SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
For Immediate Release
March, 03 2015, 08:15am EDT
Contact:
Press Office: 212-607-3372
Health Care Transparency Will Help Address Overincarceration and Violence at Rikers, According to NYCLU Testimony
NEW YORK, NY
Regular reporting on the physical and mental health of people incarcerated on Rikers Island and the provision of care prisoners there receive will take New York City a step closer toward addressing the violence that plagues the jail, according to testimony to be delivered today before the New York City Council.
"The systemic failure to address the health care needs of those incarcerated on Rikers Island - a population challenged by mental health and medical issues so severe that they shouldn't be incarcerated in the first place - exacerbates the culture of brutality that plagues Rikers Island," said New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman. "That culture itself is inexcusable and has to be met head on, but at the same time it must be acknowledged that corrections officers are simply not prepared or trained to deal with the level of suffering they are forced to confront at Rikers. Defining the magnitude of the problem will be a crucial first step toward ending it."
In its testimony, the NYCLU called for the swift passage of Intro. 440, legislation that will permit the city to better assess the number of individuals detained at Rikers who suffer from mental health or medical conditions so serious that they should never be incarcerated and should instead be diverted to a more appropriate therapeutic setting. The data will also permit a long overdue comprehensive assessment of medical and mental health care at Rikers that can be used to inform sweeping improvements in the quality and delivery of that care, a critical component for addressing the excessive and punitive use of force by correction officers against individuals who are suffering from a lack of adequate mental health treatment.
The NYCLU's testimony also offers recommendations to clarify and expand the reporting requirements, including amending the bill to clarify that any agency involved in the delivery of health care must be required to collect and report relevant data; adding the reporting of key demographic data, including race, age and gender; and reporting on training of correctional staff on health care matters.
To read the NYCLU's complete testimony and recommendations, visit:
https://www.nyclu.org/content/testimony-requiring-annual-report-regardin...
The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) is one of the nation's foremost defenders of civil liberties and civil rights. Founded in 1951 as the New York affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, we are a not-for-profit, nonpartisan organization with eight chapters and regional offices and nearly 50,000 members across the state.
LATEST NEWS
Georgia Gov. Calls Special Session to Rig US House Map for GOP, SC Expected to Follow
"We will not sit back and watch while Gov. Kemp takes orders from a felon-in-chief to turn Dr. King's dream into a nightmare," said the head of Common Cause Georgia.
May 13, 2026
Republican state leaders are forging ahead with President Donald Trump's campaign to rig congressional districts for the GOP, with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Wednesday signing a proclamation for a special legislative session and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster expected to make a similar announcement soon.
While GOP policymakers facing pressure from Trump have pursued mid-decade redistricting in several states ahead of the November midterm elections—in which Democrats aim to reclaim majorities in both chambers of Congress—Kemp's proclamation explicitly states that any changes in Georgia would be for 2028, which is the next presidential cycle.
Kemp's proclamation cites the US Supreme Court's decision last month that a Louisiana map predating Trump's redistricting push was "an unconstitutional racial gerrymander," which gutted the remnants of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965.
In a statement condemning the proclamation, Common Cause Georgia director Rosario Palacios pointed to the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., a key figure in the movement that led to the VRA as well as the Civil Rights Act the previous year.
"We will not sit back and watch while Gov. Kemp takes orders from a felon-in-chief to turn Dr. King's dream into a nightmare. Too many civil rights leaders have done work in our state for us [to] take this sitting down," Palacios declared. "Common Cause is mobilizing thousands of people to stop state lawmakers from passing any new maps before 2030 that destroy Black voters' power for political gain. Voters should not have to rely on lawsuits to protect their right to fair representation. Congress must end this abuse once and for all so every voter can cast a ballot in free and fair elections, no matter their political party."
US Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), who is up for reelection in 2028, similarly ripped the Georgia redistricting effort on social media Wednesday: "There is an extreme movement in this country that will stop at nothing to hold on to power, even if it means stripping representation away from millions. I will fight this with everything I have."
Republicans in various states have moved to "shamelessly capitalize" on the April ruling from the high court's right-wing supermajority. On Monday, as the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Alabama GOP to rescind the creation of its second Black-majority district, Memphis voters sued over a new map targeting Tennessee's only majority-Black congressional district.
On Tuesday, as the Missouri Supreme Court declined to strike down a new congressional map that state voters are working to challenge with a referendum, five Republican South Carolina senators joined Democrats in blocking a GOP effort to advance Trump's gerrymandering campaign in their state.
However, The Post and Courier's Nick Reynolds reported Wednesday that South Carolina Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey (R-25) believes the governor "will call legislators back into a special session amid the redistricting fight."
Also reporting on the anticipated move Wednesday, Politico's Andrew Howard and Alec Hernandez noted that "McMaster's plan—confirmed by four people familiar with the decision, who were granted anonymity to share private details—is a reversal of his position earlier this month and follows pressure" from the president and his allies.
A redistricting push in South Carolina is expected to target the seat held by Democratic Congressman Jim Clyburn—who last month warned that the Supreme Court ruling on Louisiana's map and the VRA "threatens to send our country deeper into the thicket of never-ending redistricting fights, with repeated aggressive map redraws, protracted legal battles, and relentless partisan tugs-of-war, all of which are destined to result in more regressive court decisions."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Report Details How Trump Did Big Tobacco’s Bidding on Flavored Vapes Despite Risk to Kids
"Trump could not care less about the health consequences and costs of giving teenagers access to addictive flavored poison if it means his tobacco industry donors can make record profits," said one public health advocate.
May 13, 2026
The resignation of a pair of top health officials in the Trump administration this week has brought to light efforts by the president to help Big Tobacco executives and lobbyists sell addictive flavored e-cigarettes that could be marketed to children.
On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued new guidance allowing cigarette makers to begin marketing and selling fruit- and candy-flavored vape products on store shelves, which were banned under previous administrations due to evidence that they were driving youth vaping.
The policy was enacted despite the strong opposition of then-FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, who resigned on Tuesday, reportedly because he could not in good conscience support it.
Makary's resignation was followed by the departure of Rich Danker, the chief spokesperson for Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who similarly warned that the policy "would appeal to children and expose them to nicotine addiction, lung damage, and higher risk of cancer" in a letter addressed to Trump on Wednesday.
Danker did not blame Trump for the policy in his letter; instead, he attributed it to "senior HHS officials in the immediate office of the secretary."
This is despite the fact that The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Trump had personally berated Makary over his hesitation to enact the policy and had signed off on a plan to fire him.
A New York Times report on Wednesday confirms the extent of Trump's direct involvement in strong-arming the FDA into enacting the policy. It found that he pressured higher-ups in HHS to move the policy forward amid a tongue-lashing from tobacco industry lobbyists and executives angry that they could not get in on the highly profitable sale of fruit- and candy-flavored vapes. Despite being illegal and mostly imported to the US from China, these vapes make up about 60% of the total e-cigarette market.
Trump, who ran in 2024 on a pledge to "save vaping" as part of an effort to appeal to young voters, has raked in huge sums of money from the tobacco industry. According to data from OpenSecrets, his inaugural committee took over $3 million from vaping special interests, including $1.25 million from the Vapor Technology Association, and $1 million apiece from Altria and Breeze Smoke.
Altria, which owns Marlboro maker Philip Morris, and Reynolds American, which owns Lucky Strike and Camel, have also offered donations to Trump's $400 million White House ballroom project. Reynolds, the biggest producer of menthol cigarettes, also gave $10 million to the super PAC backing Trump in 2024.
According to The New York Times, executives for Altria and Reynolds were turning the screws on Trump over lunch at his golf club in Jupiter, Florida, in early May because they were "unhappy with the way the Food and Drug Administration was regulating their industry."
Trump interrupted the conversation to call up RFK Jr. and Mehmet Oz, the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and complained to them about the FDA's regulation of e-cigarettes.
Within a week, the new policy had been enacted, and its leading opponent, Makary, was gone. He has since been replaced by Kyle Diamantas, whom the healthcare advocacy group Protect Our Care described as "a 30-something lawyer whose qualifications for such a critical public health role seem to begin and end at being Donald Trump Jr.’s 'hunting buddy.'”
"Donald Trump’s fury at FDA head Makary was motivated by gross political opportunism and fat checks from the big vape industry," said Jeremy Funk, the deputy director of Protect Our Care's Public Health Watch team. "Trump could not care less about the health consequences and costs of giving teenagers access to addictive flavored poison if it means his tobacco industry donors can make record profits."
While youth vaping is at a 10-year low, about 1.6 million middle and high school students were estimated to use vape products in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey. Nearly 90% of them said they used fruit and candy-flavored vapes.
Dr. Jerome Adams, a physician and professor at Purdue University, said in a post on social media that the rise of vaping has fueled a rebound in nicotine usage among college-aged adults.
"Youth combustible cigarette smoking was already at an all-time low and consistently dropping before vaping came on the scene. There is literally no reason to believe that the majority of young people who are now vaping would have otherwise been smoking combustible cigarettes," he said. "Amongst college-age and young adults, nicotine use is going back up to incredibly high rates—largely due to vaping."
The new policy enacted by the FDA has so far only authorized the sale of flavored products by one company, the Los Angeles-based Glas Inc., which will be allowed to sell vapes in flavors like mango and blueberry under names like "Gold" and "Sapphire."
The FDA sought to assuage fears of underage use by pointing to the Glas' digital age-verification system, which requires the product to be connected to the Bluetooth of a phone owned by a person over the age of 21. However, it is expected that, especially amid industry pressure, more companies will have their products approved soon.
Kayla Hancock, director of Protect Our Care’s Public Health Project, said that while Makary had a "terrible record" as FDA commissioner, having taken actions that slowed vaccine development and launched dubious, politically charged "reviews" of abortion pills long found to be safe, "apparently, it wasn’t terrible enough for Donald Trump."
"Hesitating to approve flavored vapes and not put American teens on a fast-track to lifelong addiction to harmful nicotine products is the bare minimum anyone could hope for from the Trump FDA," she said. "But that was a bridge too far for Donald Trump, who sees young people as disposable political pawns that he can appeal to with poison while lining the pockets of his big vape donors."
She said the ouster of Makary and his replacement with Diamantas "all but guarantees an FDA further consumed by chaos and driven by the wish lists of special interests that want profits put before public health."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Fetterman and Senate GOP Confirm Trump 'Sock Puppet' Warsh as Fed Chair
"Warsh's confirmation is another step in Trump's attempt to take over the Fed. That's not good for working families—it's good for Wall Street," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
May 13, 2026
The US Senate on Wednesday voted to confirm Kevin Warsh, the financier picked by President Donald Trump to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) joined with all Senate Republicans in voting to confirm Warsh, whose nomination was opposed by all other Senate Democrats except for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), who did not vote.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent thanked Republican senators and Fetterman for backing Warsh's confirmation, which he predicted would "usher in a new day at an institution that is in need of accountability, sound policy guidance, and the renewed sense of purpose to help guide our economy."
Warsh's nomination has been controversial from the start given that Trump has repeatedly undermined the US central bank's independence by browbeating outgoing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to lower interest rates.
After the confirmation vote, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) warned that Warsh would try to carry out Trump's demands to lower rates, even as key metrics show that inflation has accelerated in recent months thanks to the president's illegal war with Iran.
"Trump wants to control interest rates, and he nominated Kevin Warsh to be his sock puppet," wrote Warren in a social media post. "Warsh's confirmation is another step in Trump's attempt to take over the Fed. That's not good for working families—it's good for Wall Street."
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said he voted against Warsh's nomination because "working families are struggling more than ever to afford basic goods," and "they need a central bank that will fight for them, not the president and billionaires."
"I am not convinced that Warsh has the willingness to do what is best for the American people," Durbin added. "For that reason, I voted no on his nomination."
While Trump may want Warsh to start slashing interest rates to boost the economy, he likely faces an uphill climb in convincing other Fed board members.
Data released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics this week showed the consumer price index posted a year-over-year increase of 3.8%, the highest rate of inflation since May 2023, driven by energy prices that surged nearly 18% from the year before.
Additionally, the latest producer price index, which measures wholesale prices paid by businesses and is considered a strong predictor of future inflation, posted a year-over-year increase of 6% in April, indicating inflation will likely accelerate in the coming months.
During Powell's final meeting as Fed chair last month, the board voted to hold interest rates steady, with several board members indicating opposition to projecting future rate cuts in the near term given signals of rising inflation.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular