Rising Up for Youth Justice

Upgrade your subscription now to access the EXTENDED CUT of this interview, not available to anyone except Rising Up paid subscribers.

Subscribe for as little as $4 a month (5-day free trial)

FEATURING MESSIAH RAMKISSOON - Our nation and our world is overrun by billionaires and bigots, but they are few and we are many. On this series, exclusive to subscribers of Rising Up With Sonali and viewers of Free Speech TV, we’ll hear from organizers in the movements for social justice, and dig into the nuts and bolts of values, strategies, tactics, narratives, and building power.

This week on Rising Up for Justice, Messiah Ramkissoon joins us. He serves as Deputy Executive Director at Youth Justice Network (YJN), a City nonprofit supporting 16–24-year-olds affected by Rikers Island and other detention facilities. Messiah spoke with Sonali Kolhatkar about what justice for people impacted by incarceration looks like.

ROUGH TRANSCRIPT:

Messiah Ramkissoon: Thank you for having me. I'm happy to be here. 

Sonali Kolhatkar: So, I'm in Southern California on the opposite end of the country as you. You're in New York. For those of us who are outside New York, Rikers Island is notorious. It is basically the largest jail in New York City, and I understand is going to be, at least planned to be, closed by next year. Tell me about Youth Justice Network and its relationship to those people who have been held at Rikers Island. 

Ramkissoon: Sure. So, Youth Justice Network, we were actually founded on Rikers Island 35 years ago under the name Friends of Island Academy. At that time, you had an overflowing jail of teenagers and young adults who were inundating the facilities on Rikers Island. And I'm talking of age 16 to 21-year-olds. And these young people were being released and going home to the community, but there was nothing for them when they came home, right? There were no safety nets to support young people. 

The post-release, the services at that time, 35 years ago, for folks leaving incarceration were exclusive to adults. And so, while young people were overpopulating the jail system within New York City, there was no intervention, and so, they would come home and recidivate and come back to Rikers, and get sentenced to face football numbers, unfortunately, or they would come home and unfortunately die in the streets.