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."Gothamist
“‘It’s really regrettable the City Council is supporting punitive measures against homeless people,’ said Craig Hughes, a social worker with the Safety Net Project of the Urban Justice Center.”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.Gothamist
‘We hear from our clients that this is a direct result of closing those programs and they are ending up back on the street,’ said Kathleen Cash, who helps connect homeless clients with benefits and services at the Urban Justice Center’s Safety Net Project."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 1
“‘We have a commissioner who's interested, so that's good,’ said Craig Hughes, a senior social worker at [Safety Net Project of] the Urban Justice Center. ‘We don’t have evidence that we've seen of an increase in getting people moved out quicker.’”Gothamist
“This is just bullying as municipal policy,” said Craig Hughes, a social worker with the Safety Net Project of the Urban Justice Center.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.'”Gothamist
“Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez, deputy director of the Street Vendor Project [of the Urban Justice Center], which advocates for the interests of street vendors, said one reason may be that inspectors don’t have the authority to demand that vendors show them their identification, while police do.© 2024 Urban Justice Center | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
