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Labor Eyes on ICE joins families and other activists outside Delaney Hall
On Saturday, October 25th, about 100 labor union members and community activists rallied outside Newark’s Delaney Hall immigration detention facility. They called for an end to the mistreatment of detainees and greater action against ICE.
The rally follows months of protests outside Delaney Hall, a privately operated immigration detention center that has faced extreme backlash due to allegations of poor medical care and living conditions.
Newark’s Military Park carousel reopens, but questions about cost and longevity remain
After a prolonged period of dormancy, the Chambers Family Carousel at Newark’s Military Park reopened on Oct. 23rd at $450,000, bringing back an attraction that has been absent from the downtown park for years.
The small carousel claims a 26-foot diameter on the 6-acre park in the heart of the business district. With very few children-centered playgrounds in the city, the carousel presents an opportunity for families and children to make the heart of Newark a family-friendly space.
Feature image: Newark’s Military Park carousel at night. (Photo credit, Ryan Novosielski for Public Square Amplified)
Newark activists rally and march to commemorate National Day Against Police Brutality
Chants of “Stop police brutality” and “No justice, no peace” rang through downtown Newark as gatherers rallied before the march, where Lawrence Hamm, chairman of POP, reflected on the organization’s decades-long campaign against police violence. Though current data shows that police killings are down, the mappingpoliceviolence.org project caveats this data, as law enforcement agencies across the country have been resistant to providing information about police killings.
Newark gets three low-income housing units, but research shows more is needed
The homes were built as Newark continues to face affordability challenges. Research conducted by Rutgers Law School’s Center on Law, Inequality, and Metropolitan Equity (CLiME) found that rents in Newark have risen faster than incomes, increasing concerns about housing stability and homelessness. The report highlights differences among Newark’s five central wards, with the East and Central Wards experiencing new construction, which is driving rapidly rising rents.
“Stand up, fight back”: New York, New Jersey climate action takes shape
The protests aim to signal government leaders that climate policy is an urgent matter. For Dr. Sheats, New Jersey’s Bill S232— which requires the NJDEP to consult environmental justice communities when evaluating pollution-related permits, among other protections— has been a significant policy endeavor. S232 was passed on September 18th, 2020 and supported by over 165 organizations including the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance, which Dr. Sheats co-founded.
Schools are teaching kids calculus and sending them into debt they can’t calculate
Within weeks of arriving at Seton Hall University, my brother was surrounded by credit card offers. Companies set up tables on campus, filled his inbox and pitched their cards as free money, free rewards and freedom itself.
He signed up.
It didn’t feel like a decision with consequences. It felt like something everyone around him was doing. Only later, when the bill and interest came due, did he understand what he had agreed to.
My brother’s experience shows why Newark students should be required to take a personal finance course before graduating from high school.
Newark must make its streets safer for e-bike riders
Some may argue that Newark does not have enough room for protected bike lanes or that changes would reduce parking and hurt businesses. But streets are public spaces and should serve everyone, not only drivers. Better-organized roads can reduce dangerous encounters among motorists, cyclists and pedestrians.
New Jersey now expects e-bike riders to be licensed, registered and responsible on the road. Newark must provide streets where we can meet those responsibilities safely.
Delaney Hall, from largest East Coast facility to a hunger strike: How did we get here?
To understand Delaney Hall’s growth and conditions, one has to go back to the 1980s, when the United States began rapidly expanding its prison system, and governments turned to private corporations to meet demand. This spread to immigration policy, resulting in the detention of Cuban refugees in the Mariel boatlift and Chinese migrants in the Golden Venture shipwreck. GEO Group had been in charge of the facility from 2011 to 2017, housing 450 immigration detaineesduring that period.
A Newark group takes on the NJ prison industrial complex
They founded RCSG in 2017, and now, nearly a decade later, they’ve built a space where returning citizens can transition back into their communities. RCSG is both a resource-sharing organization and a union that advocates for humane conditions and rights for people who are incarcerated, having successfully advocated for several new laws under former Governor Phil Murphy, including restoring voting rights to people on probation and parole and allowing former felons to serve on juries.
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