8 JANUARY 20, 2022 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Justice advocates and elected offi cials rally
in support of Rikers Island hunger strike
Protesters and elected offi cials gathered outside Rikers Island on Jan. 13 to stand in solidarity with reported hunger strikers on the island.
Photo by Dean Moses
BY DEAN MOSES
EDITORIAL@QNS.COM
@QNS
Throngs of elected offi cials and human rights
advocates rallied Thursday, Jan. 13, outside
Rikers Island where hundreds of prisoners
are reportedly staging a hunger strike.
The conditions inside the penal island have long
been decried by advocacy groups, formerly incarcerated
individuals, and friends and family members of
those still on the inside. Yet, according to Christopher
Boyle, an attorney and director of data research and
policy for the New York County Defenders Service
who also served as a whistle-blower on the hunger
strike, prisoners are attempting to protest what
are said to be appalling conditions and treatment
through nonviolent means.
A coalition of protest groups such as The Fortune
Society and #HALTsolitary were joined by a host of
elected offi cials beneath the Rikers Island entrance
sign on Hazen Street and 19th Avenue in order to
demand immediate action by the mayor and the
Department of Corrections (DOC) in what they are
calling a crisis.
Elected offi cials who have visited the jail are also
calling upon the mayor’s offi ce to take action, going
as far as to say that the facility should be immediately
closed.
“We must end the practice of solitary confi nement.
It is torture. It has devastated so many, especially
our LGBT+ and trans communities in particular. We
must shut down Rikers Island now. Shut it down,”
Council member Shekar Krishnan said.
Yet DOC is denying the hunger strike outright,
claiming that reports of a strike are exaggerated and
instead prisoners are merely refusing to consume
institutional food and instead eating commissary
food.
When presented with this rebuke, Boyle told
Schneps Media that DOC is dancing around the
issue.
Boyle charged that many of those serving time do
not have the fi nancial means to purchase other food.
Advocates also strove to remind attendees that
many of those inside the prison are awaiting trial
and have yet to be convicted of a crime, meaning
that innocent individuals could also be facing what
visitors say are inhumane conditions.
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