1.) How are you connected to this movement?  

Getting locked up was a result of being homeless, reckless and making bad decisions.  People are not their worst choices. Incarceration should not be the solution for all crimes for all people.  Jail changed my life. Still today being home 20 years, I face the stigma and collateral consequences from a felony conviction.  

Upon release I learned about advocacy and it opened up a whole new world. The values I had prior to my incarceration were changed – I had immense empathy and compassion for others.  I worked with family members of people incarcerated (25-lifers) and magnificently the core group of us are still in touch today and all of their loved ones who were incarcerated are home. 

2.) Why should Rikers close?  

Words that I equate with Rikers Island are scourge, blight, evil, poison, sickness.  People who are incarcerated are at their lowest moments.  Sentencing delays cause unnecessary and extended detention periods on Rikers.  Nothing good about spending time on Rikers Island. People survive Rikers – and their lives are forever changed from spending time there, not to mention the ripple effect on their family and society as a whole.  Family members who visit their loved ones, as well as the officers and civilians who work there, are nicked with trauma each and every time they cross that bridge.  It’s a metaphor - that bridge – literally two different worlds existing. 

3.) What is your vision for a more just and equitable post-Rikers New York City?  

Accountability and safety for people incarcerated and staff who work in the new Borough Jails. Increased funding for programming in the Community that starts with our babies/youth where people will feel empowered to step up in their families and by extension, their neighborhoods to support one another. Increased funding for organizing to address the root causes of incarceration and educate/empower the community with the truth about slavery, mass incarceration, the school to prison pipeline, the importance of voting, civic responsibility. 

I would like to see a New York City that does not call 911 for mental health or domestic violence. I would like to see more funding for peer supported programming, hospital linkages to community based organizations, affordable housing, and harm reduction.