"Truth Telling and Palabra: A Project at Rikers Island" Report Released by MILPA Collective

WATSONVILLE, Calif., Sept. 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The MILPA Collective releases  "Truth Telling and Palabra: A Project at Rikers Island," a report that memorializes a transformative project that brought safety, stability, and healing to incarcerated young people [ages 18-21] and correctional staff at the RNDC jail at Rikers Island in Queens, New York.

From June 2021 through January 2022, at the request of Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi, MILPA and a team of expert consultants led a project at Rikers Island to stabilize conditions for incarcerated young adults and frontline staff. Like most jurisdictions across the country, rates of violence are nine times higher among young adults than any other group, making a focus on young adults key to stabilizing conditions agency-wide.

The MILPA approach of working in community and carceral settings across the U.S via the leadership of formerly incarcerated Chicano Indigenous and Black relatives uniquely positioned them to guide this project. "Our work wasn't about flooding Rikers with more programs. Our work was about making systemic change. Organizing with those who live and work inside, to challenge the systemic racism and toxic culture that sustains the status quo at Rikers," says Juan Gomez, Executive Director of MILPA. "And while we always try to balance urgency with the process, at Rikers, we had to treat every day like a war zone with a disaster relief mission."

In just seven months MILPA led a team of expert consultants and accomplished the following:

• Completed a participatory planning process in partnership with frontline staff and incarcerated young adults
• Designed a new model of jail operations for young adults
• Opened four transformed pilot living units using the new operations model
• Trained upwards of 50 correctional staff to work in the units
• Facilitated healing-engaged workshops
• Crafted a new antiracist policy to codify the new model with an eye toward scale.

Planning and preparation began in June 2021, and on November 1st the first pilot units opened, with the second two opening in mid-December 2021. From then through January 2022, only one fight occurred, while the other RNDC units experienced a total of 47 stabbings and slashings during the same period. Using a unique combination of facility-based organizing tactics, a participatory planning process, and a disaster relief approach, the team built an "inside" coalition of Black and Brown frontline staff and incarcerated people aligned in purpose, process, and hope for the future.

In January 2022, the project ended when Commissioner Schiraldi and his administration were ousted by the incoming Mayor.  "While this story has an equivocal ending, the report has been written to memorialize the heart and hard work that staff and incarcerated people put into making this vision a reality while reflecting on its implications for the field."

You can access the full report, "Truth Telling and Palabra: A Project at Rikers Island," here and the Executive Summary here. 

About MILPA: MILPA is a non-profit organization that is founded and led by formerly incarcerated Black and Brown people. MILPA is a movement space dedicated to Cultivating Change Makers for The Next Seven Generations. For more, visit milpacollective.org

MEDIA CONTACT:
Dayanna Macias- Carlos
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (559)289-9885

SOURCE MILPA Collective