RAPP Campaign
Release Aging People in Prison Campaign
Steve Zeidman, NY Daily News — Stanley Richards, New York City’s newly appointed Department of Correction commissioner, testified at a recent City Council hearing that Rikers Island was under acute strain and badly in need of an overhaul. In addition to the decaying physical structure, Richards highlighted a decrease in correction officer staffing levels such that people inside do not feel safe...
Rebecca McCray / Hell Gate — On Monday morning, state correction officers trickled back to work following a three-week-long wildcat strike that affected nearly all of the state’s 42 prisons and caused disruptions in meals, medication distribution, education and rec programming, and effectively confined incarcerated people to their cells for nearly 24 hours a day in some facilities. Over the course of the strike, seven incarcerated people died, including 22-year-old Messiah Nantwi of the Bronx, who was reportedly beaten to death by correction officers who have since been placed on leave...
Orisanmi Burton / Inquest — New York state prison guards have been on strike since February 17. The strike began in part as a result of attempts by the state to prosecute the death of Robert Brooks, a forty-three-year-old Black father who was serving a twelve-year prison sentence at Marcy Correctional Facility when he was fatally beaten by guards on December 9, 2024...
Rebecca C Lewis / City & State NY — At a time of turbulence for New York’s prisons, a long-sought criminal justice reform measure now has enough support to pass the upper chamber – on paper, at least...
Robert Abruzzese / Brooklyn Daily Eagle: Lawmakers and advocates from Brooklyn, including individuals who were formerly incarcerated, held a press conference in Albany on Monday to discuss the importance of parole justice for families in the state...
Shivani Chauhan / BNN The People's Network: New York faces a critical prison crisis, highlighting the need for parole reform to address an aging inmate population and skyrocketing healthcare costs...
Barbara Hanson Treen, New York Times: As a New York State parole commissioner for 12 years, I evaluated the readiness for release and risk to public safety of more than 75,000 incarcerated people. I saw these changes in people every day.
Yet in spite of those transformations, the number of aging long-termers warehoused in prisons has only increased in recent years...
By: David Lombardo, The Capitol Pressroom - Two incarceration-focused bills have advanced to the New York State Assembly Correction Committee. The elder parole legislation has been co-sponsored by 31 people, including state Sens. Gustavo Rivera and Robert Jackson....
By: Eric Harvey, The Riverdale Press - Two incarceration-focused bills have advanced to the New York State Assembly Correction Committee. The elder parole legislation has been co-sponsored by 31 people, including state Sens. Gustavo Rivera and Robert Jackson....
By: Victoria Law The Nation - One day after New York Focus broke the story about the censorship policy, the state department announced that it would suspend the rule impeding creative endeavors in prisons
Por: Edwin Martínez, El Diario: Antiguos prisioneros, familiares de internos y líderes políticos se unieron en una manifestación en el Capitolio de Nueva York para exigir a la Legislatura que dé luz verde a un paquete de proyectos de ley para sacar a más presos de las cárceles
By: Chris Gelardi and Sam Mellins, New York Focus: This time last year, Hochul promised to fully staff the parole board. But vacancies have only grown — and went unmentioned in this year’s agenda.
