News & Press

Gothamist

In July, the State Advisory Board of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights held a briefing on the use of solitary confinement for juveniles to determine whether it violated the rights of youth of color and mentally ill youth. According to the Department, there are currently 51 adolescents in solitary.Johnny Perez, now an adult working as the safe reentry coordinator for the Urban Justice Center, hails this as a positive first step. "There's still work to do," he added, "especially since we know that the brain is not developed until the age of 25. Ultimately we need to expand the conversation to include kids up to 25-year-olds and exclude all 16- to 25-year-olds from solitary confinement altogether." Based on his own experiences with the culture of violence on the island, Perez also advocates for removing all 16- to 21-year-olds from Rikers altogether.

Community Radio

Megan Crowe-Rothstein, Director of Social Work at MHP speaks on the podcast series Wings, which champions voices against isolated confinement in US prisons.

CBS Local

Advocates rallied Monday to call for reforms in the New York City jail system, ahead of votes on two proposals addressing the use of solitary confinement.

The Epoch times

“It’s second by second, the attack on your soul,” Perez said, who now works as an advocate for the mentally ill at the Urban Justice Center.

Her Story Writers

This program focuses on the plight of prisoners and detainees in New York State held in isolated confinement, where people are contained in a cell for 22 to 24 hours a day. That confinement has been found to be both inhumane and unconstitutional. The United Nations has deemed anything more than 15 days in isolated confinement as torture. The goal of the Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement (CAIC) is sweeping reform of New York’s use of solitary confinement and other forms of extreme isolation in state prisons and local jails. Despite these facts, New York uses isolated confinement at rates well above the national average.