News & Press

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."