Mayor Makes Vague Pitch To Turn Borough-Based Jail Into Mental Health Treatment Facility

2024-12-02T12:28:11-05:00November 26th, 2024|News|

Queens Daily Eagle

“Darren Mack, the co-director of the criminal justice advocacy group Freedom Agenda, blasted the mayor for his 11th-hour pitch on Tuesday. "New Yorkers have been consistently calling on the mayor to fund our city's mental health infrastructure to scale... now he has an idea to basically recreate the asylums that were shut down decades ago, and conveniently impede closing Rikers in the process?"

Mayor Adams Says Manhattan Stabbing Spree Was ‘Byproduct’ Of Push To Slash Rikers Population

2024-12-02T12:25:59-05:00November 26th, 2024|News|

NY Daily News

“Mayor Adams has spent his entire administration sending hundreds more people to Rikers, especially people with serious mental illness, and it’s been a failure in terms of addressing public safety, and that’s because Rikers doesn’t address the problems anyone is facing. If anything, it worsens them.” - Darren Mack, Freedom Agenda co-director

Honorees Bring Determination And Perseverance To The 2024 Gay City News Impact Awards, Presented By Bethpage Federal Credit Union

2024-11-25T10:38:39-05:00November 22nd, 2024|News|

Gay City News

“’Being recognized by Gay City News is incredibly important and validating because [there have] been so many ups and downs [since COVID-19],’ said Amy Leipziger, the Project Director for the Free to Be Youth Project.”

Rikers Island Shutdown Plan Progresses With Construction Firms for New Manhattan Jail

2024-12-04T11:11:29-05:00November 19th, 2024|News|

The City

“The isolation and deprivation of Rikers is designed to feed a cycle of violence, not interrupt it,” Darren Mack, co-director of Freedom Agenda, told THE CITY.

Rikers Island Shutdown Plan Progresses With Construction Firms for New Manhattan Jail

2024-11-25T10:44:21-05:00November 19th, 2024|News|

The City

“The isolation and deprivation of Rikers is designed to feed a cycle of violence, not interrupt it,” Darren Mack, co-director of Freedom Agenda, told THE CITY. “If we want safer communities, we can’t achieve that by sending people to fight for their lives on an out-of-site, out-of-mind penal colony.”

We Must Support LGBTQ Youth and ‘Fight the Power’ in the Trump Era

2024-11-25T10:35:58-05:00November 19th, 2024|News|

Gay City News

"Adam [is] a young transgender man that came to us because his food stamps had been erroneously cut off, leaving him few options to support himself. Had we not stepped in, he would have had difficulty obtaining food sufficient to survive on.”

Should Judges Keep The Mentally Ill Out Of Rikers? Not My Problem, One Says

2024-11-19T09:40:09-05:00November 18th, 2024|News|

NY Daily News

“Darren Mack, co-founder of...Freedom Agenda questioned Goldsmith’s claim that judges don’t decide where defendants are placed. “Judges know where they’re sending the people they remand or set bail on, and they know what’s likely to happen to the people they send to Rikers.”

Sweeping Authority: Advocates Fear Prop 2 Will Hurt Street Vendors In Parks

2024-11-19T09:44:11-05:00November 14th, 2024|News|

New Amsterdam News

"Mohamed Attia, managing director at the Street Vendor Project, said that while DSNY’s enforcement already exists elsewhere, the ballot measure greenlights agency deployment against vendors in city parks.”

Homeless People Sue New York City for Throwing Away Their Property

2024-11-04T12:22:13-05:00November 4th, 2024|News|

NY Times

"The Safety Net Project's... lawsuit accuses the city of routinely violating its own policy on cleanups, which says the city must offer to store certain types of confiscated property for up to 90 days and give the owner a voucher to claim it.”