Queens Eagle

“There is a realistic plan for reducing the jail population to meet the target of fewer than 3,300 individuals incarcerated in city jails, and a critical component is prioritizing decarceration of people with mental health concerns and expanding supportive housing and community mental health supports,” said Jennifer J. Parish, the director of Criminal Justice Advocacy at Urban Justice Center Mental Health Project

Gothamist

"Jail chaplain Victoria A. Phillips [of the Mental Health Project], another detainee advocate who signed the letter to the mayor, said women should have their own facility where they don’t risk contact with male detainees."

Hell Gate

"In the balcony, the public seats were filled with organizers from Communities United for Police Reform, the Jails Action Coalition [co-founded by the Mental Health Project], and others who had worked for years to get to this moment."

NY1

“Personally, I have gone there and seen it myself,” said Jennifer Parish of the Urban Justice Center. “There are units in North Infirmary Command or NIC and West Facility. There are units where people are locked down 23 or 24 hours a day.”

Brooklyn Eagle

"Chaplain Dr. Victoria A. Phillips from the Jails Action Coalition [and the Urban Justice Center] and Barbara Hamilton, supervising attorney of the Incarcerated Client Services Unit with the Legal Aid Society, have also criticized the mayor’s veto. They assert that solitary confinement causes irreparable harm and that the legislation is essential for ending its use in city jails."

Amsterdam News

“Oftentimes, you will only hear the worst of the worst of the stories of who are those involved with the criminal legal system, never the stories of despair, never the stories of those whose lives [are] completely lost and how it led to be that way,” said Dr. Victoria Phillips of the Jails Action Coalition [and the Urban Justice Center].

Norwood News

"Chaplain Dr. Victoria Phillips, Jails Action Coalition, said, “Rikers is a death sentence. Rikers must close. We have lost another life, another heartbeat, in DOC custody, Chima Williams."

El Diario

"La activista Victoria A. Phillips conocida como Dr V, fundadora de la Jails Action Coalition, acusó que la Rikers Island es “una sentencia de muerte”. “Hemos perdido otra vida, otro latido, bajo la custodia del DOC” acusó, haciendo notar que cada muerto en prisión significa “una familia más abrumada por la muerte de su ser querido”.

News 12

“The public health aspect is people with mental health conditions are not getting adequate care, especially in prison you're not gonna get that so we're trying to change that whole system,” said Marco Barrios, a representative from the Urban Justice Center Mental Health Project."

HNGN

"NYC Jails Action Coalition [co-founded by the UJC Mental Health Project] held a press conference to speak about the conditions at Rikers Island after the death of Joshua Valles, who died on Saturday and is the third person to die in custody this year."