News
Here you can read the latest press from all of our Projects, and find out about the tremendous work we’re doing every day.
Each of these stories represents lives changed for the better, and we are so proud of our staff for their dedication to the people they serve.
Mayor Makes Vague Pitch To Turn Borough-Based Jail Into Mental Health Treatment Facility
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
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
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
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
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
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.”