Mayor Adams,
The [#] undersigned organizations wish to lodge our strenuous opposition to the plan to more
than triple the number of beds for women and gender-expansive people in the proposed Kew
Gardens jail, from 126 to 450. We call upon the administration to reassess its plans for the
borough jails to prioritize decarceration, diversion, and prevention over mass incarceration.
Expansion of incarceration in New York City is not a statistical inevitability. It is the product of
deliberate policy and practice, and it can be reversed by the same means.
In June 2022, the Path to Under 100 report, released jointly by the Women’s Community Justice
Association, the Independent Rikers Commission, the Center for Court Innovation, and John
Jay’s Data Collaborative for Justice, detailed a step-by-step process to reduce the population of
the Rose M. Singer Center—then roughly 300—to under 100. The steps were simple, common-
sense driven, and backed by decades of data. That the city has leapt to increase jail capacity
before attempting to implement any of the report’s recommendations is baffling at best,
unconscionable at worst.
Furthermore, New York City has successfully reduced its jail population before. For nearly three
decades, a declining jail population was accompanied by increased community safety. During
the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the jail population was reduced substantially and rapidly,
with no significant attendant rise in crime or pre-trial flight. During this period, the population
at the Rose M. Singer Center, the facility on Rikers Island where the city currently incarcerates
women and gender-expansive people, dropped below 150—close to the original number of
beds planned for the women’s facility in Kew Gardens.
In light of this evidence, there is no reasonable justification—practical, fiscal, or
humanitarian—for the city to more than triple its planned incarceration of women and gender-
expansive people. We have the means to reduce our jail population, and to do so is a moral and
practical imperative as we chart the course for the borough jails.
Sign on To Support
Organization Sign Ons
Prison Families Alliance
Exodus Transitional Community
New Hour for Women & Children
Long Island Social Justice Action Network
The NYC Justice Peer Initiative
Freedom Agenda
Queens Defenders
Visionary V Ministries
V-Day
Legal Action Center
Hour Children
The New York Women's Foundation
The Riverside Church in the City of New York
Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus
NAMI Huntington
Peer Network of New York
Youth Represent
Mott Haven Reformed Church
A Little Piece of Light
Trellis
Jails Action Coalition
Housing Works, Inc.
Re/Creation
Providence House, Inc.
Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law at NYU School of Law
Women & Justice Project
Nurses for Social Justice
Fair Chance for Housing
Fortune Society
Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH)
Center for Urban Environmental Reform
Urban Justice Center Mental Health Project
AAS Empowerment LLC
BronxConnect (Urban Youth Alliance)
Osborne Association
Women's Community Justice Association
Individual Sign On
Betsy Ramos
Jordyn Rosenthal
Kandra Clark
Serena Martin-Liguori
Rebecca Figueroa
Helen 'Skip' Skipper
Chaplain Dr. Victoria A Phillips
Barat Ellman
Roslyn Smith
Danette Lipten
Rev. James Sheehan
Elizabeth G. Maxwell
Jeffrey Courter
Ryan Acquaotta
Emily Travers
Claire Deroche
Rev. Adriene Thorne
Amanda Jack
Rosaury Valenzuela
Jayette Lansbury
LaDeamMa McMoore
Pamela Neely
Nicole Scott
Lorie Goshin, PhD, PMHNP-BC
Marion Rodriguez
Dario Peña
Marilyn Reyes
Grace Ortez
Rev. Dr. Patricia A. Sealy
Donna Hylton
Jon McFarlane
Constance Tempel
Elizabeth Mayers
John Proctor
Kayla Vinson
Leah Sills
Danielle Minelli Pagnotta
Vivione Marshall
Jennifer Grossman
Erin Poll
Michal Richardson
Hilton N. Webb, Jr., LMSW, CASAC-T, CRPA
Rose Harris
Sarah Hoiland
Carole Eady-Porcher
The Rev. Mary Foulke
Brenda Berkman
Cassandra Kelly
Anna Pastoressa
Ashley Santiago Conrad
Angel Tueros
Jon McFarlane
Darren Mack
Rebecca Bratspies
Jennifer J. Parish
Anisah Sabur
Jack Beck
Reggie Miller
Frances Geteles-Shapiro PhD, Clinical Psychologist
Anthony Springer
Portia Seeley
Briana Binda
Tamar Kraft-Stolar
Stacy Ann Edman
Elaine Daly
Barbara Allen
Nora Moran
Sharon White-Harrigan
Dominique Pierce
Claire Stottlemyer
Jennifer Liles
Caroline Hansen
Sarita Daftary
Gina Mitchell
Megan French-Marcelin
Guisela Marroquin
Shivani Parikh
Amanda Jack
Kate Rubin
Zac Martin
Valerie Reyes-Jimenez
Ted Jack
Jaya Vasandani
Chloe Breyer
Lily Shapiro
Gina Mitchell
Cassondra Warney
JJ (Jennifer Parish)
Shereemer Chevannes
Hilton N. Webb, Jr., LMSW, CASAC-T, CRPA
Tamar Kraft-Stolar
Stacy Ann Edman
Tanya Krupat
Jayette Lansbury
Jullian Harris-Calvin
Nicole Scott
Tammara McCoy
Alex Hansen
Israel Geselowitz
April Ranger
Melissa Ader
Aaron Horth
Allison Hollihan
Chermaine Black
Melissa Taylor
Rachel Burns
Dr. Breea Willingham
Natalie Bianca Ornell
Alila Wigfall
Lauren Hughes
Victoria Irizarry
Nina Morasky
Marion Rodriguez
Chanel Rhymes