FOLLOWING NEWS THAT INCARCERATED PEOPLE WILL BE TRANSFERRED FROM THE VERNON C BAIN CENTER TO RIKERS, CAMPAIGN TO CLOSE RIKERS DEMANDS ACTION TO DECARCERATE
Gothamist reported today that the Department of Correction will close the Vernon C. Bain Center (aka The Boat) in October. In response, members of the Campaign to Close Rikers released the following statement:
“I know from my time at The Boat and Rikers that neither are places where any human should be housed. Closing The Boat is long overdue, but we’ve seen this administration move incarcerated people all over the place while continuing to ignore what they should be doing – making those investments in long neglected communities that Mayor Adams promised so we can end mass incarceration and close Rikers for good, not just shift people from one torture chamber to the next,” said Edwin Santana, Community Organizer with Freedom Agenda, who was previously detained on The Boat.
“DOC’s dysfunction, neglect, and lack of accountability has led to 27th deaths since Mayor Adams took office. The Boat, like Rikers Island, should have closed a long time ago. However, transferring people from the Boat to Rikers is not the solution. It’s equivalent to jumping from the frying pan and into the fire. What this Mayor should be doing is investing upstream into healthcare and supportive housing to close the pipelines that’s feeding the jail system. This is how we reduce the jail population, save lives, and make our city safer.” said Lezandre Khadu, member of Freedom Agenda, whose son Stephan Khadu died on September 22, 2021 after contracting meningitis while detained on The Boat.
“I will be so glad to see The Boat close, but the jails on Rikers need to close too. The Mayor constantly speaks about the amount of people with mental health challenges incarcerated but he has not done anything to reduce that population. Instead of moving people from The Boat to Rikers, he should get them into treatment, and divert them from incarceration in the first place. Gregory, like so many others, need housing and treatment not jail,” said Cynthia Acevedo, member of Freedom Agenda, whose brother died on September 20, 2022 after jumping from The Boat.
Reverend Wendy Calderon Payne, Executive Director, Urban Youth Alliance (BronxConnect) said, “Closing the Boat is necessary given the historical neglect and outdatedness that makes it ill-equipped for human inhabitance. But moving that population to Rikers is a shortsighted solution; as a City, we have decided that the goal for Rikers is decarceration and closure. Investments in therapeutic interventions and proven supportive services are key to reducing mass incarceration. Let’s continue to fight the fight we set out for.”
"Closing the Boat and Rikers is long overdue. Our communities have suffered for generations. Now is the time to actuate the plan to close torture island for good! We have the solutions! We now need to act. People who need services should be connected to long-standing, cultural-competent nonprofits, such as Exodus," said Kandra Clark, VP of Policy & Strategy with Exodus Transitional Community.
Megan French-Marcelin, Senior Director of New York State Policy with the Legal Action Center said, “While we applaud the closure of the floating torture chamber also known as 'The Boat', we are disturbed to learn that the City plans to facilitate closure by moving people to Rikers. Conditions at Rikers are a human rights travesty. The City should not be moving New Yorkers from one dilapidated and potentially deadly facility to another. Instead, the City should be exercising each and every possible avenue to facilitate decarceration by utilizing evidenced-based alternatives to incarceration and deploying newly allocated funds for wide supervised release.”
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