Deaths At NYC Jails No Longer Being Reported To Media
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."Death of Rikers Island Detainee Joshua Valles Raises More Concerns with Department of Correction
CBS News
"You have a right to human rights, a right to medical care. If a commissioner hides the truth, he should be removed," said Dt. Victoria A. Phillips of the Jails Action Coalition [a project co-founded by our Mental Health Project].
Legal Design: Create Contracts that Solve Problems and Improve the UX
Birgle Legal
"In 1999, a first initiative of making law more accessible through design was created by the designer Candy Chang for the Street Vendor Project in NYC. The challenge was to make the piles of legislation applicable to street vendors, for whom English was not necessarily their mother tongue, more accessable and understandable."Mayor Adams defends NYC Correction Commissioner Louis Molina’s decision to not disclose inmate deaths in city jails
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."Advocates rally to demand closure to Rikers Island after recent death of inmate
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."
On Jail Reform, One Size Doesn’t Fit All
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.How Should Rikers Island Be Remembered?
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."Thousands of NYC Apartments for Homeless Sit Empty Amid Migrant Crisis
NY Daily News
"The [Safety Net Project of the] Urban Justice Center previously obtained data showing the city had about 2,600 empty supportive housing units in November 2022, indicating vacancy levels in the system have stayed nearly flat for months."
New Letter Says Slack Puts Abortion Seekers in Danger and Fails to Address Online Harassment
Common Dreams
Civil rights and abortion groups (including UJC's Sex Workers Project) demand the communications platform offer end-to-end encryption and a blocking/reporting feature to secure messages and address harassment.Nail Salon Workers Seek Better Pay and Protections
"The Nail Salon Minimum Standards Council Act [supported by UJC's Street Vendor Project]…would establish a council made up of nail salon workers, salon owners and government representatives to recommend minimum wages and safety standards for the industry."
