Freedom Agenda

Freedom Agenda Freedom Agenda is a member-led project of the Urban Justice Center.

On this Memorial Monday we remember Rajpattie Ramkellawan, who was 41 years old at the time of her death on May 18, 2026...
06/02/2026

On this Memorial Monday we remember Rajpattie Ramkellawan, who was 41 years old at the time of her death on May 18, 2026.

Rikers is still a humanitarian crisis, one which took 15 lives last year and has now taken two more in the past two weeks. To sign your organization on to stand with the many organizations demanding the closure of Rikers Island, visit our linktree and click on “Sign onto our Campaign to Close Rikers.”

If you have a loved one who’s been damaged by the horror of Rikers, message us and join this fight so that future families don’t go through this pain of losing a loved one in DOC custody.

This Freedom Fighter Friday, we remember anti-slavery activist, journalist, publisher, teacher, and lawyer Mary Ann Shad...
05/30/2026

This Freedom Fighter Friday, we remember anti-slavery activist, journalist, publisher, teacher, and lawyer Mary Ann Shadd Cary (1823-1893). From the time she was a child, she and her family provided an outpost on the Underground Railroad until the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, when they moved to Ontario. Education was her pathway to personal emancipation, and she used her education to emancipate others. When Frederick Douglass asked readers in his newspaper The North Star what could be done to improve the lives of African Americans, she responded with of her most well known statements: “We should do more and talk less.”

We were in Staten Island yesterday to talk with community members and Council Member Kamillah Hanks about the changes we...
05/28/2026

We were in Staten Island yesterday to talk with community members and Council Member Kamillah Hanks about the changes we need in this year’s budget to shrink the jail population, increase community safety, and Close Rikers.

We spoke about budget priorities like community-based mental health care, alternatives to incarceration, reentry services, and housing - investments we need NOW to deliver on the commitment to close Rikers.

New Yorkers everywhere we went told us the same things: They'd feel safer when their neighbors and communities have the resources they need to thrive, and they want to close Rikers. Thanks to all our organizational partners for doing the work with us, including Freedom to Thrive and Building Purpose.


Rikers is the most expensive and least effective tool our city has to create safety.📢 JOIN US NEXT TUESDAY, June 2 as we...
05/26/2026

Rikers is the most expensive and least effective tool our city has to create safety.

📢 JOIN US NEXT TUESDAY, June 2 as we rally before the City Council hearing on criminal justice to demand a budget that will get Rikers closed!

RSVP -->bit.ly/62closerikers

05/26/2026

We’re glad to have a mayor who recognizes the need to close , and we look forward to a budget that reflects that. Listen to Public Advocate Jumaane Williams share how he would reallocate the billions of dollars currently wasted on Rikers to achieve true community safety.

On this Memorial Monday we remember Mark Perlov, who was 43 years old at the time of his death on August 25, 2010.Rikers...
05/26/2026

On this Memorial Monday we remember Mark Perlov, who was 43 years old at the time of his death on August 25, 2010.

Rikers is still a humanitarian crisis, one which took 15 lives last year and has taken three more so far this year. To sign your organization on to stand with the many organizations demanding the closure of Rikers Island, visit our linktree and click on “Sign onto our Campaign to Close Rikers.”

📢 Data for this Memorial Monday was obtained from a Freedom of Information request filed by

If you have a loved one who’s been damaged by the horror of Rikers, message us and join this fight so that future families don’t go through this pain of losing a loved one in DOC custody.

05/23/2026

We’re glad to have a mayor who recognizes the need to close , and we look forward to a budget that reflects that. Listen to American on Trial, Inc. Executive Director Vidal Guzman share how he would reallocate the billions of dollars currently wasted on Rikers to achieve true community safety.

This Freedom Fighter Friday, we remember suffragist, religious leader, educator, businesswoman, and social activist Nann...
05/23/2026

This Freedom Fighter Friday, we remember suffragist, religious leader, educator, businesswoman, and social activist Nannie Helen Burroughs (1879-1961). Born to formerly enslaved mother and father shortly after the Civil War, Burroughs won fame and recognition with her speech “How the Sisters Are Hindered from Helping” to the 1900 National Baptist Convention. For the next sixty years of the 20th Century, she fought the rights of women in the workplace, and inparticular for exanding their rights beyond menial labor. In 1964, three years after her death, the National Training School for Women and Girls that she founded in 1909 was renamed the Nannie Helen Burroughs School in her honor.

05/21/2026

We’re glad to have a mayor who recognizes the need to close , and we look forward to a budget that reflects that. Listen to Victor Pate share how he would reallocate the billions of dollars currently wasted on Rikers to achieve true community safety.

Rikers is the most expensive and least effective tool our city has to create safety.📢 JOIN US Tuesday, June 2 as we rall...
05/19/2026

Rikers is the most expensive and least effective tool our city has to create safety.

📢 JOIN US Tuesday, June 2 as we rally before the City Council hearing on criminal justice to demand a budget that will get Rikers closed!

RSVP -->bit.ly/62closerikers

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10006

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