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“There are no limits to what is possible when we shift our goals from retribution to healing.”
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Recent media stories about subhuman living conditions at Rikers Island prison are disturbing, but they can hardly be considered news. While it’s tempting to blame current management or Covid-19 for unhealthy housing units, unnecessary deaths, and absent correction officers at Rikers, the most recent crisis at the jail complex is the natural outcome of years of denying and delaying what is needed: closing Rikers Island once and for all.
A reduction of Rikers’ jail population from 20,000 in the early 1990s to its current 6,000 would be encouraging if the current population were not 2,000 people more than it was less than two years ago when Covid-19 prompted the release of hundreds of incarcerated people. While the corrections department controls the conditions in its jails, it has no say in how many people are in its custody, which is determined by the police, prosecutors, defense counsel, and judges. It is a near certainty that the incoming Mayor, who has indicated that a top priority is to roll back bail reform, will be driving a further increase in the jail population, joining the chorus of misinformation about the impact of the bail laws on crime. If we don’t push back against this pandering to police and corrections unions, the resulting mass jailing will thwart the current solution to closing Rikers: smaller, safer borough-based jails.
For decades, while pressing for decarceration through our programs and our advocacy, Osborne has been a solid nongovernmental presence on Rikers Island, through its penal unrest and dysfunctionality, as I noted in a recent op-ed published by The Nation. The latest turn of events, an effort to close RMSC (the jail for women on Rikers), has resulted in detained and city-sentenced women being transferred to the maximum security state prison for women in Bedford Hills, further separating the women from their lawyers and families. Throughout the twists and turns, Osborne’s staff has stayed the course offering discharge planning; educational, therapeutic, and vocational programs; and visiting support. Though we are called to do more than to make it possible for people to “survive” incarceration, the accounts of our staff who work both in person and virtually with people housed at the jails and prisons remind us that activism includes serving the people still caught in the net. To hear more from these staff, visit our website.
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Hosted by Osborne’s Grace Detrevarah, Jevon Martin, Cecilia Gentili, Tahtianna Fermin, Tabytha Gonzalez, Mimi Shelton, and LaTravious Collins remembered those lost to violence and celebrated the accomplishments of the trans community during our fourth annual Transgender Day of Remembrance on Friday, November 5. You can watch a recording of the event here. |
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 The resilient and transformative work being done in every one of Osborne’s more than 25 programs is only possible with your support. We hope you will consider donating to Osborne on Giving Tuesday (11/30) or anytime throughout November and December when all donations made online will be generously matched (up to $500 per gift) by the Jessie Ball duPont Fund through the Lightful BRIDGE Program. Visit our donate page to have your gift matched.
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Please help us make a child’s holiday special! Toys from our drive are shared with children visiting an incarcerated loved one. Take part in our annual Toy Drive by purchasing from our wish list: http://bit.ly/OsborneToys2021
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Join our team! We are committed to equity, inclusion, and transformation. More than half of our staff is formerly incarcerated or has had a family member in prison, and we value staff who combine their personal experience of our participants’ challenges with preparation and professionalism. Learn about employment opportunities here.
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La lucha continua,
Elizabeth Gaynes,
President & CEO
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