Close Rikers Action for Passover
On a typical evening, many people in custody on Rikers Island eat off cardboard trays in their housing units. Some are rushed to the mess hall where they get five minutes to eat dinner before going back.
Tonight, on the second night of Passover, Jewish people in custody will have the rare opportunity to share an unhurried meal outside the dormitories in which they are confined almost 24 hours a day. In the gymnasium of one of Rikers’ seven active jails, they will pray, sing, eat, talk, and recount the biblical story of the exodus from Egypt. Volunteers from across New York City will conduct the seder and celebrate with them.
The Passover holiday and its rituals remind us that people are still striving for justice and liberation around the world—and here in New York City. As a partner in the Campaign to Close Rikers, ICNY advocates for decriminalizing poverty, addiction, disability and mental health needs, and investing in community-based solutions; for a more equitable and less punitive criminal legal system; and for immediate relief for people confined under dangerous, inhumane conditions on Rikers Island.
We invite friends of ICNY to do the same. “The path to closing Rikers Island and moving to smaller borough-based jails by 2027 must include increasing funding for community resources that prevent incarceration and improve public safety,” states a recent release by the campaign. However, with budget season underway, the city
has shown it intends to continue its trend of underfunding these programs and overspending on incarceration at Rikers Island. In a budget driven by deep cuts to alternative to incarceration (ATI) programs, reentry supports and a stubborn refusal to fund supportive housing and community-based mental health treatment to scale, the Mayor has proposed spending $2.6 billion on jail operations in FY2025, down just 3.3% from FY2024… DOC’s budget includes hundreds of millions for unfilled vacancies, chronically absent officers, and excessive overtime… [The] Adams administration plans to triple capacity to incarcerate women and gender-expansive people in the Queens borough-based jail, in addition to previously reported capacity increases for men. This proposed budget will undermine the health and safety of our communities.
Please let the Mayor and your City Council know that NYC Needs a Budget That Will Close Rikers.