STATEMENT from the Campaign to #CloseRikers on @mayor.nyc.gov's appointment of Stanley Richards as DOC Commissioner. We look forward to working with Commissioner Richards toward erasing this stain on our City.

We’re glad to have a mayor who recognizes the need to close #Rikers, and we look forward to a budget that reflects that. Listen to Brian Meegan @imabmee.bsky.social share how they would reallocate the billions... #CloseRikers #CareNotCriminalization #NYCBudget

"We need a new understanding of community safety – one that addresses the root causes of crime and promotes humane, rehabilitative treatment for all New Yorkers." - Rev. Dr. Serene Jones & Rev. Fred Davie, Union Theological Seminary www.amny.com/oped/nyc-com... #CloseRikers

Finally on November 3, 2025, Freedom Agenda members and partners watched as the Vernon C. Bain Center aka the Boat floated away from Hunts Point to be recycled for scraps. This was a huge win for the movement to shrink incarceration in New York City. #CloseRikers #RenewableRikers #TheBoat #VCBC

STATEMENT from the Campaign to #CloseRikers on the selection of a Remediation Manager for #Rikers Island

We’re glad to have a mayor who recognizes the need to close #Rikers, and we look forward to a budget that reflects that. Listen to Angelique Williams with Youth Represent NYC share how they would reallocate the billions of dollars... #CloseRikers #CareNotCriminalization #NYCBudget

Join us Sunday, January 25th at 6pm for our IG LIVE discussion on the Youth Justice & Opportunity Act.

Now is the time to pass the Treatment Court Expansion Act! www.treatmentnotjail.com

This is a GREAT write up about the latest Federal monitors report on the horrific conditions and violence that continues unchecked at Rikers Island. @mayor.nyc.gov is indeed on the clock to #CloseRikers @freedomagendany.bsky.social

TY @phara4assembly.bsky.social: we must INVEST in community based resources, supporting housing & supportive off-ramps like #TreatmentNotJail & stop reliance on "the revolving door of the criminal legal system & the cudgel of incarceration as our only response" www.nydailynews.com/2024/11/23/r...

In an interview at the New York Law School on 12/10, @speakermenin.bsky.social expressed her strong support for closing Rikers. Now that she’s been officially elected as Speaker, we look forward to working with her, City Council, and @mayor.nyc.gov to close this hellhole for good! #CloseRikers

Here are some immediate steps @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social's administration can take in his first 100 days in office get NYC back on track to #CloseRikers for good, taken from our recent Countdown to Closing #Rikers Policy Brief bit.ly/rikersfirst100days

Congratulations @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social! We’re glad to have a mayor who recognizes the need to close #Rikers. In December, we hand-delivered thousands of postcards from New Yorkers demanding urgent action to #CloseRikers. We look forward to working with you to get it done! 📷 credit: Cindy Trinh

With the holidays upon us, we asked our members and staff: What's it like to spend the holidays behind bars, or to have a loved one inside? Here's how Eduardo answered. [CONTENT WARNING: includes a story about physical violence by guards] #CloseRikers

With the holidays upon us, we asked our members and staff: What's it like to spend the holidays behind bars, or to have a loved one inside? Here's how our members Marco, Anna, Tammy, Angelique, Gino, Luz and Deandrae answered.

With the holidays upon us, we asked our members and staff: What's it like to spend the holidays behind bars, or to have a loved one inside? Here's how our members Justin and Mario answered. #CloseRikers

STATEMENT from Freedom Agenda Co-Director Darren Mack following another tragic death in DOC custody. It is long past time to #CloseRikers. queenseagle.com/all/2025/12/...

"[Mamdani] can, pretty soon after entering office, commit the first [Rikers] land transfer in over four years. That’s one thing that he can do [to prevent more deaths there] within his first 100 days." #RenewableRikers #CloseRikers amsterdamnews.com/news/2025/12...

1/ On 11/3/25, Freedom Agenda members and partners watched as the Vernon C. Bain Center, aka The Boat, floated away from Hunts Point forever. We have been fighting for the Boat’s closure since the organization’s beginning, and earlier for many of our members. #CloseRikers

Eric Goldstein of @nrdc.org on #RenewableRikers "The transformation of Rikers Island into a world-class example of sustainable redevelopment, green jobs and reparative justice would be a legacy accomplishment for Mayor-elect Mamdani." #CloseRikers www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/the...

Getting ready here to tell the Mayor elect and his team we need to #CloseRikers Can think of no better cause to support on International Human Rights Day. @freedomagendany.bsky.social @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social @bradlander.bsky.social @jumaane.bsky.social

1/ This scathing report from New York City Council investigations division validates what our members have long known – everything about Rikers discourages visiting. council.nyc.gov/press/wp-con...

STATEMENT from Freedom Agenda Co-Director Darren Mack following another tragic death in DOC custody. It is past time to #CloseRikers. www.nydailynews.com/2025/12/07/r...

#WinRozario’s family responds: “AG James' cowardly decision not to indict Cianfrocco & Alongi for murdering our beloved son + brother feels like we’re watching Win get murdered all over again… If any one of us had done what [they] did, we would have been fired & jailed.”

Join Danielle Williams and many other interfaith leaders and organizers on International Human Rights Day to learn about the Campaign to Close Rikers and next steps toward erasing this moral stain on our city! We have invited Mayor-Elect Mamdani to join us.

We're honored to have members of our team on @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social's transition team, and excited to get to work with the new administration to deliver on their commitment to #CloseRikers. In an NYC that supports all of us to live with dignity and thrive, there's no place for Rikers.

STATEMENT from Freedom Agenda Co-Director Darren Mack in response to the 13th death at Rikers this year #CloseRikers

SAVE THE DATE for a prayer service and panel about closing Rikers on International Human Rights Day, in partnership with interfaith leaders! #Rikers #CloseRikers #GetRikersClosed #HumanRightsDay

"My grandkids, their feet will never touch this place...One stain out of New York." - Freedom Agenda Member Lezandre Khadu, whose son Stephan died on VCBC, aka The Boat, on seeing it leave NYC's shores forever Monday #CloseRikers www.bxtimes.com/notorious-ri...

"We deserve an elected official who will protect their constituents by getting rid of a system that works to isolate them from society and destroy their basic human rights." - Stephanie Frias at BronxConnect #CloseRikers queenseagle.com/all/2025/10/...

"[The ATI] model succeeds precisely because it treats underlying trauma and instability, directly contrasting with the failure of mass incarceration." - Jason Rodriguez of @lac_news #CloseRikers citylimits.org/opinion-the-...

Please read this powerful piece in the Queens Daily Eagle about the closing of the horrific jail barge The Boat. Lezandre Khadu shares her grief over the death of her son Stephan who died at The Boat. T/y Jacob Kaye for this article. @freedomagendany.bsky.social #CloseRikers

"It’s like a hatchet coming out of my heart. But the wound is still there." - Our member Lezandre Khadu, whose son Stephan died at the Vernon C. Bain Center, aka The Boat, on how our organizing got it permanently closed #CloseRikers queenseagle.com/all/2025/10/...

ICYMI: OP-ED by our Co-Director Darren Mack & Melissa Mark-Viverito "How can we tell which candidates are serious about safety, and which ones care more about stoking our fears than investing in what works?" bit.ly/CloseRikersM... #CloseRikers #NY1Debate #NYC #Election2025

The first televised debate for NYC’s next Mayor is tonight! We have looked at candidates’ positions on an issue at the core of our city’s values - #Rikers. We recently interviewed one “candidate” whose position on Rikers is crystal clear. #CloseRikers youtu.be/qRVbVkrUE7A

The general election for NYC’s next Mayor is just weeks away! To help sort through candidates’ positions, the Campaign to Close Rikers has put together this handy Voter Guide: campaigntocloserikers.org/voter-guide #CloseRikers #Election2025 #VoterGuide #KnowYourRights

As New York City general elections approach and candidates articulate their plans in regard to Rikers Island, the Campaign to #CloseRikers issued this statement. 🗳️ Stay tuned for our Voter Guide coming next week. www.campaigntocloserikers.org/statements-r...

1/ WE DID IT! Through the continued organizing of from impacted people and allies, the Vernon C. Bain Center aka “The Boat,” the jail barge is being sold for scrap and removed permanently from our city. gothamist.com/news/nycs-fl... #CloseRikers

Listen to our Community Organizer Edwin Santana and Co-Director Sarita Daftary discuss closing Rikers and our vision for collective empowerment on the podcast War Cry for Our Children! Here's a clip, and listen to the episode here: bit.ly/WarCryEdwin

"I felt so helpless trying to advocate for my son to people who didn’t seem to care if he lived or died. Ultimately, [DOC] carelessness killed him, and the only thing worse than knowing that is that [Rikers] continues to kill more people." - Freedom Agenda Member Lezandre Khadu #CloseRikers

Join us on October 9th as we celebrate 5 years of advocacy, organizing, and community power! Let's celebrate how far we've come and raise funds we need to go even further. wl.donorperfect.net/weblink/webl...

"[This decision] affirms what community advocates have been saying for years: Rikers is a place of violence and human suffering, and allowing ICE to prey on people there only deepens the harm." - Freedom Agenda Co-Director @iamdarrenmack.bsky.social #CloseRikers www.amny.com/police-fire/...

MUST READ from @nickpinto about the lack of urgency to #CloseRikers. Love the work that @sandynurse.bsky.social & @nycprogressives.bsky.social are doing and the organizing done by impacted leaders at orgs like @freedomagendany.bsky.social Hope @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social makes this a priority.

STATEMENT from our Co-Director Darren Mack @iamdarrenmack.bsky.social after the twelfth tragic loss of life in DOC custody this year. #CloseRikers #Decarcerate #HumanRights

Following their weeklong advocacy events, @freedomagendany.bsky.social has released an updated publication, Countdown to Closing Rikers Policy Brief. with ‘key next steps’ for New York City to follow through on the legal and moral obligation to close Rikers, by 2027

August 31 marks two years until the legal deadline to #CloseRikers. Erasing this stain on our City will bring joy, relief, and hope to so many New Yorkers. ✴️Please share this video to tell Mayor Adams and our next administration we need action NOW to #GetRikersClosed www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTrg...

Last night on NY1 with @errollouis.bsky.social our Co-Director Darren Mack spoke out about the human rights crisis at #Rikers and the urgent need to #CloseRikers once and for all. People are suffering and dying in a system that must be dismantled. The time to act is now. ny1.com/nyc/all-boro...

Join us TODAY at 12:30PM for a Phone Zap to Free Our People, as part of our week of action marking two years from the legally mandated deadline to #CloseRikers by August 31, 2027. bit.ly/closerikers-827

STATEMENT from our Co-Director @iamdarrenmack.bsky.social after the tenth tragic loss of life in DOC custody this year. #CloseRikers #Decarcerate #HumanRights

Join us tomorrow, and the rest of this month, to honor David Ruggles and his work for freedom, as we continue to fight to #CloseRikers