Ziyadah Touré Mateen calls for immediate Rikers closure
Ziyadah Touré Mateen, a member of the Cattell Center for Equity, Health, and Justice, says conditions at Rikers are dire and pregnant women need wraparound services. She urges the council to reduce the jail population and close Rikers, including Rosie's.
Thank you, Councilmember Salvina N.
Brooks-Powers and Councilmember Amanda Forever for holding this joint hearing on the maternal health of the women detained in New York City jails.
My name is Ziadah.
I'm a tour mateen, and I am a member of the Cattell Center for Equity, Health, and Justice.
As someone who has had family members incarcerated at Rikers Island, I know firsthand how dire the conditions are there.
Every minute that passes by is another minute that the people detained there run the risk of losing their lives.
We submit this testimony to bring your attention to the ever-growing crisis at Rikers and the need to reduce the city jail's population and shutter the notorious and deadly jail complex.
We are grateful to the council for introducing legislation that will require the Department of Correction in coordination with correctional health services to establish and maintain written protocol
related to the identification, screening, referral, monitoring, and follow-up care of pregnant or postpartum individuals with mental health needs.
As a mother myself, I can confirm that pregnancy, postpartum recovery, and parenting do not stop at a jail gate.
And it is infuriating to know that women detained at Rikers are met with a system that fails to provide them with the wraparound services that they need to endure the health and that of their babies.
This system is perpetuating general trauma.
I want to be clear that no city that is serious about reversing maternal mortality, particularly the daily
racial disparities that we face as black women, can continue to cage women on an island with a deep history of abuse and medical neglect.
The care they need is not getting delivered.
What is being done is simply putting a bandage on a wound that is far too deep and must be aggressively treated.
In this case, what the women need is an immediate closure of the Rikers Island Jail Complex, including the Rose M.
Singer Center.
These women should be in the community getting the care and support they deserve.
We urge these two committees and the full council to use their legislative power to reduce the jail population, advance the closure of Rikers with a clear
timeline, and hold the mayor accountable to the closure law.
Lives are at stake.
Thank you for this testimony.