NY Daily News

A group of advocates blasted a plan Wednesday that would create a new supersecure unit for Rikers Island's 250 most dangerous prisoners. The planned Enhanced Supervision Unit would allow prisoners to be kept in cells for 17 hours a day, among other restrictions.

MSNBC

Jennifer Parish, the director of MHP discusses proposed shifts away from responding to inmates who have mental health needs solely through the criminal justice system.

ABC

NY Times

In an effort to reduce the growing number of inmates with mental health and substance abuse problems in New York City’s jails, the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio announced plans on Monday to significantly expand public health services at almost every step of the criminal justice process.

NY State of Politics

Susan Goodwillie, a social worker at MHP, and Terry Hubbard, the mother of an inmate dealing with mental illness, joined us to discuss conditions of the US prison system following a recently released New York Times article on Riker's.

Gothamist

In July, the State Advisory Board of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights held a briefing on the use of solitary confinement for juveniles to determine whether it violated the rights of youth of color and mentally ill youth. According to the Department, there are currently 51 adolescents in solitary.Johnny Perez, now an adult working as the safe reentry coordinator for the Urban Justice Center, hails this as a positive first step. "There's still work to do," he added, "especially since we know that the brain is not developed until the age of 25. Ultimately we need to expand the conversation to include kids up to 25-year-olds and exclude all 16- to 25-year-olds from solitary confinement altogether." Based on his own experiences with the culture of violence on the island, Perez also advocates for removing all 16- to 21-year-olds from Rikers altogether.

Community Radio

Megan Crowe-Rothstein, Director of Social Work at MHP speaks on the podcast series Wings, which champions voices against isolated confinement in US prisons.

Press TV covers the lawsuit and call for justice after the wrongful death of  39 year old, mentally ill and diabetic Bradley Ballard an inmate at Riker's Island jail.