Care, Not Cages. Equity, Not Excuses.

We’re proud to share that our team member, Kevin Beckford, recently co-authored a powerful op-ed with Darren Mack of Freedom Agenda in New York, featured in the Amsterdam News and republished in Word in Black! Together, they shine a spotlight on a truth too often buried under political posturing and bureaucratic delay: Rikers Island isn’t just a failing jail—it’s a modern-day auction block. A site of racialized violence that preys on poverty, trauma, and systemic neglect, all under the guise of “public safety.” This is not a flaw in the system—it is the system, by design.  

Read the full op-ed here: “Rikers Island: a modern-day auction block in the heart of New York”

At PJI, we are not afraid to say it plainly: pretrial detention is punishment without conviction. And in New York City, like in too many jurisdictions across the country, that punishment is disproportionately reserved for Black, Brown, and low-income communities. Every day someone spends in jail simply because they can’t afford bail is a day this country reinforces the legacy of slavery in a new form. To state it clearly: Rikers isn’t an outlier. It is a mirror. What we see there—untreated mental illness, racial inequity, and state-sanctioned harm—is a reflection of what our pretrial systems were built to do.

PJI’s advocacy work seeks to end indefinite and discriminatory detention and dismantle the pathways that lead to confinement and generational harm. We refuse to settle for half-measures. We refuse to look away.

As a thought partner in this movement, we ask you to reflect and mobilize your local community. Ask yourself and engage others to answer the following:

• Who benefits from a system that jails people in pretrial for months—or years—before they’ve been convicted of anything?

• What would it take to truly center safety as community well-being instead of cages and cruelty?

• Why do we tolerate the slow death of thousands at Rikers as a “policy failure” instead of naming it what it is—a moral one?

We invite you to re-imagine building something radically different: a future rooted in equity, not control, and one that amplifies care, not cages. Feel free to use our free toolkit, What If: 10 Questions for Sparking Local Pretrial Change.

As always, we're here to strategize with you, connect, and build forward!

PJI Opposes Texas Constitutional Amendment That Threatens Due Process and Public Safety

The Pretrial Justice Institute has joined a coalition of criminal justice and immigration organizations in strong opposition to Senate Joint Resolution 1 (SJR 1) and House Joint Resolution 16 (HJR 16) in Texas. If passed, this constitutional amendment would mandate pretrial detention—without due process—for people merely accused of certain crimes, based on an overly broad and harmful definition of “illegal alien.”

This proposal would:

• Undermine judicial discretion and due process protections by making pretrial detention automatic for a large group of people, many of whom may currently have lawful status or even be U.S. citizens.

• Further entangle local law enforcement with federal immigration enforcement, eroding community trust and threatening public safety.

• Place enormous financial strain on counties and exacerbate mass incarceration by flooding already overburdened jails, fueling the private prison industry.

We are proud to stand alongside our partners in urging Texas lawmakers to reject this unconstitutional and dangerous resolution.