Policing/Incarceration
In 2008 I began working on a series of projects centered around building a critique of institutions of incarceration and policing. I began working with a grassroots group called Rights For Imprisoned People With Psychiatric Disabilities' (RIPPD). RIPPD was organizing an effort to bring community based Crisis Intervention Teams to NYC.
I helped produce a video that documents RIPPD’s campaign to bring Community Crisis Intervention Teams to the NYPD. Commemorating the death of Iman Morales at the hand of New York City police, RIPPD wants to bring greater accountability to the NYPD in the way they deal with situations involving mentally ill people. Produced by the Red Channels media collective.
A satellite image of Rikers Island Jail, in NYC.
Criminalization of Mental Illness
In 2010, I began working on a series of projects centered around building a critique of institutions of incarceration and policing. I began working with a grassroots group called Rights For Imprisoned People With Psychiatric Disabilities' (RIPPD). RIPPD was organizing an effort to bring community based Crisis Intervention Teams to NYC.
I helped produce a video that documents RIPPD’s campaign to bring Community Crisis Intervention Teams to the NYPD. Commemorating the death of Iman Morales at the hand of New York City police, RIPPD wants to bring greater accountability to the NYPD in the way they deal with situations involving mentally ill people. Produced by the Red Channels media collective.
watch: RIPPD - Community Crisis Intervention Teams
Control (film)
While working with RIPPD and seeing first hand how the weight of the prison and policing systems were being brought to bear on people living with mental illnesses, I became interested in looking more closely at how systems of incarceration were becoming interwoven into communities, neighborhoods and families. Systems of control and repression had become omnipresent in communities of color in NYC, obstacles that continuously required negotiation, even in our most intimate spaces.
Control examines this impact as seen through the eyes of a child, Luther, who at 16 years old struggles to navigate a punitive system that is designed to punish and debilitate.
watch: Control
The Island Is Ridiculous (film)
An artificial island, a solid waste landfill, Rikers is the world's largest penal colony. Incarcerating over 130,000 NY'ers a year, Rikers is a key component to the NYPD's community policing strategy. Arrest a lot of young people, build long rap sheets, and keep people moving through the system with "short" jail stays. The video features the story of two teens, one who spent a year on Rikers, the other is in the middle of a trial, and is facing time.