Human Rights Day of Action heads to Queens court

Activists gathered on the steps of the Queens Criminal Court Friday to call for sentencing reform. Photo courtesy of Freedom Agenda

By Rachel VIck

Criminal justice reform advocates rallied across the five boroughs Friday to condemn the carceral system, bringing the call to action to the steps of Queens Criminal Court.

Organized by the Urban Justice Center’s Freedom Agenda, more than a dozen activists, public defenders and members of CourtWatch NYC gathered outside to demand a better system on International Human Rights day.

“Every human being should be equal in dignity and rights. Unfortunately, that is not the case for people who are funneled into NYC’s jail system which is a human rights crisis,” said Freedom Agenda Co-Director Darren Mack. “Judges and DAs are sending people to a potential death sentence. If DOC cannot keep people safe and alive then they should not have anyone in their custody.“

The activists, armed with signs bearing the names of the 14 individuals who died in custody in 2021 – the rally happened prior to announcement of the 15th death on Friday morning – spoke about their personal experiences with the system underscored by recent findings released by the independent monitor tapped to oversee the situation on Rikers Island.

Freedom agenda member Corinne Conrad shared her family’s story and their first hand experience with the “human rights crisis in our backyard.”

Her grandson has told her about being locked in his cell without food for 24 hours, being without a mattress for four days and having the medication he needs for a mental health issue being given only sporadically and without explanation. After severing a finger, she said he was left to wrap it in toilet paper because he was not taken to see a doctor.

“I have spent years advocating for my neighbors and fellow New Yorkers [while] working on the New York City commission on human rights — this year my grandson was sent to Rikers,” Conrad said. “I cannot believe that our city has allowed this plague to exist this long; every single person there is a human being… they are sent there and instead of losing their freedom it's like they lost every human right they've ever had.”

“[Correction officers] ignored everything he has begged for,” Conrad said. “It is crystal clear… I say no more of this. “

Throughout the past year advocates and politicians alike have called for a change to the city’s prison system with renewed vigor, but efforts to improve conditions have been complicated by staffing shortages among correction officers compounded by vaccine mandates.

Many say that to make the changes will require action on a systemic level — starting with the sentencing decisions in courthouses.

“The conditions inside Rikers must change, but more fundamentally, the behavior of DAs and judges in our legal system itself must change,” said Meghna Philip, special litigation attorney at Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem. “The relentless use of pretrial detention, even in the face of death upon death, does not make anyone safer or deliver a modicum of justice. It is simply violence enacted against our mostly poor, mostly Black and brown clients, and it must stop.”