Who We Are
The Campaign to Close Rikers is led by survivors and family members who’ve been directly impacted by the injustice and torture of New York City jails, with the support of faith leaders, service providers, community organizations, and other allies. Here are some of the leaders of the movement.
FREEDOM AGENDA
“There is no need for a place in our society where people are treated inhumane or tortured no matter what their background, what they've done, or allegedly done.”
Marco Barrios
INTERFAITH CENTER OF NEW YORK
"Rev. Chloe Breyer is an Episcopal Priest in the Diocese of New York and Executive Director of the Interfaith Center of New York, an organizational partner of the Campaign to Close Rikers.”
Rev. Chloe Breyer
Rev. Wendy Calderon-Payne
BRONXCONNECT
"Rikers has shown that it is not the solution that fosters rehabilitation or accountability. With a large portion of the Rikers population having mental health, housing and other supportive service needs, it is imperative that we identify and implement better options that directly address those underlying drivers of crime."
EXODUS TRANSITIONAL COMMUNITY
“Through my work I am not only trying to shut down the country’s largest penal colony, I am working to reimagine a system of oppression into one that heals people and communities.”
Kandra Clark
FREEDOM AGENDA
"I know for sure that my nephew is going to come back to us and his community worse off than when he got there. Not to mention the additional mental health resources that we'll need to find him because of all the trauma he is currently enduring on the island. "
Ashley Abadía-Santiago Conrad
FREEDOM AGENDA
“As a mom, I'm not just wanting to close it because of the death of my son. I don't want any mother, brother, sister, any parent to go through the pain that my family is currently going through.”
Tamara Carter
FREEDOM AGENDA
“The whole big, colossal machine needs to be reimagined into something more streamlined and more focused.”
Alberto D.
FREEDOM AGENDA
“Rikers should close in order to save lives, in order for us to build healthier and better systems.”
Nathaniel Evans
FREEDOM AGENDA
“That's basically what happens in Rikers, there's no protocol. People go in, that's it, we beat them up. We teach them wrong and then we want them to come out and be better.”
Corrine Conrad
FREEDOM AGENDA
"My vision would really be getting to people from the roots. We'd be able to help the youth who feel like they have parents who are struggling. We’ll be able to provide jobs. We’ll have counseling, especially for men and women who come from backgrounds where they feel like counseling is not normal or they're just forced to silence their pain. We’d have room in the community for growth, to develop people so they do see a way out from their circumstances."
Crystal Gooding
NATIONAL BLACK HARM REDUCTION NETWORK (NBHRN)
“I can see us turning the prodigious resources we use to cage people into investments in the community in a way that we haven't done for at least the last 40 or 50 years.”
Tracie Gardner
JAILS ACTION COALITION
"I spent 1,168 days on Rikers Island, and out of those 1,168 days I spent 1,122 in solitary confinement. I'm connected to the cause, because I am the cause."
Candie Hailey Johnson
FREEDOM AGENDA
"They've taken away our doctors, our teachers, our lawyers, our everything. Young boys are being taken away from their mothers and their fathers to be put in this place."
Lezandre Khadu
FREEDOM AGENDA
“People are not coming out better than they went in. If the whole system is to correct people's behavior, or when someone commits a crime is to teach them a lesson, then Rikers Island is not doing that.”
Peggy Herrera
FREEDOM AGENDA
“The closure of all ten jails, the establishment of the borough-based plan, and communities attaining the resources needed to produce the safety and health - this will put us on track for the next phase of our work.“
Darren Mack
Anna Pastoressa
FREEDOM AGENDA
“Rikers is a penal colony where it's tucked away, nobody sees what's going on because it's far enough to be away from the eyes of the regular citizen.”
FREEDOM AGENDA
“The facilities should be built in the communities where we can invest ourselves in the rehabilitation of those people that are incarcerated. These are our kids. These are our brothers. These are our sisters. So they need to be in the community.”
Herbert Murray
MENTAL HEALTH PROJECT
“Families will never be the same because of the history of Rikers and all that surrounded it. And when it closes, and when it starts to give back, I will finally believe that the city believes that Black and brown people are not revenue for the city.”
Chaplain Dr. Victoria A. Phillips (Dr. V) Ortez
CASES
"The city must eradicate the culture of dehumanization that made Rikers what it is. If you put people in environments where they must scratch and claw like animals to survive then they can never reach their full potential as human beings."
Jonathan McLean
Grace Ortez
FREEDOM AGENDA
“As a violence survivor, I don't want people to use my experiences to justify cruelty. I want my experiences to stand for what would ultimately benefit survivors and would truly address and end violence.“
FREEDOM AGENDA
“People are not their worst choices. Incarceration should not be the solution for all crimes for all people.”
Marion Rodriguez
Hope Sanders
FREEDOM AGENDA
“A little over 30 years ago, I was incarcerated on Rikers Island. I was 16. I am now on the Close Rikers advisory committee where I have a voice in ending years of trauma for individuals and families with the closure of Rikers.”
Edwin Santana
FREEDOM AGENDA
“Take that money that we'll save from having Rikers open and invest it in the community – invest it in the education system, invest it in the housing department in New York City.“
FREEDOM AGENDA
“Not many people survive Rikers. And the people closest to me, were fortunate enough to survive Rikers – physically they survived, but mentally and everything else, they didn't survive.”
Akyla Tomlinson
FREEDOM AGENDA
“I think giving something to the guilty that people assume they don't deserve, will make that person better. It's like, even if I'm guilty, treat me the way you think I don't deserve.”
Angel Tueros
FREEDOM AGENDA
“All the money that's going into the prison and jail system should be used for the school systems, and for more treatment where treatment doesn't look like punishment.”
Melissa Vergara
JOHN JAY COLLEGE INSTITUTE FOR JUSTICE & OPPORTUNITY
"In the end, we know that Rikers Island is not a place where humanity can survive. The only thing that can survive on Rikers Island that we know is the bars."
Andre Ward
WOMEN’S COMMUNITY JUSTICE ASSOCIATION
"We need to do better for people and understand how people operate from a place of trauma – historical, racial, ancestral, intergenerational, intergender.”
