Riverdale Press

“I know there are lots of people in the community that already care about these issues,” said Ryan Acquaotta, the campaign coordinator for the Freedom Agenda..."It’s not just demanding more police, more weapons, more surveillance, more cages. We also need more housing, more treatment, more jobs, more health care and education.”

NY1

“So often we hear the horrible stories of what goes on in Riker’s island and the New York City Department of Correction,” said Chaplain Dr. Victoria Phillips, a social justice activist [with the Mental Health Project of UJC]. “But we don’t truly hear the names of loved ones who lose their lives in those conditions, those horrible, barbaric conditions that they’re often placed in.”

The Root

"NYC Jails Action Coalition [co-founded by our Mental Health Project] held a rally after the recent deaths of two detainees at Rikers Island."

AM NY

“Enough is enough. We all have jobs and lives to live. We don’t want to be out here screaming. We don’t want to have to galvanize emergency situations,” Chaplain Dr. Victoria A. Phillips (Dr. V) [of the Mental Health Project of the UJC] said. “We do it because if we don’t do it, who’s going to do it? I don’t see an elected official.”

Mott Haven Herald

"Advocacy groups Jails Action Coalition and HALT Solitary Confinement partnered to organize the protest, in response to the death of a Rikers inmate Willam Johnstone, who was 47. It was the sixth time this year a Rikers inmate has died in custody."

AM NY

"Advocates, family members, and former inmates went as far as to call the jail a death camp during a protest that took place on Foley Square in Lower Manhattan on July 18...organized by the Jails Action Coalition."

NY 1

"Protestors rallied on Tuesday demanding the Department of Correction reduce the population at city jails. "Every single day, someone in our community’s lives is in danger in DOC custody," said Victoria Phillips of the New York City Jails Action Coalition."

AM NY

"Advocates, family members, and former inmates went as far as to call the jail a death camp during a protest that took place on Foley Square in Lower Manhattan on July 18 organized by the Jails Action Coalition."

New Amsterdam News

"Tamara Carter—[a member of Freedom Agenda and the Jails Action Coalition] whose son Brandon Rodriguez died in Rikers—says bail is a “trap” for Black and brown households given the statistically lower median savings account balances, according to the Federal Reserve."