FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, November 17, 2022
Contact: Yonah Zeitz, yonah@katalcenter.org | (347) 201-2769
Follow on Twitter @KatalCenter | #BailReformNY
Katal Responds to Federal Court Ruling on Receivership
New York, NY: Yesterday, U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain denied the request to appoint a federal receiver to take over the NYC jail system from the Department of Correction.
Statement from Yonah Zeitz, Director of Advocacy, Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice.
“It is disappointing and frankly alarming that Judge Swain denied the request for receivership during today’s court hearing. This year alone, 18 people have died on Rikers – surpassing last year’s record number and the most since 2013 when the jail population was twice as large. The violence at Rikers has escalated far beyond what the court found unconstitutional back in 2015. The federal monitor’s recent status update outlined how the deplorable conditions on Rikers are deteriorating and only getting worse under the Adams administration. That’s why dozens of New Yorkers, including many who have been incarcerated at Rikers, were outside the court today to support a federal takeover of the island jail complex. We hope the court will hear the pleas of families in our City who have been harmed and even killed by Rikers, and order a receiver to take control of Rikers now. And as we made clear in our protest today, we know that the best way to address the crisis at Rikers is to shut it down once and for all. We demand Mayor Adams moves forward with the plan to close Rikers, and we will continue to fight until this scandalous jail complex is no more.”
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