with Gerard and urged Adams to immediately take “tangible steps” toward winding down operations on Rikers. “These include permanently closing empty jails on Rikers as mandated by law, starting with the Otis Bantum Correctional Facility."

NY Daily News

"We urge the mayor to implement these recommendations, and to follow through on the plan to close Rikers that was shaped by people from the communities most affected by under-investment and over-incarceration." - Op-Ed by Darren Mack, Freedom Agenda

News 12

“This proposed delay is offensive to all of the families,” said Darren Mack, co-director of the Freedom Agenda. “Especially the 20 families who lost their loved ones to the NYC jail system under this administration.”

Amsterdam News

"Just as incarcerated people need empathy, our communities most affected by incarceration need support. The mayor frequently says, “If you don’t educate, you will incarcerate,” and I agree." - Lezandre Khadu, Member Advocate with Freedom Agenda.

NYC City Council

“We know that the safest communities are the ones with the most resources, not the most incarceration,” said Darren Mack, Co-Director of Freedom Agenda, Urban Justice Center. “The long-overdue investments Speaker Adams has outlined – in supportive housing, community-based treatment, and diversion and re-entry programs – will make our communities stronger, healthier, and safer, and keep us on the path to closing the Rikers Island jails."

NYC.gov

"My name is Anna Pastoressa, and I am a member of Freedom Agenda. My son spent 6 years on Rikers Island waiting for trial and I visited him every weekend. It was a very stressful and long-lasting process to get to Rikers and one of the most important parts of the visit for me was to bring a package of clean clothes to him..."

People's World

"The latest was Edgardo Mejias, 39, who died in late December. “He had been arrested under suspicion of shoplifting perfume,” the institute said. It called New York City’s jails “abominable.” “Edgardo Mejias was delivered a death sentence without a trial,”  Freedom Agenda Co-Director Darren Mack told the Vera researchers."

Queens Daily Eagle

"Anna Pastoressa, a member of Freedom Agenda and the mother of an incarcerated person, spoke out against the mail and package policy during the rally in Manhattan on Tuesday... “By blocking packages, you’re blocking laundry, you’re blocking hygiene, you’re blocking dignity," Pastoressa said."

Office of the NYC Comptroller

"This mail variance is just a band-aid, instead of addressing the real issues. People inside are not getting proper care, and they’re not getting programs, so they are desperate for something to fill their time. DOC needs to address that issue, not put one more barrier between incarcerated people and their loved ones,” said Marco Barrios, a member of Freedom Agenda and Criminal Justice Advocate with the Mental Health Project Urban Justice Center."

Queens Daily Eagle

“Martin Pines was killed by a criminal legal system that has no regard for human life – from police, to courts, to DOC,” said Darren Mack, the co-executive director of Freedom Agenda.

Yahoo! News

“They need treatment, not jail,” Darren Mack, co-director of Freedom Agenda, one of the key organizations leading the campaign to close Rikers, said. “As long as Rikers remains open, more people are going to die.”

NY Daily News

"“At 65, [Marvin Pines] was sent to a penal colony that is utterly failing to provide medical care or safety for anyone,” Darren Mack, co-director of the Freedom Agenda."

AM NY

"But former Rikers inmate Darren Mack of the Freedom Agenda, a nonprofit working to have the jail shut down on or before its scheduled closure in 2026, charged that “Pines was killed by a criminal legal system that has no regard for human life – from police, to courts, to DOC.”"

News 12

""The mayor knows what Rikers Island is about. He knows the culture of violence, he knows how it is, but they continue to look for ways to send people there. Close it, close it down. Shut it down today. There's no fixing it, there's no reforming it. It just needs to be shut down," said Edwin Santana, of Freedom Agenda."

City Limits

“Rikers Island is not a necessary institution. There are plans and legislation underway that will remove our neighbors and fellow New Yorkers off of Rikers and into a smaller system borough-based facilities. This would bring families closer to their loved ones, improve conditions for people detained, and end our over-reliance on incarceration.” - Hope Sanders, a member-organizer of Freedom Agenda.

NY Daily News

"'I think it’s an effort to control the narrative. They are closing ranks and being less transparent than in the past,” said Darren Mack of advocacy group Freedom Agenda..."

News 12

"Despite the Department of Corrections citing progress on some safety concerns, several groups came together today to rally once again for the closure of one of the city’s most controversial jails: Rikers Island. [Watch the video for coverage of the rally, including members of Freedom Agenda]"

The Intercept

"'The system constantly punishes people with the least power, which is incarcerated people and their loved ones, without actually taking any accountability for the Department of Correction themselves,' said Ashley Conrad, an organizer with Freedom Agenda..."

Gothamist

"Well-resourced schools and more economic opportunities are also effective ways to reduce the jailed population, said Darren Mack, co-director of the advocacy group Freedom Agenda."

Queens Daily Eagle

"Ashley Conrad, a community organizer with Freedom Agenda, said...that the proposed change to the mail system..."will continue to punish incarcerated people and their loved ones in the way that this system always has,” Conrad said. “I assure you, mail variance or not, drugs and contraband will make its way onto Rikers Island – through officers, as they mostly do.'"

El Diario

"'Edgardo Mejía recibió una sentencia de muerte sin juicio', dijo Darren Mack, codirector de Freedom Agenda, grupo de defensa de personas encarceladas."

Amsterdam News

“'Edgardo [Mejias] was delivered a death sentence without a trial,' said Freedom Agenda Co-Director Darren Mack. 'What will it take for judges, prosecutors and police to stop churning people through this death trap, and for the mayor to stop encouraging them?'"

92Q Jams

"'Why do we just say we’re going to throw our hands up and say nothing changes, and send more people here to die?' Sarita Daftary, co-director of Freedom Agenda, asked City Council members."

Gothamist

"'Why do we just say we’re going to throw our hands up and say nothing changes, and send more people here to die?' Sarita Daftary, co-director of Freedom Agenda, asked City Council members."

NY Daily News

“Edgardo Mejia was delivered a death sentence without a trial,” said Darren Mack, co-director of the Freedom Agenda, an advocacy group for people impacted by incarceration.“What will it take for judges, prosecutors, and police to stop churning people through this death trap, and for the mayor to stop encouraging them?”

AM NY

"'Now is the time to invest in housing, treatment, and everything we know creates safety, and stop sending people to Rikers to die,'” Freedom Agenda Co-Director and former Rikers Island inmate Darren Mack said in a statement."

City Limits

"Nearly every single person on Rikers Island will be released at some point. And when they get out, they will need a place to live, said Darren Mack, a formerly incarcerated organizer with the Freedom Agenda project of the Urban Justice Center."

Amsterdam News

“Anna Pastoressa, a founding member of a leading campaign to close Rikers, Freedom Agenda, felt Adams’ comments calling detainees “some of the most violent offenders in the city” mischaracterized those actually held in the infamous jail... “These are presumably innocent people according to our Constitution and they are innocent until proven guilty.”

Rolling Stone

"Brian, a longtime activist [with UJC’s Freedom Agenda] who served a year in New York’s Rikers Island in 2006 and then two shorter stints years later for parole violations, says he is 17 months sober thanks to 12-step programs. “You’re not gonna keep drugs out of anywhere,” he says. “Instead of spending all that time and resources, they’d be way better spent and more effective put into education programs, self-help programs, 12-step programs. That’s what’s gonna get people off drugs.”

The Paper

“We stand with the GANGS Coalition to end this gang database this year,” Darren Mack, co-founder, and co-director of the Urban Justice Center’s Freedom Agenda said to the crowd at Brooklyn Borough Hall. “After that, we want all those resources that the NYPD utilized to operate that system to go back into our community.”

Mott Haven Herald

Darren Mack, Freedom Agenda spokesperson, whose organization advocates the closure of the jail, and who was formerly incarcerated on Rikers Island, said “the problem is there’s this chronic absenteeism.”

La Politica Online

Este plan no es suficiente para Edwin Santana, organizador comunitario del movimiento Freedom Agenda. Santana ejerciendo de maestro de ceremonias en una multitudinaria protesta frente al gobierno municipal, lanzó un mensaje claro para el alcalde Adams: "Ni arreglar ni reformar Rikers, la cárcel hay que cerrarla ya!"

Climate Check

In this episode, Eva talks with Darren Mack, a co-founder of Freedom Agenda and a survivor of Rikers.  They discuss the historic Renewable Rikers bills, Mack’s foray in activism, and how environmentalism and decarceration are intertwined.

NY1 Noticias

"La verdadera seguridad pública radica en recursos para nuestras comunidades, porque constantemente encarcelamos a las personas más vulnerables con problemas de salud mental, adicción a las drogas, pobreza", dijo Ashley Conrad, coordinadora de Comunidad Freedom Agenda.

WNYC Studios

"Eighteen people jailed at Rikers Island have died this year, the most since 2013. Darren Mack, co-director of the Urban Justice Center's Freedom Agenda, a member-led project organizing communities impacted by incarceration, joins us to discuss the continuing crisis, the activist response and the latest on efforts to close Rikers."

NY Amsterdam News

“2022 has become one of the deadliest years in the history of NYC Department of Corrections,” said [UJC's] Freedom Agenda co-director Darren Mack. “The dysfunction, chronic staff absenteeism, and lack of accountability has intensified. Advocates have been sounding the alarm and calling for urgent action from the City.”

NYCity News

"Edwin Santana, community organizer with the Urban Justice Center and a formerly incarcerated person who had been held on Rikers, led the demonstration along with Victoria Phillips, co-chair of the NYC Department of Correction Young Adult Task Force [and an organizer with UJC's Mental Health Project]."

AMNY

"Members of the [UJC organized] Jails Action Coalition, #HALTsolitary Campaign, Freedom Agenda [of the Urban Justice Center], VOCAL-NY, and more set out faux body bags along with the names of those who have perished while imprisoned. Organizers claimed that about 1,000 inmates on the penal island suffer from mental illness, making the DOC facility a caretaker for mental health."

NY Focus

"To advocates, the apparent dashboard tampering is evidence that conditions on Rikers are far worse than the DOC is willing to admit. “DOC seems to be willing to try anything to hide the deadly dysfunction in the City’s jails,” said Darren Mack, co-director of the Urban Justice Center’s Freedom Agenda, a member of the Campaign to Close Rikers."

News 12

“‘People are taking their own lives, it’s so inhumane,’ said Darren Mack, co-director of the Freedom Agenda [of the Urban Justice Center].”

AM NY

"While growing up in jail and prison, guards used racism, humiliation, intimidation, and aggression to make sure I knew exactly how they felt about me every single day and night. It did not matter if I was weak or strong, smart, or struggling, in their eyes I was less than a human being." - Op-Ed by Freedom Agenda Advocate Edwin Santana

AM NY

"It’s now been just over a year since my son’s death in that place, and three more people have taken their own lives in the past month alone. I don’t know what the Mayor is waiting for to do something. Does he even care?" - Freedom Agenda Member Tamara Carter

NY Post

“What are we going to have to do? Do they want us to film each funeral to see the families’ pain up close and personal? Doing nothing equals more death. The humans on Rikers are screaming for help. Is anybody going to help them?" - Freedom Agenda member Tamara Carter

AM NY

“I experienced Rikers Island firsthand as a teenager,” said Darren Mack, co-director of Freedom Agenda. “Rikers Island cannot be reformed. The only solution for Rikers Island is closure.”

News 12

"People just think that you get arrested and you go to court. No, you get arrested and you have to wait for your court date. And before you even see a judge or go to trial, Boom, something happens and you're dead." -  Freedom Agenda organizer Edwin Sanatana (1:35 mark in video)

Gothamist

“How could a place be so evil?” asked Carmichael, who is now an activist [with UJC's Freedom Agenda] pushing for better conditions at Rikers. “Right here in the biggest city in the country and arguably one of the most progressive, loving cities. How could this be happening?”

NY Post

The advocacy group Freedom Agenda said Nieves bled to death while corrections officers and a captain watched.  'While Mayor [Eric] Adams was publicly questioning whether we should or could send less people to jail, a man with serious mental illness was clinging to life after guards ignored his suicide attempt,' the group’s co-director, Darren Mack, said. 

AM NY

Monday’s death prompted stern reaction from the Freedom Agenda, a criminal justice advocacy group calling for Rikers Island’s closure. Tamara Carter, whose son Brandon Rodriguez died on Rikers Island last year, excoriated the Corrections Department for the latest fatality.

Gothamist

“Detainee Brandon Rodriguez [son of Freedom Agenda member Tamara Carter] died by suicide in such a shower last year, and people can be held inside these stalls for as long as a day, according to NBC New York.”

AM NY

“What do judges and prosecutors have to say to the thousands of New Yorkers who are terrified that their loved one will be the next to die on Rikers?” said Darren Mack, Co-Director of Freedom Agenda.“

NY1

"Last year, 16 people passed away in the city’s jail system, including 25-year-old Brandon Rodriguez, who died by suicide. In a recent interview, Rodriguez’ mother, [UJC Freedom Agenda member] Tamara Carter, told NY1 she believed her son was “broken by being in there.”

NBC NY

"[UJC Freedom Agenda member] Tamara Carter’s son, Brandon Rodriguez, 25, committed suicide last year while locked inside a decontamination shower. She has also filed notice she intends to sue. 'I can’t imagine what my son went through,” Carter said."

AM NY

“It’s supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, not innocent until found dead in a cell on Rikers,” Brian Carmichael of UJC's Freedom Agenda said.

NY1

"Last August, [Tamara] Carter [a UJC Freedom Agenda member] lost her son on Rikers Island....Brandon Rodriguez was 25 years old when he took his own life in an isolated shower pen."

AM NY

“What DOC and the courts are failing to admit is that we are in a human rights emergency. The chronic staff absenteeism continues while DA’s and judges are unnecessarily sending people to a potential death sentence. New York City’s communities need accountability, decarceration, and ultimately closure of the jails,” [UJC's] Freedom Agenda Co-Director Darren Mack said in a statement.

El Diario

“Darren Mack, director de la organización Freedom Agenda agregó que el Departamento de Correcciones de la Ciudad de Nueva York sigue “violando implacablemente los estándares mínimos de la Junta Correccional, la ley estatal y los Derechos Humanos”.

News 12

“Co-Director of the UJC Freedom Agenda Darren Mack called on the mayor to help put an end to Rikers Island once and for all, stating that the facility cannot be reformed.”

AM NY

"Co- Director of the [UJC] Freedom Agenda Darren Mack called on the mayor to help put an end to Rikers Island once and for all, stating that the facility cannot be reformed."

The City

“‘Far too many people have been traumatized, tortured, and lost their lives in DOC custody, especially in solitary confinement,’ said Darren Mack, co-director of [UJC's] Freedom Agenda and a member of the Jails Action Coalition.”

Amsterdam News

Criminal justice advocate Darren Mack, co-director of [UJC's] Freedom Agenda, said that Rikers should have closed a long time ago because no one is safe there. “We need immediate decarceration, like the effort we saw at the beginning of COVID-19, with action from judges, prosecutors, and the DOC commissioner with the support of the mayor,” said Mack. “Without that, they are choosing to let people die.”

The City

Sarita Daftary, co-director of [UJC's] Freedom Agenda, an organization that’s part of the coalition that pushed Renewable Rikers, agreed. “OBCC should be transferred,” she said. “It makes sense to consolidate operations."

NY1

"The mayor's visit was just to show support to correction officers," said Melissa Vergara, [a member of UJC's Freedom Agenda] who has a son on Rikers. "We never address the violence that comes from the other end,” she added.

Queens Daily Eagle

“Rikers should have closed long ago, and by now, judges, prosecutors, and all elected officials know that no one is safe there.” -Darren Mack, the co-director of nonprofit Freedom Agenda [at the Urban Justice Center]"

NY Post

"[UJC's] Freedom Agenda, an advocacy group working to close Rikers, lambasted the DOC for the seventh death in less than six months. 'As the Department of Correction generates plans to create plans, New Yorkers continue to suffer and die in their custody,' Freedom Agenda’s co-founder Darren Mack said in a statement."

Deaths at New York's Rikers: A Mother's Pain

"It's a horror story in there and it's heartbreaking," the 58-year-old [UJC Freedom Agenda member Brian Carmichael] told AFP, citing gang violence, crumbling buildings and dirty toilets that flood.

Manhattan Times

"The absentee voting process at the jail is unorganized, charged [UJC Freedom Agenda member Gregory] Williams, and causes many detained at Rikers to miss deadlines."

NY Daily News

“Greg Williams, 57, who was detained at Rikers in 2020 on a parole violation, said the absentee system was confusing. ‘It just didn’t work the way they had it set up,’ said Williams, an activist with the advocacy group Freedom Agenda...“‘People didn’t know how to get absentee ballots in a timely fashion, who they were supposed to turn to, and there was no one to really advise them."

NY Daily News

"'Anybody who says that’s not enough [beds] has an investment in incarceration,” [Darren Mack, of UJC's Freedom Agenda] said. “To backpedal against what is now the law, it would be subject to lawsuits.'”

Democracy Now!

"In response, [Freedom Agenda] community organizer and Rikers survivor Edwin Santana said in a statement, “This tragedy should show every judge, prosecutor, and elected official who has ignored this truth before — Rikers is a death sentence."

Gotham Gazette

"History shows that we cannot arrest and incarcerate our way to public safety. We can no longer tolerate a city budget that reflects this false notion. With the release of the mayor’s executive budget proposal, it is clear that we have work to do before this year’s budget deadline to move in the right direction." [Op-Ed by Darren Mack of Freedom Agenda and Rev. Wendy Brown]

AM NY

“A receiver may be able to cut through some of the dysfunction accumulated from decades of political cowardice, appeasement of COBA, and disregard for incarcerated people, but Rikers cannot be fixed,” said Darren Mack, Co-Director of Freedom Agenda [at UJC]. “It must be closed, and the Mayor should be taking every opportunity to expedite those plans.” 

NY Daily News

"To propose yet another increase in headcount to solve the same (though considerably worsened) problem without evidence of success is both brazen and irresponsible."

NRDC Blog

"The Renewable Rikers coalition, spearheaded by groups like Freedom Agenda, envisions turning this island of shame into a showplace of sustainability, with a solar array and energy storage, expanded composting and a modern wastewater treatment plant."

Columbia U. Neighbors

"The Columba Center for Justice's Beyond the Bars conference resumed with an in-person gathering at Riverside Church that brought together the movements for decarceration, abolition, and climate and environmental justice...The day's second plenary panel featured...Darren Mack (Freedom Agenda)."

AM NY

"Many people are and will be involved in the criminal legal system even as we make progress to reduce incarceration.  Building borough jails is a necessary step to protect human rights – along with accountability to make sure these jails are run differently – and we urge the mayor to move quickly on both,” Anna Pastoressa said, a member of Freedom Agenda.”

El Diario

“Darren Mack, codirector de la organización Freedom Agenda, se refirió a los cambios en las leyes de fianzas, y aseguró que justo cuando se necesitaba que la Gobernadora y los legisladores defendieran las reformas judiciales y se restaurara la financiación de los servicios sociales, hicieron todo lo contrario.”

Norwood News

"The Vernon C. Bain Center, also known as “The Boat,” is perhaps the only floating jail in the country. Advocates have equated it to a slave ship. It’s an extension of Rikers Island. I know both The Boat and Rikers Island well, since I’ve been detained at both places..."

AM NY

"We are at a historical moment. With The Tombs set to be replaced, and Rikers required to close by 2027, we must all be laser focused on two things: reducing incarceration, and protecting the human rights of people who are still detained."

Astoria Post

“State Sen. Jessica Ramos is calling on the city council to invest in mental health services for alleged lawbreakers...echo[ing] the message of the Freedom Agenda, the group that organized the rally outside City Hall. According to the group, the city spends more than $556,000 a year per inmate on jail operations.”

American Post

“'Our message is not only for the Governor but also for Mayor Adams: you have to close Rikers Island, because it is clearly not doing any good for our community. Last year there were 16 deaths there and we are only in March and there are already three people dead in a system that is not working,' assured Edwin Santana, a member of the Freedom Agenda."

AM NY

“Hosted by a coalition of advocacy groups including #HALTsolitary Campaign, New York City Jails Action Coalition, and Freedom Agenda, attendees looked to both remember the lives lost and take the Governor to task for allowing Rikers Island to continue under previously-reported deterioration.”

The Village Sun

It means to me that most of you don’t mind decrepit buildings, infamous dungeons and human-rights violations in your backyard. You seem to be bothered by a new building just because it will be a jail, but you are not bothered by the current Tombs at all.

Newsweek

“Darren Mack, co-director of the Freedom Agenda, a part of the Urban Justice Center, told The City that he felt the numbers show that much of the drugs inside the city's jails were allegedly being funneled in from members of the staff.”

The City

“This data confirms what we’ve known all along — it is corrupt DOC staff who keep drugs flowing into Rikers,” said Darren Mack, co-director of Freedom Agenda, a jail reform organization. “But instead of swift action to root out this corruption, we’ve seen investigators fired, and discipline that is either absent or takes years to enact.”

QNS

Marco Barrios, who was previously incarcerated on Rikers and now a member of Freedom Agenda, said that this land transfer brings the city one step closer to leaving the “horrific legacy of torture island behind.” “[We’re] moving towards repairing the communities that have been harmed by mass incarceration and environmental racism,” Barrios said.

Queens Daily Eagle

"Freedom Agenda Co-Director Darren Mack, who was formerly incarcerated in Rikers, said the only true way to solve the Rikers crisis is to completely and permanently close the facilities."

BronxNet

"Host Daren Jaime sits down with the Co-Director of Freedom Agenda, Darren Mack discussing an update on Rikers Island, the work the organization is doing to advocate and defend the human rights of incarcerated people."

The City

“It’s concerning that Deputy Commissioner Townsend’s removal was a top goal of COBA and this incoming administration capitulated,” said Darren Mack, co-director of Freedom Agenda in the Urban Justice Center.

Politico

Darren Mack, a co-director of Freedom Agenda, said the current crisis at Rikers, with 15 deaths this year in the city jail system, makes moving forward with the plan all the more urgent. “This is something that survivors of Rikers, advocates and allies have fought for and we believe that definitely the next administration should stick to the plan,” he said. “It’s a human rights crisis. What could be more urgent than that?”

CBS News

"There was also no surprise,” former inmate Darren Mack said. That’s the reaction Mack had after learning another inmate in less than a week died on Rikers Island. Mack said he spent nearly two years on Rikers back in the ’90s, and the former inmate says the conditions were not great. “I recall, like, walking into solitary confinement, and there was, like, a Plexiglas over one of the cells and the cell Plexiglas was covered from top to bottom with feces,” he said.

Queens Examiner

Darren Mack, co-director of Freedom Agenda and a formerly incarcerated activist, has been involved with the initiative to close Rikers Island since 2016. “Every human being should be equal in dignity and rights,” said Mack. “Unfortunately, that is not the case for people who are funneled into New York City’s jail system which is a human rights crisis. Judges and DA’s are sending people to a potential death sentence. “If the Department of Corrections cannot keep people safe and alive, then they should not have people in their custody,” he added.

AMNY

Judges, prosecutors, the Mayor, the Governor, and other elected officials have shown a complete indifference to the lives of incarcerated people, as they send hundreds more New Yorkers each week into the deadly conditions on Rikers and The Boat,” said Darren Mack, a survivor of Rikers Island and co-founder of the Freedom Agenda, which seeks to have all Rikers Island jails closed. “William Brown, Malcolm Boatwright, and fourteen others this year were meted out death sentences by the NYC jail and court system. A system this morally bankrupt, dysfunctional, and neglectful lacks the legitimacy to detain anyone. The only practical and humane solution is immediate decarceration.

Queens Daily Eagle

“Organized by the Urban Justice Center’s Freedom Agenda, more than a dozen activists, public defenders and members of CourtWatch NYC gathered outside to demand a better system on International Human Rights day... “Every human being should be equal in dignity and rights. Unfortunately, that is not the case for people who are funneled into NYC’s jail system which is a human rights crisis,” said Freedom Agenda Co-Director Darren Mack.

ABC 7 NY

Advocates support Mayor de Blasio's decision to close Rikers, with conditions there rapidly deteriorating - it is dangerously overcrowded, filthy, and severely short-staffed. Many at Rikers are still awaiting trial, and are innocent until proven guilty. "They're not just inmates or people that are sitting there because they committed a crime or like I like to say, they were accused of a crime. They haven't had a day in court," said Edwin Santana.

CBS News

When a correction officer doesn’t come to work, people don’t eat. People miss medical appointments. People are committing suicide. People are dying,” said Brandon Holmes co-director of Freedom Agenda. “Now, this vaccine mandate, yes, can be a tool to make sure that they are held accountable.

Queens Daily Eagle

 The degree of civilization in the city can be judged by entering its jail, and it would be fair to say that we are living in a state of barbarism,” said Darren Mack, the co-director of Freedom Agenda. “I urge [the City Council] to move forward with the borough based plan if we want to rid ourselves of a barbaric system.

Gothamist

"The Mayor has failed to address the fact that thousands of guards are still collecting their paychecks without working, while incarcerated people have been abandoned in de-facto lockdown without adequate food, recreation, medical care, access to courts and more for months,” said Darren Mack, co-director of Freedom Agenda, an organization pushing for decarceration. “The guards who are working have also been abandoned by their co-workers who are abusing leave policies, and by COBA, whose leadership seems more concerned with the nearly one-third of their members who aren't working with incarcerated people than the 70% who are putting in overtime to cover for them.”

AM NY

“This latest controversy comes amidst the hellish conditions at Rikers Island that have left 14 incarcerated individuals dead this year. The Nov. 8 rally outside City Hall with a coalition of activist organizations including #HaltSolitary, the Freedom Agenda, and more took local government to task for the seeming lack of compassion.”

NY Daily News

“The prison-industrial complex is and has always been at odds with the labor movement, whose leaders have made it perfectly clear where their loyalties lie: with the victims of mass incarceration, not its facilitators. COBA may use the language of labor, but it is not defending the rights of its workers. It is defending the system of mass incarceration that continues to give them influence.”

AM NY

“With deaths and life-changing injuries continuing to occur at an alarming rate, the advocate groups consisting of #HaltSolitary Campaign, the Freedom Agenda, and more called for the prison to be decarcerated before the number reaches 15.”

NY Amsterdam News

In effect, as protesters take to the streets to close that “hell hole,” the cry of “Rikers equals death” has gained resonance, particularly after Freedom Agenda member Crystal Clarke voiced her demands at City Hall Park earlier this month. “I am here to let the elected officials know that our loved ones are on Rikers Island, and they do not deserve to feel as though they are cast away and out of sight and mind. They are being pushed to their limits mentally and physically every day. If our mayor, governor, judges, and DAs do not decarcerate they will contribute to the demise of hundreds of people.” Clarke herself is the partner of a person incarcerated on Rikers Island.

AM NY

“The next Mayor will inherit the human rights catastrophe on Rikers and The Boat. But they will also inherit a plan to close them led by survivors of Rikers. They will either be the Mayor who implements this plan and erases that stain on NYC once for all; or the only mayor in the history of this City who took office with a plan to close Rikers in place but made a choice to leave it open. We won’t allow that,” said Darren Mack, co-director of Freedom Agenda."

Queens Daily Eagle

“We believe more transfers can be made even before the end of the administration,” said Darren Mack, co-director of Freedom Agenda in the Urban Justice Center “The Mayor is not listening to the [officials] who call for decarceration and chose to listen to the police commissioner, who is basically lying to the public about the crime surge and connection to bail reform and COVID releases; due to that lack of courage to correct, the mayor is losing the opportunity to transfer buildings and more land to DCAS.”

NY Amsterdam News

Peggy Herrera has worked for a major city agency that caters to troubled youth for the past six years. Herrera’s 23-year-old son, who she said would prefer to go by the name “Justin,” was medically diagnosed with anxiety and attention-deficit disorder when he was 6-years-old. Justin also traumatically lost his father at age 7. Herrera said that her son was arrested at 11-years-old by school safety agents because of a bag with brass knuckles in it, and that was the beginning of him being “criminalized” in the system.

Chelsea News

Mack, who is a survivor of Rikers and a vehement activist in attempting to have the facility shut down, called the mayor’s response an “unacceptable betrayal of his promise to close Rikers and to implement the Renewable Rikers vision,” referring to de Blasio’s “failed approaches” to solving the crisis by expanding use of the jail and the role of the NYPD. Mack also called attention to the issue of judges and District Attorneys being allowed to “make a person’s freedom dependent on their wealth by setting bail amounts that function as ransom.”

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.