William Johnstone died on Rikers Island on July 15. He is the 25th person to die in NYC’s jails since Mayor Eric Adams took office.

The mounting deaths in NYC jails point to a continued failure to grapple with the hellish conditions that have killed jailed New Yorkers at alarming rates since 2021.

📢It is time for the crisis on Rikers Island to end. The city MUST #CloseRikers now. https://www.vera.org/news/24-people-have-died-in-new-york-city-jails-since-the-start-of-last-year

🌱 "Though a green solution was not always a part of the plan for #CloseRikers, as more community members expressed a need to address broader environmental injustices alongside the brutality of the facilities, the coalition’s attention gradually shifted. It began to include environmental justice organizations and green groups, which quickly mobilized in tandem with criminal justice reformers and abolitionists."

https://truthout.org/articles/decarceration-advocates-call-for-rikers-to-be-transformed-into-green-energy-hub/

#Abolition #EnvironmentalJustice #Energy

So thankful for the #RenewableRikers event at Women Lifting Up in Brooklyn. Being in conversation with @WomensCJA
@JS_thinkdance⁩ ⁦
@HourChildren⁩
@FreedomAgendaNY
I learned so much.⁩ #BEYONDrosies #closerikers

Was delighted that Gothamist boosted my Naming Gotham interview with Hellgate, focusing in on the #CloseRikers aspect. https://gothamist.com/news/extra-extra-rikers-island-is-named-after-an-infamous-slaveholder-who-led-nycs-effort-to-capture-people-whod-escaped-slavery

March 9, #nyc #Rikers #CloseRikers https://www.journalism.cuny.edu/events/rikers-an-oral-history-panel/

RT @BaratEllman@twitter.com

Proud to be w @FreedomAgendaNY@twitter.com @vocal@twitter.com @NYCAIC@twitter.com @truahrabbis@twitter.com @JFREJNYC@twitter.com and other heroic activists heading to the #stateofthestate to DEMAND @NYCMayor@twitter.com keep his promise to #CloseRikers as LEGALLY required. Rikers is a death sentence. Shut it down!!

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/BaratEllman/status/1618633453926481921

@mvario this is a post I wouldn’t mind QT’ing. #endcashbail and #closerikers its past time for that terrible place to be shut down.

RT @NYCComptroller@twitter.com

To get back on track to #CloseRikers, we need a new data-driven approach to decarceration.

@CMCarlinaRivera@twitter.com & @CMShahanaHanif@twitter.com have introduced legislation to create population review teams -- a strategy that has had concrete results in other jurisdictions.
https://gothamist.com/news/close-rikers-correction-officials-say-they-may-have-too-many-new-yorkers-to-incarcerate

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/NYCComptroller/status/1603124153111891968

this is truly horrific #CloseRikers

RT @ScottHech@twitter.com

🚨BREAKING: The Chief Medical Officer of Rikers sounds alarm.: "We've witnessed a collapse in basic jail operations. I don t believe the City is capable of safely managing the custody of those it is charged w/ incarcerating nor maintaining safety of those who work there." Thread:

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/ScottHech/status/1436710601225498629

Y'all, our politicians are disgusting; some read names of dead inmates while voting to open new jails. Fight this bullshit by joining No New Jails:
https://www.nonewjails.nyc/

Here's their statement on this week's council bill:
https://medium.com/@nonewjails.ny/nothing-has-changed-together-we-will-win-4c843a24afe

...and here's their grand vision:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dDNc5I-vLsY2eVRXZBNJz2OPbsw5lfT5/view

#NYC #prison #CloseRikers #police

RT @nwmalinowski@twitter.com

It’s really not possible to provide sufficient mental healthcare in a jail. #CloseRikers https://twitter.com/marklevinenyc/status/1140682539520184321

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/nwmalinowski/status/1140999438225293312

RT @innocence@twitter.com

Today, we remember Kalief Browder on the 4th anniversary of his death. He spent 3 years locked up at Rikers including 320 days in solitary confinement before the charges against him were dropped. His spirit however never recovered. https://bit.ly/2HZBiNy #CloseRikers

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/innocence/status/1136725395418615809

RT @thepapaya@twitter.com

The job postings for Executive Director and Director of the "Borough Based Jail System" (which has not completed ULURP) are worth taking a look at... https://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=%22borough+based+jail%22&l=new+york+city #CloseRikers #CloseRikersNow #NoNewJailsNYC

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/thepapaya/status/1125836645465505792

Signing this petition is one of many things you can do regarding the atrocious conditions in a Brooklyn prison. If you're in NYC, there is also a #CloseRikers group, organized by Just Leadership USA, both of which work to end jails and prisons and replace them with alternatives.

https://www.change.org/p/federal-bureau-of-prisons-the-dissmissal-of-herman-quay-warden-of-mdc-brooklyn

#Brooklyn #NYC #NoNewJails #PrisonIndustrialComplex

RT @nwmalinowski@twitter.com
New Rikers monitor report: violence from staff is as bad as its ever been. “Staff continue to needlessly escalate situations, and too often engage at a level [of violence] that is disproportionate to the severity of the circumstance.” #CloseRikers

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-metro-correction-department-violence-20181017-story.html

"This summer, the #CLOSErikers campaign is holding #buildCOMMUNITIES Assemblies in the NYC neighborhoods most impacted by mass criminalization. These conversations will help shape the vision & our campaign demands for how money saved from closing Rikers will be invested in our communities."

Monday June 25th | 6:30-8:30pm
Brooklyn Movement Center, 375 Stuyvesant Avenue, Brooklyn

Thursday June 28th | 6-9pm
The Harvest Room, 90-40 160th Street, Jamaica, NY

#closerikers #nyc #newyorkcity #nypd