News & Press

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."

City Limits

“We definitely support the [phones] initiative,” Jennifer Parish, director of criminal justice advocacy at the Urban Justice Center Mental Health Project told THE CITY. “But it doesn’t make up for the fact that they are not connecting people with the services that they need.”

TruthOut

"The most recent report, despite its substantial expense to the citizens of New York City, merely corroborates what individuals previously incarcerated … have consistently asserted on record,” [said] Chaplain Dr. Victoria A. Phillips, [a staff member with the Mental Health Project] and leading member of JAC."

The Nation

"On June 13, Marco Barrios, a criminal justice advocate at the [Mental Health Project of the] Urban Justice Center, interviewed Lewis...Lewis told Barrios that he has been physically abused by Great Meadow officers and other incarcerated individuals."