Communities Not Cages

WATCH & SHARE: Mr. Ricks—a Rochester father, artist, and founder of a youth program—turns mourning into movement after his son, #RobertBrooks, was killed by prison staff on camera. With #CommunitiesNotCages, he’s fighting for real safety + new sentencing laws. HOW TO GET INVOLVED • Support Mr. Ricks’ Youth Program: Donate or learn more at mibandg.org. Mentors Inspiring Boys and Girls is currently fundraising $12K to move into a new location. • Take Action with Communities Not Cages: Visit CommunitiesNotCagesNY.org/TakeAction to contact your lawmakers, end extreme sentencing, and support real safety. Then follow us on social media at @communities_ny on X, IG, Reddit and TikTok. • Support Center for Community Alternatives (CCA): Support statewide advocacy, organizing, and direct services at CommunityAlternatives.org/Donate. Then follow us on X @CCA_NY and on IG at @ communityalternatives

Robert Brooks should be alive. Yesterday's verdict brought no justice—1 guilty, 2 not guilty—after ab brutal 31-minute killing caught on camera. Stand with his family + demand real safety. Join the #CommunitiesNotCages Statewide Day of Action: bit.ly/CNCNov182025

STATEMENT: Our response to the verdict in the trial of the prison guards who murdered Robert Brooks. “There is no justice in this verdict and no justice in this trial."

WATCH & SHARE: Mr. Ricks—a Rochester father, artist, and founder of a youth program—turns mourning into movement after his son, #RobertBrooks, was killed by prison staff on camera. With #CommunitiesNotCages, he’s fighting for real safety + new sentencing laws. ' GET INVOLVED • Support Mr. Ricks’ Youth Program: Donate or learn more at mibandg.org. Mentors Inspiring Boys and Girls is currently fundraising $12K to move into a new location. • Take Action with Communities Not Cages: Visit CommunitiesNotCagesNY.org/TakeAction to contact your lawmakers, end extreme sentencing, and support real safety. Then follow us on social media at @communities_ny on X, IG, Reddit and TikTok. • Support Center for Community Alternatives (CCA): Support statewide advocacy, organizing, and direct services at CommunityAlternatives.org/Donate. Then follow us on X @CCA_NY and on IG at @ communityalternatives

#CommunitiesNotCages is on TikTok! @Communities_NY. Follow us there for short stories, actions you can take, and movement moments from our fight to overhaul racist and unjust sentences in New York.

Mass incarceration is state violence.  In the face of the brutal torture and lynching of Robert Brooks, Messiah Nantwi, and so many of our loved ones, we say: NO MORE. We refuse to look away or be silent as racist and unjust sentencing laws tear families apart and warehouse our people in places built to disappear them. Cages don’t create safety. But we know what does.  On January 26, join #CommunitiesNotCages for our FIRST 2026 Advocacy Day as we transform our grief and rage into collective power.  We’ve got a blow-out day with a rally, press conference, meetings with lawmakers, music, and creative actions - and we need you there. RSVP NOW: bit.ly/CNCJan26

STATEMENT: “It is unconscionable that lawmakers return home today without having passed the Earned Time Act and Second Look Act as the humanitarian crisis inside New York’s prisons rages on. Since the murder of Robert Brooks at Marcy Correctional Facility, more than 75 people have died in state custody. These reforms will safely reunite families, reduce violence, and offer fair pathways home for incarcerated people who have transformed while inside. The cost of inaction will be measured in lives lost. We will not stop organizing until the Earned Time Act and Second Look Act become law.”

PRESS STATEMENT: “Cameras didn’t save Robert Brooks. Data won’t bring back Messiah Nantwi. Oversight will document this crisis, but it won’t solve it. We owe the dead more than data — we owe the living a future.” Today, as lawmakers prepare to pass an oversight bill focused on cameras, investigations & data, they have so far failed to advance real, life-saving reforms. CCA urges immediate passage of the Earned Time Act & Second Look Act to create real pathways home and prevent more deaths.

MUST READ: “If lawmakers are serious about honoring Robert Brooks, they must offer a fair pathway home for people who’ve transformed while inside. Anything less is a choice to let this crisis continue.” cityandstateny.com/policy/2025/06…

TODAY: Join us at 11:30am for a #CommunitiesNotCages call party. We’re flooding lawmakers’ phones to demand they pass the Earned Time Act and Second Look Act—because our loved ones deserve a real pathway home. RSVP: bit.ly/CallPartyCNC

Can't make the call party? You can still take action for #CommunitiesNotCages. Use our easy tool to contact legislators and demand they end racist and unjust sentencing: bit.ly/CNCNY.

Today, lawmakers, advocates & directly impacted New Yorkers launched the Robert Brooks Blueprint—a bold agenda to address NY’s prison crisis. The Legislature must act. Pass the Second Look, Earned Time & Marvin Mayfield Acts now. We stand with @BPHACaucus. #CommunitiesNotCages

Victim services & survivor justice orgs joined forces to demand NY lawmakers pass the Second Look Act, Earned Time Act & Marvin Mayfield Act this session. Survivors want healing—not endless punishment. They want safety—not mass incarceration. Stand with survivors and contact your legislators: bit.ly/CNCNY #CommunitiesNotCages.

Still at it in Albany here calling for #ParoleJustice and #CommunitiesNotCages there is still time for the legislature to finally take action and create pathways to freedom.

We aren’t giving up. Until the very last day of session, we’re fighting to pass the Earned Time Act & Second Look Act to save lives and bring people home. #CommunitiesNotCages spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny…

After 24 years inside Sing Sing, CCA community leader John J. Lennon says: “I’ve never seen violence like this.” Federal Judge Block: “Why won’t NY pass the Second Look Act? They’re stripping the hope out of prison.” @GovKathyHochul, Carl Heastie and @AndreaSCousins— we need to pass the Second Look Act now.

New York’s racist, unjust sentencing laws have a longer and darker history than most people realize. They were built on eugenics. “The intent was not rehabilitation or public safety alone, but explicitly to prevent the reproduction of those labeled genetically criminal.” It’s time to confront that legacy—and end it. Pass the Marvin Mayfield Act. #CommunitiesNotCages amsterdamnews.com/news/2025/05/2…

Corrections unions know earned time promotes responsibility and safety. “I believe if they earn the right to leave prison early, they'll behave better. Programing works. You don’t ever hear us complain about it.” – Matt Keogh, Vice President, NYSCOBA. @GovKathyHochul, @AndreaSCousins & Carl Heastie: We call on you to pass the Earned Time Act before the end of the session.

NEW: Prison reform was the topic of an all-day hearing last week, where Robert Ricks, Robert Brooks’s father, advocated for legislation to expand prison oversight and make it easier to hold abusive officers to account. nysfocus.com/2025/05/19/new…

Today, CCA leaders are testifying at the Senate and Assembly’s joint hearing on the “Safety of Persons in Custody, Transparency, and Accountability within State Correctional Facilities.” In advance, we held a press conference with CCA leaders Thomas Gant, Robert Ricks and Sammy Werkheiser, along with our friend Stanley Bellamy of RAPP to call for an end to the brutality in our prisons, and an immediate passage of sentencing reform. Thomas Gant, Community Organizer at Center for Community Alternatives (CCA), who is testifying at the hearing and served 25 years of incarceration, issued the following statement: “Robert Brooks’ murder was not an isolated incident. Each additional year someone spends in a New York state prison is another year they are likely to face violence and torture. But we are not powerless. There is a path forward. If we want safety—inside and out—we must change that culture from one of perpetual punishment to one of change and transformation. The Second Look Act would give judges the ability to re-evaluate long sentences after ten years, to recognize transformation and growth. The Earned Time Act would restore the opportunity for people to earn time off their sentences through education, work, and growth. When people have real hope, prison culture changes. Violence goes down. Safety goes up—for everyone. Our Legislature must pass the Earned Time Act and the Second Look Act. Let’s stop the cycle of brutality and begin a cycle of healing. Let Robert Brooks’ and Messiah Nantwi’s deaths not be in vain.”