On October 17, NYC City Council will be voting to put $11 billion into building new jails in NYC. The bill is being portrayed as a plan to “close Rikers Island,” but there is no commitment within the bill that Rikers Island will close—only that $11 billion will be put into building new jails. This money could be put to ending homelessness, strengthening NYCHA, transforming mental health, and guaranteeing the future of our communities. Instead, they are putting $11 billion into perpetuating the cycle of poverty and incarceration. Please call your councilmember to demand they vote NO on this jail expansion plan.
https://www.nonewjails.nyc/followthemoney
💥On-Going 5-Minute Action💥
—Call your councilmember 📱
—Tell them: vote NO to new jails ❌
—Tell them how you want them to use that $10BN 🌱 🏠 📚 ⛑
—Report who you called, how it went, and how they’re leaning on this form below 👇
—Share widely
Links to find out who your councilmember is and how to contact them are on the form!
For more information on No New Jails, here are two articles: https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-activists-de-blasio-shut-rikers-20190903-edl5skwquvckhf5dncwkcwqjmy-story.html
“We must vigorously explore a no build scenario where we use the $11 billion for community needs. Nearly seven in 10 people in city jails are awaiting trial and either have a bail that can be paid or a remand that can be fought. Roughly one in eight are held on city sentences of less than a year along with 20 percent held on mostly technical parole violations. If the overwhelming majority of people held can be released we can and must shut down Rikers with no new jails and give $11 billion to the needs of our community. Given the foreseeable horrors this plan will result in, any Councilmember who shirks their responsibility to vocally oppose jail expansion should expect their shortsightedness and cowardice to doom their every future political aspiration as thoroughly as de Blasio’s presidential bid. The immense swell of grassroots opposition to this plan could not possibly be more clear: we demand the immediate withdrawal of this land use application; we demand that the billions of dollars allocated to this plan must be used for community needs instead of perpetuating incarceration; and we demand the closure of Rikers Island with no new jails.”