March 2026 Phone Zap
Background/Context:
Joshua Evans (he/him), Brooklyn-born, Bronx-raised, is a 24-year-old detainee currently being held without bond on Rikers Island as a murder suspect behind accusations of gang involvement. We are not at license to share details of the case, but like many Black, working class folks in the city of New York, Mr. Evans’ has been held too long in pretrial detention (since 2023), unfairly made a public spectacle in the news media/stereotypes about criminal elements among NYC youth, and ultimately suffered routine, unlawful human and inmates’ rights violations.
With our first phone zap (see December 2024 tab), the community successfully ensured that Rikers would put an end to what was at the time nearly a year’s worth of medical neglect. For that, Joshua and the family were extremely grateful.
Unfortunately, through the course of 2025 and culminating in January 2026, new problems came up...
Throughout last year, Mr. Evans was routinely harassed by Rikers guards/COs, who would make fun of him for his close relationship to his mother, and resort to spraying him, attacking him physically, and endangering his safety in a variety of other ways including through persistent, uncalled for, unwanted searches. Joshua also reported that these abuses are specifically being directed at other inmates with health conditions.
Now, in March of 2026, Joshua Evans is no longer at the NIC and has instead been placed in general population with no medical attention to support his needs as a diabetic.
Our family thought carefully for months about whether we should do another phone zap because of concern that it could invite more retaliation/abuse/harassment. When we tried earlier this year, it was with mixed results compared to the first attempt. But at this point with his medical needs being deprived once more – this has become a dire, urgent situation we can no longer wait on.
What’s Been Going On?
- Joshua was moved out of the medical facility NiC YESTERDAY - He is in GR BC locked in a cell. No medical attention has been given .He has not had his 12 hour Long lasting insulin. He has not eaten to prevent High blood sugar.
- Mr. Evans has been subjected to ongoing abuse, harassment, retaliation, and medical endangerment by Department of Correction staff, including Deputy Greene (badge no. 1396) and other correction officers.
- Deputy Greene (badge no. 1396) and other officers have repeatedly instigated harassment by bringing inmates from other housing units to provoke or attempt to fight Mr. Evans.
- Mr. Evans has been subjected to constant and unjustified searches and has had personal property repeatedly confiscated, including a notebook received through approved mail, without being provided any property receipt.
- Officers have routinely accused Joshua Evans of disrupting housing units without evidence, documentation, or disciplinary tickets, and without following required due-process procedures.
- Instead of formal process, Mr. Evans has been punished through confiscation of personal items and food, repeated involuntary housing transfers, and being left unattended in hallways, the intake room, and on buses (for in handcuffs) for extended periods.
- Mr. Evans has also been falsely accused of instigating inmate fights, making threats, and attempting to stab an inmate or staff member, despite no evidence, witnesses, disciplinary tickets, or infraction records.
- In one instance, medical staff accused Mr. Evans of threatening or attempting to fight a male nurse after he simply refused consent for the nurse to touch him.
No assault occurred, no threat was made, and no documentation was issued; nevertheless, Mr. Evans was punished, reclassified, and improperly moved into a 50+ housing unit at NIC, an unsafe and inappropriate environment.
- Mr. Evans has attempted to file grievances but has been denied copies, tracking numbers, or access to his own grievance records, obstructing his ability to document abuse, seek protection, or defend himself against fabricated accusations (which is a violation of his rights).
- Mr. Evans is presumed innocent and entitled to constitutional protections. Protective actions are urgently requested.
- Currently, Mr. Evans and the family have endeavored to get letters and other communication to the proper authorities at Rikers/DOC regarding his circumstances. We suspect that the system is actively working to undermine his self-advocacy.
Target goals - MAKE CALLS & SEND EMAILS
Calling Campaign Script
I'm calling on behalf of Joshua Evans, inmate number 2412302095, a 24 year old detainee with type 1 diabetes. We demand that Joshua be moved to the proper facilities in the NIC where his medication regimen and needs as a diabetic are fully and consistently provided. Rikers has been in consistent violation of Joshua’s human and inmate rights by not following through on the following asks:
- 4 medical visits at a consistent time for each day - 10am , 4pm, 9pm, 5am. His current location cannot provide this adequately.
- 24-hour blood sugar monitoring by medical staff - His current location cannot provide this adequately.
- Administering of both long-lasting and fast-acting insulin - His current location cannot provide this adequately.
- coordinated with meals and water intake - His current location at the NIC has not provided this.
Since December, Joshua’s had to deal with interruptions to his medication regimen includinh a sustained period where blood sugar levels remained elevated at over 250. This is against Rikers’ stated commitments to the human and inmate rights of those in DOC custody. It is a threat to his life and limb and a gross miscarriage of justice. Have compassion and meet our demands now.
- Additionally, we demand that Deputy Green be investigated and reprimanded for harassment/abuses/intimidation against Joshia Evans. All required paperwork as well as requested documentation concerning her harassment/abuses/intimidation be provided to Joshua or his legal representation/family. Mr. Evans has a right to due process and fair classification that DOC must uphold.
- Lastly, we demand that all retaliatory actions taken against Mr. Evans be put to an end, that all unjustified searches and confiscations of Mr. Evans’ person/property cease, and that the records/procedures concerning all false allegations and disciplinary actions taken against Mr. Evans be provided to him, his legal representation, and/or his family. Again, Mr. Evans has a right to due process and fair classification that DOC must uphold.
Email Script
To Whom It May Concern,
I'm writing on behalf of Joshua Evans, inmate number 2412302095, a 24 year old detainee with type one diabetes. Joshua was moved out of the medical facility NiC YESTERDAY. He is in now in GR BC locked in a cell. No medical attention has been given. In parricular, he has not had his 12 hour Long lasting insulin, which forces him to have to not eat if it means he could minimize getting high blood sugar.
This situation is a culmination of previous forms of medical neglect on part of DOC staff at Rikers, which began in December of 2025, and forced Joshua Evans into a pattern of high blood sugar readings measuring at 250 because delivery of his insulin had not been consistent.
With Mr Evans having type 1 diabetes, this means his pancreas produces zero endogenous (natural) insulin: he requires exogenous (introduced) insulin for his survival. We demand that Joshua be placed in the proper facilities at the North Infirmary Command where he can be given 4 medical visits with 24-hour blood sugar monitoring by medical staff and administering of long-lasting as well as fast-acting insulin coordinated with meals and water. A consistent schedule – 10am , 4pm, 9pm, 5am – is vital for Joshua's life and in well within his rights as a human being and as an inmate.
In addition to the medical emergency, we are aware that Joshua Evans has been subjected to ongoing abuse, harassment, retaliation, cruel/unusual punishment and medical endangerment by Department of Correction staff, including Deputy Greene (badge no. 1396) and other correction officers.
Deputy Greene and other officers have repeatedly instigated harassment by bringing inmates from other housing units to provoke or attempt to fight Mr. Evans.
Mr. Evans has also been subjected to constant and unjustified searches and has had personal property repeatedly confiscated, including a notebook received through approved mail, without being provided any property receipt.
Officers have also routinely accused Mr. Evans of disrupting housing units without evidence, documentation, or disciplinary tickets, and without following required due-process procedures.
Instead of formal process, Mr. Evans has been punished through confiscation of personal items and food, repeated involuntary housing transfers, and being left unattended in hallways and on buses for extended periods.
Mr. Evans has also been falsely accused of instigating inmate fights, making threats, and attempting to stab an inmate or staff member, despite no evidence, witnesses, disciplinary tickets, or infraction records. In one instance, medical staff accused Mr. Evans of threatening or attempting to fight a male nurse after he simply refused consent for the nurse to touch him. No assault occurred, no threat was made, and no documentation was issued; nevertheless, Mr. Evans was punished, reclassified, and improperly moved into an unsafe and inappropriate environment where his medical needs are not being properly met by staff.
In the face of this long list of human and inmate rights abuses, Mr. Evans has attempted to file grievances but has been denied copies, tracking numbers, or access to his own grievance records, obstructing his ability to document abuse, seek protection, or defend himself against fabricated accusations and risks to his literal life.
Does Rikers/DOC respect Mr. Evans’ human rights and his rights as an inmate? If so, the following demands should be met:
- We demand that all of Mr Evans’ medical needs are immediately, fully, and consistently provided for in the proper medical unit. Mr. Evans requires 4 medical visits with 24-hour blood sugar monitoring by medical staff and administering of long-lasting as well as fast-acting insulin coordinated with meals and water– which DOC must uphold.
- We demand that Deputy Green be investigated and reprimanded, with all required paperwork as well as requested documentation concerning her harrassment/abuses/intimidation be provided to Joshua or his legal representation/family. Mr. Evans has a right to due process and fair classification that DOC must uphold.
- We demand that all retaliatory actions taken against Mr. Evans be put to an end, that all unjustified searches and confiscations of Mr. Evans’ person/property cease, and that the records/procedures concerning all false allegations and disciplinary actions taken against Mr. Evans be provided to him, his legal representation, and/or his family. Again, Mr. Evans has a right to due process and fair classification that DOC must uphold.
Image description 1:
Midnight blue background. Black square with a circular object at the center of it is in the top left corner of the frame. In blue letters we see the words “Rikers Systemic Abuse” followed by white-lettered text “Advocate for Joshua Evans.” In smaller font, “Abuse and Retaliation by Correction Staff Must End - Medical Neglect and Harassment” The inmate number is shown in white: #2412302095. Next there is a rectangular box with the words “Uniforms Don’t Excuse Abuse.” Contact info is shown at the bottom right corner of the frame: “Department of Corrections - email: correspondence@bop.nyc.gov” “Commission of Human Rights - email: inquiries@cchr.nyc.gov” “Department of Investigations - email: complaint@doi.nyc.gov”
To the left is some white letter text: “Contact: Email = Paper Trail”
A column of four letter x’s indicates the four things that are being denied, each noted:
Protection from staff retaliation
Consistent access to insulin and meals
Due process and fair classification
Basic human dignity
We see at the bottom of the frame some final words: “This must stop now. Act now. #FightForJoshua #MedicalNeglectKills #EndStaffAbuse”
Image description 2:
Midnight blue background. Blue circle at the center. In white font we see the following text: “NEGLECT HARRASSMENT ABUSE.” “JOSHUA EVANS DENIED HUMAN RIGHTS” - “Juvenile onset type 1 diabetes” - “requires regular insulin and meals” - “repeatedly transferred away from medical continuity” - “food, clothing, & items confiscated without cause: staff retaliation” “Email Now: constituentservices@doc.nyc.gov Final text in white font: “#ENDSTAFFABUSE”
Social media/virtual engagement
Please share the posts and toolkit and use the hashtags #FightForJoshua #BlackDiabeticsMatter #MedicalNeglectKills and #CloseRikers #EndStaffAbuse
Send updates to @nz_suekama on Instagram
If you have articles about medical neglect in the prison system, and connections between ableism, racism, class oppression please send along as well! Strong preference for intro level (101 level) resources!
If you know of ways to access pro bono legal representation or legal advice, please get in touch!
Additional Notes
You can call 311. But if you aren’t from NYC, you can have your local hotline transfer you and from there ask 311 to direct you to the Department of Corrections. More info on contact is here Contact Department of Correction
From someone named Ms. Glover - send details about the violations: boc@boc.nyc.gov
Political Education
The issues Joshua Evans is being faced with are not unique to his experience. Here are some questions for your reflection.
Did you know that Rikers Island is notorious for human rights abuses?
Are you aware that medical neglect is a staple feature of systematic racism in the prison system?
Have you ever heard of the term “carceral ableism”? What about the term “medical apartheid”?
Do you or any of your relatives, friends, community members, etc have any personal experiences with similar kinds of injustice?
From https://www.vera.org/its-a-torture-chamber
* In 2021, 16 people died on Rikers Island
* “You are not real anymore. You are less than human” - Eileen Maher, formerly spent 420 days detained on Rikers Island.
* No COVID protections on Rikers Island. Only 38% of those incarcerated in Dec 2021 were vaccinated and documented positive rates were at 17%. Mind you, COVID is known to affect the immune system, and type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease.
* Only allowed one hour of recreation, but is now cut down to no time outside of the cells due to staffing and (likely but not mentioned) to overcrowding.
* “Rikers Island is a torture chamber. It’s the worst place you could be.” -Jovada Senhouse, formerly spent two months detained on Rikers Island
* Account from Rikers being in “squalid conditions, rampant violence among and to detainees, and a lack of essential services such as food and water.”
* Elected officials touring Rikers called it “a horror house of abuse and neglect” where feces flowed from toilets onto floors, people slept without cots or bedding, and many went unfed and without basic medical care
* There has been an increase in use of excessive force incidents from “hyper-confrontational” staff
From
This is Rikers | The Marshall Project
* Rikers was once a slaughterhouse for pigs. It was then converted into a landfill with trash and manure. The island was full of rodents before it was turned into a prison. From its beginnings, Rikers has concentrated health hazards in its walls!
* The majority of those on Rikers Island are awaiting trial, or otherwise trapped by delays in the legal processes, unable to afford bail. This was the kind of situation that cost Kalief Browder his life.
* Gangs and officers collude around illicit networks of trade (drugs, sex, cigarettes).
* An inmate named Bradley Ballard suffered from cardiac arrest (heart attack) in his cell after being locked inside without food, water, or medicine. Mr Ballard was diabetic.
Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Professor of geography in Earth and Environmental Sciences at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York
“Racism, specifically, is the state-sanctioned or extralegal production and exploitation of group-differentiated vulnerabilities to premature death.”
Joshua Evans is dealing with this kind of racism. When people say the prison/jail is a systematically racist institution it is because there are formal and also technically illegal ways that prisons will sort certain groups into being more vulnerable than other groups to an early grave. Technically, Rikers cannot ignore Joshua’s medical needs, but they have, and in doing so they make him vulnerable to life-threatening health issues with the authority of those in power.
Harriet A. Washington, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present (2007)
"Medical apartheid" is a term used originally to describe the history of medical experimentation on African Americans. The term is expanded to describe the "racial health gap," which Washington describes as "a chasm wider and deeper than a mass grave. This gulf has riven our nation so dramatically that it appears as if we are considering the health profiles of people in two different countries - a medical apartheid." (2006)
Joshua Evans is facing this kind of apartheid. Despite living in a country with immense access to resources, his experience of health is almost like he existed outside the nation. This is a contradiction. In the mid-to-late 20th century, Black revolutionaries in the US often used the term "apartheid" from South Africa and "colonialism" from other contexts, to describe the differential outcomes faced here for Black communities versus white America. Even the term "ghetto" to describe experiences in poverty-stricken hoods was originally a reference to the struggles of minoritized ethnic groups outside the US.
When Joshua was first diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes as a kid, it was after moving back to one of the most heavily polluted boroughs in the city (the Bronx), where environmental hazards such as unclean air disproportionately cause all kinds of illnesses and ailments in poor and nonwhite communities. These are areas that face medical apartheid on a daily; to then be shut in a jail built on a landfill, and denied life-saving medication, means that Joshua now finds himself squeezed into a more concentrated battle with medical apartheid than ever before. His is an experience shared with others locally and abroad living under racist conditions.
Liat Ben-Moshe, Associate Professor of Criminology, Law and Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago
“Ableism” is a term to describe “the oppression faced due to disability/impairment (perceived or lived) which signals disability not only as a form of difference but constructs it as inferior,” according to Ben-Moshe.
Now, in the criminal legal system, ableism becomes “carceral” (connected to mass incarceration). In that context, a “carceral ableism” describes “the practice and the belief” that disabled/mad people need special protections in ways that often increase their proximity to carcerality and vulnerability to death,” writes Ben-Moshe.
Joshua Evans is facing carceral ableism. Like many families of disabled and sick folks, Mister Evans’ relatives often prefer to use “person-first” language to describe his experience of type 1 diabetes. This kind of choice is an awareness that in an Ableist society, health differentials are not just painted as a distinct experience of the body, but rather as a marker of inferiority, lesser-than status.
Ableism is baked into systematic racial oppression. Many stereotypes or narratives about a “criminal pathology” in the so-called hood (often blamed on so-called “single mothers” or “absent fathers”) get used to frame up poor and non-white communities. A pathology literally refers to a disease; systemic racism/classism uses white standards about family structure to suggest that all Black, working class folks have a disease of the mind that makes us predisposed to criminal activity. The police profile us and jails or prisons are filled with us because of these narratives.
There’s something very paternalistic about ableism in the carceral state. The prison/jail bills itself as a mechanism to help people reform or change, but creates a torture chamber instead that merely concentrates social issues in its walls. This is a contradiction. Joshua Evans is being held without bond and facing incredible delays in the legal process, with assumptions about his case from media narratives floating around him. Presumed a criminal, Rikers’ miscarriages of justice feel like attempts to “fix” a so-called “criminal pathology” by pushing him to an early grave. This is something that is often done to marginalized people, and it becomes most pronounced when folks in jail or in prison have health issues or disabilities.
Updates
- 3:30 pm, March 18th, Mx Vee was contacted by Miss Tee about Joshua's circumstances and has begun reaching out to their networks about a phone zap.
- I was informed that Joshua was finally moved to the NIC.
- 8pm, Mar 25th, They shut down NIC, he is in EMTC , Joshua is not on the list for any medical treatment at all. He has not had my medical.
- approx 5pm, 26th March, Josh sugar has been more than 415 over a 24 hour period. He has not been provided insulin according to his doctors prescription. He needs fast acting Humalog and Long lasting lantus. He has only been provided Long lasting novolog, nurses stated that they do not carry or provide fasting acting insulin EMTC
January 2026 Phone Zap
Background/Context:
Joshua Evans (he/him), Brooklyn-born, Bronx-raised, is a 24-year-old detainee currently being held without bond on Rikers Island as a murder suspect behind accusations of gang involvement. We are not at license to share details of the case, but like many Black, working class folks in the city of New York, Mr. Evans’ has been held too long in pretrial detention (since 2023), unfairly made a public spectacle in the news media/stereotypes about criminal elements among NYC youth, and ultimately suffered routine, unlawful human and inmates’ rights violations.
With our last phone zap (see December 2024 tab), the community successfully ensured that Rikers would put an end to what was at the time nearly a year’s worth of medical neglect. For that, Joshua and the family were extremely grateful.
Unfortunately, through the course of 2025 and culminating in the last few days, new problems came up...
Throughout last year, Mr. Evans was routinely harassed by Rikers guards/COs, who would make fun of him for his close relationship to his mother, and resort to spraying him, attacking him physically, and endangering his safety in a variety of other ways including through persistent, uncalled for, unwanted searches. Joshua also reported that these abuses are specifically being directed at other inmates with health conditions.
Our family has thought carefully for months about whether we should do another phone zap because of concern that it could invite more retaliation/abuse/harassment, but at this point with his medical needs being deprived once more – this has become a dire, urgent situation we can no longer wait on.
What’s Been Going On?
- Mr. Evans has been subjected to ongoing abuse, harassment, retaliation, and medical endangerment by Department of Correction staff, including Deputy Greene (badge no. 1396) and other correction officers.
- Deputy Greene (badge no. 1396) and other officers have repeatedly instigated harassment by bringing inmates from other housing units to provoke or attempt to fight Mr. Evans.
- Mr. Evans has been subjected to constant and unjustified searches and has had personal property repeatedly confiscated, including a notebook received through approved mail, without being provided any property receipt.
- Officers have routinely accused Joshua Evans of disrupting housing units without evidence, documentation, or disciplinary tickets, and without following required due-process procedures.
- Instead of formal process, Mr. Evans has been punished through confiscation of personal items and food, repeated involuntary housing transfers, and being left unattended in hallways, the intake room, and on buses (for in handcuffs) for extended periods.
- Mr. Evans has also been falsely accused of instigating inmate fights, making threats, and attempting to stab an inmate or staff member, despite no evidence, witnesses, disciplinary tickets, or infraction records.
- In one instance, medical staff accused Mr. Evans of threatening or attempting to fight a male nurse after he simply refused consent for the nurse to touch him.
No assault occurred, no threat was made, and no documentation was issued; nevertheless, Mr. Evans was punished, reclassified, and improperly moved into a 50+ housing unit at NIC, an unsafe and inappropriate environment.
- Mr. Evans has attempted to file grievances but has been denied copies, tracking numbers, or access to his own grievance records, obstructing his ability to document abuse, seek protection, or defend himself against fabricated accusations (which is a violation of his rights).
- Mr. Evans is presumed innocent and entitled to constitutional protections. Protective actions are urgently requested.
- Currently, Mr. Evans and the family have endeavored to get letters and other communication to the proper authorities at Rikers/DOC regarding his circumstances. We suspect that the system is actively working to undermine his self-advocacy.
Target goals - MAKE CALLS & SEND EMAILS
Calling Campaign Script
I'm calling on behalf of Joshua Evans, inmate number 2412302095, a 23 year old detainee with type 1 diabetes. We demand that Joshua be moved to the proper facilities where his medication regimen and needs as a diabetic are fully and consistently provided. Rikers has been in consistent violation of Joshua’s human and inmate rights by not following through on the following asks:
- 4 medical visits at a consistent time for each day - 10am , 4pm, 9pm, 5am. His current location at the NIC has not provided this.
- 24-hour blood sugar monitoring by medical staff - His current location at the NIC has not provided this.
- administering of both long-lasting and fast-acting insulin - His current location at the NIC has not provided this.
- coordinated with meals and water intake - His current location at the NIC has not provided this.
Joshua’s blood sugar levels have remained elevated at over 250 due to Rikers’ miscarriages of justice. This is a threat to his life and limb. Have compassion and meet our demands now.
- Additionally, we demand that Deputy Green be investigated and reprimanded for harassment/abuses/intimidation against Joshia Evans. Aall required paperwork as well as requested documentation concerning her harassment/abuses/intimidation be provided to Joshua or his legal representation/family. Mr. Evans has a right to due process and fair classification that DOC must uphold.
- Lastly, we demand that all retaliatory actions taken against Mr. Evans be put to an end, that all unjustified searches and confiscations of Mr. Evans’ person/property cease, and that the records/procedures concerning all false allegations and disciplinary actions taken against Mr. Evans be provided to him, his legal representation, and/or his family. Again, Mr. Evans has a right to due process and fair classification that DOC must uphold.
Email Script
To Whom It May Concern,
I'm writing on behalf of Joshua Evans, inmate number 2412302095, a 23 year old detainee with type one diabetes whose blood sugar levels have remained high since December 24th, measuring at 250 because delivery of his insulin has not been consistent. Because Mr Evans has type 1 diabetes, his pancreas produces zero endogenous (natural) insulin: he requires exogenous (introduced) insulin for his survival. We demand that Joshua be placed in the proper facilities where he can be given 4 medical visits with 24-hour blood sugar monitoring by medical staff and administering of long-lasting as well as fast-acting insulin coordinated with meals and water. A consistent schedule – 10am , 4pm, 9pm, 5am – is vital for Joshua's life and in well within his rights as a human being and as an inmate.
In addition to the medical emergency, we are aware that Joshua Evans has been subjected to ongoing abuse, harassment, retaliation, cruel/unusual punishment and medical endangerment by Department of Correction staff, including Deputy Greene (badge no. 1396) and other correction officers.
Deputy Greene and other officers have repeatedly instigated harassment by bringing inmates from other housing units to provoke or attempt to fight Mr. Evans.
Mr. Evans has also been subjected to constant and unjustified searches and has had personal property repeatedly confiscated, including a notebook received through approved mail, without being provided any property receipt.
Officers have also routinely accused Mr. Evans of disrupting housing units without evidence, documentation, or disciplinary tickets, and without following required due-process procedures.
Instead of formal process, Mr. Evans has been punished through confiscation of personal items and food, repeated involuntary housing transfers, and being left unattended in hallways and on buses for extended periods.
Mr. Evans has also been falsely accused of instigating inmate fights, making threats, and attempting to stab an inmate or staff member, despite no evidence, witnesses, disciplinary tickets, or infraction records. In one instance, medical staff accused Mr. Evans of threatening or attempting to fight a male nurse after he simply refused consent for the nurse to touch him. No assault occurred, no threat was made, and no documentation was issued; nevertheless, Mr. Evans was punished, reclassified, and improperly moved into a 50+ housing unit at NIC, an unsafe and inappropriate environment where his medical needs are not being properly met by staff.
In the face of this long list of human and inmate rights abuses, Mr. Evans has attempted to file grievances but has been denied copies, tracking numbers, or access to his own grievance records, obstructing his ability to document abuse, seek protection, or defend himself against fabricated accusations and risks to his literal life.
Does Rikers/DOC respect Mr. Evans’ human rights and his rights as an inmate? If so, the following demands should be met:
- We demand that all of Mr Evans’ medical needs are immediately, fully, and consistently provided for in the proper medical unit. Mr. Evans requires 4 medical visits with 24-hour blood sugar monitoring by medical staff and administering of long-lasting as well as fast-acting insulin coordinated with meals and water– which DOC must uphold.
- We demand that Deputy Green be investigated and reprimanded, with all required paperwork as well as requested documentation concerning her harrassment/abuses/intimidation be provided to Joshua or his legal representation/family. Mr. Evans has a right to due process and fair classification that DOC must uphold.
- We demand that all retaliatory actions taken against Mr. Evans be put to an end, that all unjustified searches and confiscations of Mr. Evans’ person/property cease, and that the records/procedures concerning all false allegations and disciplinary actions taken against Mr. Evans be provided to him, his legal representation, and/or his family. Again, Mr. Evans has a right to due process and fair classification that DOC must uphold.
Image description 1:
Midnight blue background. Black square with a circular object at the center of it is in the top left corner of the frame. In blue letters we see the words “Rikers Systemic Abuse” followed by white-lettered text “Advocate for Joshua Evans.” In smaller font, “Abuse and Retaliation by Correction Staff Must End - Medical Neglect and Harassment” The inmate number is shown in white: #2412302095. Next there is a rectangular box with the words “Uniforms Don’t Excuse Abuse.” Contact info is shown at the bottom right corner of the frame: “Department of Corrections - email: correspondence@bop.nyc.gov” “Commission of Human Rights - email: inquiries@cchr.nyc.gov” “Department of Investigations - email: complaint@doi.nyc.gov”
To the left is some white letter text: “Contact: Email = Paper Trail”
A column of four letter x’s indicates the four things that are being denied, each noted:
Protection from staff retaliation
Consistent access to insulin and meals
Due process and fair classification
Basic human dignity
We see at the bottom of the frame some final words: “This must stop now. Act now. #FightForJoshua #MedicalNeglectKills #EndStaffAbuse”
Image description 2:
Midnight blue background. Blue circle at the center. In white font we see the following text: “NEGLECT HARRASSMENT ABUSE.” “JOSHUA EVANS DENIED HUMAN RIGHTS” - “Juvenile onset type 1 diabetes” - “requires regular insulin and meals” - “repeatedly transferred away from medical continuity” - “food, clothing, & items confiscated without cause: staff retaliation” “Email Now: constituentservices@doc.nyc.gov Final text in white font: “#ENDSTAFFABUSE”
Social media/virtual engagement
Please share the posts and toolkit and use the hashtags #FightForJoshua #BlackDiabeticsMatter #MedicalNeglectKills and #CloseRikers #EndStaffAbuse
Send updates to @nz_suekama on Instagram
If you have articles about medical neglect in the prison system, and connections between ableism, racism, class oppression please send along as well! Strong preference for intro level (101 level) resources!
If you know of ways to access pro bono legal representation or legal advice, please get in touch!
Additional Notes
You can call 311. But if you aren’t from NYC, you can have your local hotline transfer you and from there ask 311 to direct you to the Department of Corrections. More info on contact is here Contact Department of Correction
From someone named Ms. Glover - send details about the violations: boc@boc.nyc.gov
Political Education
The issues Joshua Evans is being faced with are not unique to his experience. Here are some questions for your reflection.
Did you know that Rikers Island is notorious for human rights abuses?
Are you aware that medical neglect is a staple feature of systematic racism in the prison system?
Have you ever heard of the term “carceral ableism”? What about the term “medical apartheid”?
Do you or any of your relatives, friends, community members, etc have any personal experiences with similar kinds of injustice?
From https://www.vera.org/its-a-torture-chamber
* In 2021, 16 people died on Rikers Island
* “You are not real anymore. You are less than human” - Eileen Maher, formerly spent 420 days detained on Rikers Island.
* No COVID protections on Rikers Island. Only 38% of those incarcerated in Dec 2021 were vaccinated and documented positive rates were at 17%. Mind you, COVID is known to affect the immune system, and type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease.
* Only allowed one hour of recreation, but is now cut down to no time outside of the cells due to staffing and (likely but not mentioned) to overcrowding.
* “Rikers Island is a torture chamber. It’s the worst place you could be.” -Jovada Senhouse, formerly spent two months detained on Rikers Island
* Account from Rikers being in “squalid conditions, rampant violence among and to detainees, and a lack of essential services such as food and water.”
* Elected officials touring Rikers called it “a horror house of abuse and neglect” where feces flowed from toilets onto floors, people slept without cots or bedding, and many went unfed and without basic medical care
* There has been an increase in use of excessive force incidents from “hyper-confrontational” staff
From
This is Rikers | The Marshall Project
* Rikers was once a slaughterhouse for pigs. It was then converted into a landfill with trash and manure. The island was full of rodents before it was turned into a prison. From its beginnings, Rikers has concentrated health hazards in its walls!
* The majority of those on Rikers Island are awaiting trial, or otherwise trapped by delays in the legal processes, unable to afford bail. This was the kind of situation that cost Kalief Browder his life.
* Gangs and officers collude around illicit networks of trade (drugs, sex, cigarettes).
* An inmate named Bradley Ballard suffered from cardiac arrest (heart attack) in his cell after being locked inside without food, water, or medicine. Mr Ballard was diabetic.
Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Professor of geography in Earth and Environmental Sciences at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York
“Racism, specifically, is the state-sanctioned or extralegal production and exploitation of group-differentiated vulnerabilities to premature death.”
Joshua Evans is dealing with this kind of racism. When people say the prison/jail is a systematically racist institution it is because there are formal and also technically illegal ways that prisons will sort certain groups into being more vulnerable than other groups to an early grave. Technically, Rikers cannot ignore Joshua’s medical needs, but they have, and in doing so they make him vulnerable to life-threatening health issues with the authority of those in power.
Harriet A. Washington, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present (2007)
"Medical apartheid" is a term used originally to describe the history of medical experimentation on African Americans. The term is expanded to describe the "racial health gap," which Washington describes as "a chasm wider and deeper than a mass grave. This gulf has riven our nation so dramatically that it appears as if we are considering the health profiles of people in two different countries - a medical apartheid." (2006)
Joshua Evans is facing this kind of apartheid. Despite living in a country with immense access to resources, his experience of health is almost like he existed outside the nation. This is a contradiction. In the mid-to-late 20th century, Black revolutionaries in the US often used the term "apartheid" from South Africa and "colonialism" from other contexts, to describe the differential outcomes faced here for Black communities versus white America. Even the term "ghetto" to describe experiences in poverty-stricken hoods was originally a reference to the struggles of minoritized ethnic groups outside the US.
When Joshua was first diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes as a kid, it was after moving back to one of the most heavily polluted boroughs in the city (the Bronx), where environmental hazards such as unclean air disproportionately cause all kinds of illnesses and ailments in poor and nonwhite communities. These are areas that face medical apartheid on a daily; to then be shut in a jail built on a landfill, and denied life-saving medication, means that Joshua now finds himself squeezed into a more concentrated battle with medical apartheid than ever before. His is an experience shared with others locally and abroad living under racist conditions.
Liat Ben-Moshe, Associate Professor of Criminology, Law and Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago
“Ableism” is a term to describe “the oppression faced due to disability/impairment (perceived or lived) which signals disability not only as a form of difference but constructs it as inferior,” according to Ben-Moshe.
Now, in the criminal legal system, ableism becomes “carceral” (connected to mass incarceration). In that context, a “carceral ableism” describes “the practice and the belief” that disabled/mad people need special protections in ways that often increase their proximity to carcerality and vulnerability to death,” writes Ben-Moshe.
Joshua Evans is facing carceral ableism. Like many families of disabled and sick folks, Mister Evans’ relatives often prefer to use “person-first” language to describe his experience of type 1 diabetes. This kind of choice is an awareness that in an Ableist society, health differentials are not just painted as a distinct experience of the body, but rather as a marker of inferiority, lesser-than status.
Ableism is baked into systematic racial oppression. Many stereotypes or narratives about a “criminal pathology” in the so-called hood (often blamed on so-called “single mothers” or “absent fathers”) get used to frame up poor and non-white communities. A pathology literally refers to a disease; systemic racism/classism uses white standards about family structure to suggest that all Black, working class folks have a disease of the mind that makes us predisposed to criminal activity. The police profile us and jails or prisons are filled with us because of these narratives.
There’s something very paternalistic about ableism in the carceral state. The prison/jail bills itself as a mechanism to help people reform or change, but creates a torture chamber instead that merely concentrates social issues in its walls. This is a contradiction. Joshua Evans is being held without bond and facing incredible delays in the legal process, with assumptions about his case from media narratives floating around him. Presumed a criminal, Rikers’ miscarriages of justice feel like attempts to “fix” a so-called “criminal pathology” by pushing him to an early grave. This is something that is often done to marginalized people, and it becomes most pronounced when folks in jail or in prison have health issues or disabilities.
Updates
- 12:40pm, 1/5/2026, I got word that Investigation Unit visited Josh this morning
- I am in touch with Freedom Agenda and with Jailhouse Lawyers Speaks
- 1/6/2026, Joshua got a visit from a sergeant to write a report
- 4:40pm, 1/7/2026, I spoke to Joshua on the phone about his circumstances
- 7:38, 1/11/2026, We need a medical alert, mostly high because insulin is not consistent. He needs 10am , 4pm, 9pm, 5am .. the NIC where he is cannot provide this medical. We need this now. Today. Dec 24th sugar levels have remained over 250 at every medical check.
- 6:00pm, 1/29/2026, Dr.Patrick has put weekly request for Joshua to be transferred out. Joshua has had sugar levels over 500+ and a new A1C at 11.. so from 6.5 to an 11 since he was removed from a required medical area
December 2024 Phone Zap
Background/Context:
Joshua Evans, Brooklyn-born, Bronx-raised, is currently being held without bond on Rikers Island as a murder suspect behind accusations of gang involvement. We are not at license to share details of the case, but like many Black, working class folks in the city of New York, Mr. Evans’ has been too long held in pretrial detention, unfairly made a public spectacle in media about criminal elements among youth, and ultimately suffered routine, unlawful human and inmates’ rights violations. The most concerning for us is medical neglect: Joshua Evans has type 1 diabetes and in accordance with the Department of Corrections’ own medical standards, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment has a right to life-saving medical care/treatment. Rikers has already been under fire more than once because of its gross miscarriages of justice for New Yorkers held by the criminal legal system, and this continues a pattern of systemic injustice, including ableism, class oppression, and racism that has gone on for too long. Please support Joshua Evans’ family and friends in getting him the medical care he needs and also raising the alarm on behalf of all those facing medical neglect. Thank you!
Target goals - MAKE CALLS & SEND EMAILS
- Get Joshua transferred from gen-pop to NIC (North Infirmary Command) medical unit. Joshua was only recently moved to gen-pop after months of being kept in a solitary unit.
- Apply pressure so that Joshua’s medication regimen and needs as a diabetic are fully and consistently provided.
- 3 medical visits at a consistent time for each day
- 24-hour blood sugar monitoring by medical staff
- administering of both long-lasting and fast-acting insulin
- coordinated with meals and water intake
Image description 1:
Midnight blue background. Black square with a circular object at the center of it is in the top left corner of the frame. In blue letters we see the words “When Rikers Denies Insulin They Deny Life” followed by white-lettered text “Save Joshua Evans.” In smaller font, “Not Just Joshua - End Medical Neglect at Rikers.” The inmate number is shown in white: #2412302095. Next there is a rectangular box with the words “No Insulin = Death.” Contact info is shown at the bottom right corner of the frame: Department of Corrections - (718)-546-1500. Correctional Health Services (347)-774-7000. To the left is some white letter text: “What is Joshua getting at Rikers? Nothing!!!” A column of four letter x’s indicates the four things that are being denied, each noted: Proper insulin, regular testing, coordinated meals, basic human dignity. We see at the bottom of the frame some final words: “This must stop now. Act now. #InsulinIsARight #SaveJoshuaEvans”
Image description 2:
Midnight blue background. Blue circle at the center. In white font we see the following text: “MEDICAL EMERGENCY AT RIKERS.” “Joshua Evans is being denied life-saving insulin - Type 1 Diabetic - Needs 3 Medical visits daily - Getting NONE - Transferred away from medical neglect.” Then in black font we see - “Call Now: 212-669-7900, 212-577-3530, 212-825-5900” Additional text in black font - “Email Now: intake@nyclu.org DOI@doi.nyc.gov rharebey@legal-aid.org constituentservices@doc.nyc.gov Final text in white font: “#JusticeForJoshua #RikersMedicalNeglect”
Calling campaign script
I'm calling on behalf of Joshua Evans, inmate number 2412302095, a 22 year old type 1 diabetic being unjustly denied life-saving medical treatment. Mr. Evans must be transferred to NIC[1] medical unit IMMEDIATELY. He requires 3 medical visits with 24-hour blood sugar monitoring by medical staff and administering of long-lasting as well as fast-acting insulin coordinated with meals and water– in order to maintain his health. However, GRVC has denied him his proper treatment regimen since December 18th, and currently Mr. Evans is in general population without access to the care he needs to live. This is a violation of his medical, inmate and human rights and we demand that Joshua Evans be transferred to NIC and actually provided with the medical treatment he needs.
Social media/virtual engagement
Please share the posts and toolkit and use the hashtags #JusticeForJoshua #BlackDiabeticsMatter #MedicalNeglectKills and #CloseRikers
Send updates to @nz_suekama on Instagram
If you have articles about medical neglect in the prison system, and connections between ableism, racism, class oppression please send along as well! Strong preference for intro level (101 level) resources!
If you know of ways to access pro bono legal representation or legal advice, please get in touch!
Email script
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing to report an urgent and ongoing violation of medical rights and the Americans with Disabilities Act regarding Joshua Evans, a Type 1 diabetic currently detained at GRVC[2] Facility on Rikers Island.
Mr. Evans requires consistent medical care for Type 1 Juvenile Diabetes, including:
- Minimum of 3 blood sugar tests daily
- Regular administration of both long-lasting and fast-acting insulin
- Coordinated timing of insulin with meals
- Access to water when blood sugar levels are elevated
- Consistent access to medical staff
Current Violations:
- On December 18, 2024, Mr. Evans was transferred to GRVC general population instead of the promised NIC facility, where proper medical care would have been available.
- As of December 19, 2024, Mr. Evans has received only one morning medical visit, far below the minimum standard of care for Type 1 diabetes management.
- As of December 24th, 2024, Mr Evans was provided long-acting insulin and had his blood sugar monitored briefly. But he still has no food and was denied the necessary combination of both long-acting and fast-acting insulin on the morning of 25th December. Joshua Evans also has not had all his 3, necessary medical visits and Rikers Medical has falsely claimed that Mr Evans does not “need” fast-acting insulin.
- As of 26th December a reported transfer for Joshua to NIC was interrupted by a random lockdown which put a stop to any such plans. Joshua was unable to contact family during the lockdown, and of course could not access medical treatment as his relatives have been demanding. The following day, 27th of December, Joshua’s blood sugar levels reached above 250 and he still has not been nor was given fast-acting insulin in order to lower his blood sugar levels, a necessary pre-requisite for any possible food intake.
- This represents an ongoing pattern of medical neglect, including:
- Denial of proper insulin administration
- Denial of access to food during treatment
- Denial of water when blood sugar levels are elevated
- Insufficient medical monitoring
These violations put Mr. Evans at immediate risk of serious medical complications, including diabetic ketoacidosis, which can be life-threatening. This treatment violates:
- The Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment
- The Americans with Disabilities Act
- NYC Department of Correction's own medical care standards
- Basic human rights standards for incarcerated individuals
Immediate Actions Required:
- Transfer Mr. Evans to appropriate medical housing (NIC) as previously promised
- Implement proper diabetes management protocol including regular testing and insulin administration (both long-acting and fast-acting)
- Ensure consistent access to medical staff
- Provide documentation of all medical care given
- Investigate the pattern of medical neglect
We request an immediate response and intervention in this matter. Should this situation not be remedied within 24 hours, we will be forced to seek emergency court intervention.
Please respond with your immediate action plan to address these violations.
Additional Notes
You can call 311. But if you aren’t from NYC, you can have your local hotline transfer you and from there ask 311 to direct you to the Department of Corrections. More info on contact is here Contact Department of Correction
From someone named Ms. Glover - send details about the violations: boc@boc.nyc.gov
Political Education
The issues Joshua Evans is being faced with are not unique to his experience. Here are some questions for your reflection.
Did you know that Rikers Island is notorious for human rights abuses?
Are you aware that medical neglect is a staple feature of systematic racism in the prison system?
Have you ever heard of the term “carceral ableism”? What about the term “medical apartheid”?
Do you or any of your relatives, friends, community members, etc have any personal experiences with similar kinds of injustice?
From https://www.vera.org/its-a-torture-chamber
* In 2021, 16 people died on Rikers Island
* “You are not real anymore. You are less than human” - Eileen Maher, formerly spent 420 days detained on Rikers Island.
* No COVID protections on Rikers Island. Only 38% of those incarcerated in Dec 2021 were vaccinated and documented positive rates were at 17%. Mind you, COVID is known to affect the immune system, and type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease.
* Only allowed one hour of recreation, but is now cut down to no time outside of the cells due to staffing and (likely but not mentioned) to overcrowding.
* “Rikers Island is a torture chamber. It’s the worst place you could be.” -Jovada Senhouse, formerly spent two months detained on Rikers Island
* Account from Rikers being in “squalid conditions, rampant violence among and to detainees, and a lack of essential services such as food and water.”
* Elected officials touring Rikers called it “a horror house of abuse and neglect” where feces flowed from toilets onto floors, people slept without cots or bedding, and many went unfed and without basic medical care
* There has been an increase in use of excessive force incidents from “hyper-confrontational” staff
From
This is Rikers | The Marshall Project
* Rikers was once a slaughterhouse for pigs. It was then converted into a landfill with trash and manure. The island was full of rodents before it was turned into a prison. From its beginnings, Rikers has concentrated health hazards in its walls!
* The majority of those on Rikers Island are awaiting trial, or otherwise trapped by delays in the legal processes, unable to afford bail. This was the kind of situation that cost Kalief Browder his life.
* Gangs and officers collude around illicit networks of trade (drugs, sex, cigarettes).
* An inmate named Bradley Ballard suffered from cardiac arrest (heart attack) in his cell after being locked inside without food, water, or medicine. Mr Ballard was diabetic.
Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Professor of geography in Earth and Environmental Sciences at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York
“Racism, specifically, is the state-sanctioned or extralegal production and exploitation of group-differentiated vulnerabilities to premature death.”
Joshua Evans is dealing with this kind of racism. When people say the prison/jail is a systematically racist institution it is because there are formal and also technically illegal ways that prisons will sort certain groups into being more vulnerable than other groups to an early grave. Technically, Rikers cannot ignore Joshua’s medical needs, but they have, and in doing so they make him vulnerable to life-threatening health issues with the authority of those in power.
Harriet A. Washington, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present (2007)
"Medical apartheid" is a term used originally to describe the history of medical experimentation on African Americans. The term is expanded to describe the "racial health gap," which Washington describes as "a chasm wider and deeper than a mass grave. This gulf has riven our nation so dramatically that it appears as if we are considering the health profiles of people in two different countries - a medical apartheid." (2006)
Joshua Evans is facing this kind of apartheid. Despite living in a country with immense access to resources, his experience of health is almost like he existed outside the nation. This is a contradiction. In the mid-to-late 20th century, Black revolutionaries in the US often used the term "apartheid" from South Africa and "colonialism" from other contexts, to describe the differential outcomes faced here for Black communities versus white America. Even the term "ghetto" to describe experiences in poverty-stricken hoods was originally a reference to the struggles of minoritized ethnic groups outside the US.
When Joshua was first diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes as a kid, it was after moving back to one of the most heavily polluted boroughs in the city (the Bronx), where environmental hazards such as unclean air disproportionately cause all kinds of illnesses and ailments in poor and nonwhite communities. These are areas that face medical apartheid on a daily; to then be shut in a jail built on a landfill, and denied life-saving medication, means that Joshua now finds himself squeezed into a more concentrated battle with medical apartheid than ever before. His is an experience shared with others locally and abroad living under racist conditions.
Liat Ben-Moshe, Associate Professor of Criminology, Law and Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago
“Ableism” is a term to describe “the oppression faced due to disability/impairment (perceived or lived) which signals disability not only as a form of difference but constructs it as inferior,” according to Ben-Moshe.
Now, in the criminal legal system, ableism becomes “carceral” (connected to mass incarceration). In that context, a “carceral ableism” describes “the practice and the belief” that disabled/mad people need special protections in ways that often increase their proximity to carcerality and vulnerability to death,” writes Ben-Moshe.
Joshua Evans is facing carceral ableism. Like many families of disabled and sick folks, Mister Evans’ relatives often prefer to use “person-first” language to describe his experience of type 1 diabetes. This kind of choice is an awareness that in an Ableist society, health differentials are not just painted as a distinct experience of the body, but rather as a marker of inferiority, lesser-than status.
Ableism is baked into systematic racial oppression. Many stereotypes or narratives about a “criminal pathology” in the so-called hood (often blamed on so-called “single mothers” or “absent fathers”) get used to frame up poor and non-white communities. A pathology literally refers to a disease; systemic racism/classism uses white standards about family structure to suggest that all Black, working class folks have a disease of the mind that makes us predisposed to criminal activity. The police profile us and jails or prisons are filled with us because of these narratives.
There’s something very paternalistic about ableism in the carceral state. The prison/jail bills itself as a mechanism to help people reform or change, but creates a torture chamber instead that merely concentrates social issues in its walls. This is a contradiction. Joshua Evans is being held without bond and facing incredible delays in the legal process, with assumptions about his case from media narratives floating around him. Presumed a criminal, Rikers’ miscarriages of justice feel like attempts to “fix” a so-called “criminal pathology” by pushing him to an early grave. This is something that is often done to marginalized people, and it becomes most pronounced when folks in jail or in prison have health issues or disabilities.
Updates
25th December 2024 -
Calls made a slight effect
COs got concerned
Rikers Medical has not followed through with all the demands
Joshua Evans was provided Lantus 24th december (long-acting insulin)
He had his blood sugar monitored
He still has no food
Denied both Lantus and fast-acting insulin morning of 25th December
He has not had all his 3, necessary medical visits
Rikers has claimed that Mr Evans has no “need” for fast-acting insulin
26th December 2024 -
Family member hosting a zoom call to get folks on-board with a phone zap/emailing campaign and introduced to the toolkit
Talking about how former Black Panther, imam Jamil Al-Amin is facing life-threatening medical neglect while behind bars as well.
Talking about how former Black Panther, Assata Shakur’s autobiography describes similar conditions of medical neglect in prison.
Reflecting on heavy emotions in this time period, especially during holidays.
Recitation of “The Affirmation” by Assata
Going over the toolkit
Beginning calls at 11am
GRVC was put on lock down - Joshua was about to be moved to NIC but the lockdowns prevented all detainees from having medical visits. Joshua did get some food but chose to not eat properly because his blood sugar is still high and he has not gotten his full insulin treatment. Joshua does not have his tablet - they are cutting him off from technological access. All demands have yet to be met.
Bronx Community Justice Center is sending information about Joshua’s plight to City Council
30th December, 2024 -
Reports from supporters of Joshua on the outside who have made calls/sent emails indicate the following:
Clinic staff confirmed he came down yesterday (29th December) for a finger stick (to check his blood sugar).
Clinic staff indicate that he declined to come down on a separate occasion to see the doctor (reportedly stating that he would see them another time)
Clinic staff claim he is on the PM list for insulin today (30th December 2024)
Important response from Joshua’s mother:
Supporters making calls/sending emails should clarify with any staff what exactly Joshua’s blood sugar numbers are and why.
Supporters should be aware that according to records, Joshua is not being given insulin above 250 blood sugar levels. Therefore when he has visited, the staff have refused to provide even long-term insulin. Since being in the GRVC in particular, Joshua is being denied the fast-acting insulin which is necessary for any meals/food intake – this is why he’s refused to go (because his blood sugar levels are already high at that point. This predicament forces Joshua to have to ration out portions across the day, a survival strategy that is not at all ideal!).
Supporters should understand that essentially Rikers is incorrectly managing Joshua as if he were a type 2 diabetic rather than a type 1 diabetic. The distinction is important: with type 2 diabetes, it would be sufficient to provide long-lasting insulin only, without any urgent treatment via fast-acting insulin. This distinction is being obscured when supporters make calls because the staff understand that HIPAA prevents them from providing details of an inmate’s medical history.
Connections to other medical neglect struggles in US prisons
Imam Jamil Al-Amin
520-663-5000 (Designation and Sentence Computation Center)
“Please grant Jamil Al-Amin an emergency transfer from United States Penitentiary (USP) Tucson to Federal Medical Center (FMC) Butner for his immediate medical treatment. Mr. Al-Amin is a beloved elder dealing with a growth on his face that is life-threatening. Nobody, regardless of status, should be subjected to medical neglect.”
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Badge #1396 -
Deputy Green,
Captain # 1775,
harassing, forcing him, spraying, lining , swinging on him, teasing that he will call his mother. Threatening him uncalled for, scanner consistently, uncalled for trays, and other CO Threatening him and disabled inmates. Baiting him with verbal assault, taking about him loud ....I'm sending this so I can keep track
Been adjourning for so long (prolonging pretrial detention). No evidence that he committed crime.
Lawyer has not made appointment to speak with him. Hasnt been able to get a trial date bc of being bombarded with other clients.
Looking for another lawyer.
Copy of December 2024 Phone Zap
Background/Context:
Joshua Evans, Brooklyn-born, Bronx-raised, is currently being held without bond on Rikers Island as a murder suspect behind accusations of gang involvement. We are not at license to share details of the case, but like many Black, working class folks in the city of New York, Mr. Evans’ has been too long held in pretrial detention, unfairly made a public spectacle in media about criminal elements among youth, and ultimately suffered routine, unlawful human and inmates’ rights violations. The most concerning for us is medical neglect: Joshua Evans has type 1 diabetes and in accordance with the Department of Corrections’ own medical standards, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment has a right to life-saving medical care/treatment. Rikers has already been under fire more than once because of its gross miscarriages of justice for New Yorkers held by the criminal legal system, and this continues a pattern of systemic injustice, including ableism, class oppression, and racism that has gone on for too long. Please support Joshua Evans’ family and friends in getting him the medical care he needs and also raising the alarm on behalf of all those facing medical neglect. Thank you!
Target goals - MAKE CALLS & SEND EMAILS
- Get Joshua transferred from gen-pop to NIC (North Infirmary Command) medical unit. Joshua was only recently moved to gen-pop after months of being kept in a solitary unit.
- Apply pressure so that Joshua’s medication regimen and needs as a diabetic are fully and consistently provided.
- 3 medical visits at a consistent time for each day
- 24-hour blood sugar monitoring by medical staff
- administering of both long-lasting and fast-acting insulin
- coordinated with meals and water intake
Image description 1:
Midnight blue background. Black square with a circular object at the center of it is in the top left corner of the frame. In blue letters we see the words “When Rikers Denies Insulin They Deny Life” followed by white-lettered text “Save Joshua Evans.” In smaller font, “Not Just Joshua - End Medical Neglect at Rikers.” The inmate number is shown in white: #2412302095. Next there is a rectangular box with the words “No Insulin = Death.” Contact info is shown at the bottom right corner of the frame: Department of Corrections - (718)-546-1500. Correctional Health Services (347)-774-7000. To the left is some white letter text: “What is Joshua getting at Rikers? Nothing!!!” A column of four letter x’s indicates the four things that are being denied, each noted: Proper insulin, regular testing, coordinated meals, basic human dignity. We see at the bottom of the frame some final words: “This must stop now. Act now. #InsulinIsARight #SaveJoshuaEvans”
Image description 2:
Midnight blue background. Blue circle at the center. In white font we see the following text: “MEDICAL EMERGENCY AT RIKERS.” “Joshua Evans is being denied life-saving insulin - Type 1 Diabetic - Needs 3 Medical visits daily - Getting NONE - Transferred away from medical neglect.” Then in black font we see - “Call Now: 212-669-7900, 212-577-3530, 212-825-5900” Additional text in black font - “Email Now: intake@nyclu.org DOI@doi.nyc.gov rharebey@legal-aid.org constituentservices@doc.nyc.gov Final text in white font: “#JusticeForJoshua #RikersMedicalNeglect”
Calling campaign script
I'm calling on behalf of Joshua Evans, inmate number 2412302095, a 22 year old type 1 diabetic being unjustly denied life-saving medical treatment. Mr. Evans must be transferred to NIC[3] medical unit IMMEDIATELY. He requires 3 medical visits with 24-hour blood sugar monitoring by medical staff and administering of long-lasting as well as fast-acting insulin coordinated with meals and water– in order to maintain his health. However, GRVC has denied him his proper treatment regimen since December 18th, and currently Mr. Evans is in general population without access to the care he needs to live. This is a violation of his medical, inmate and human rights and we demand that Joshua Evans be transferred to NIC and actually provided with the medical treatment he needs.
Social media/virtual engagement
Please share the posts and toolkit and use the hashtags #JusticeForJoshua #BlackDiabeticsMatter #MedicalNeglectKills and #CloseRikers
Send updates to @nz_suekama on Instagram
If you have articles about medical neglect in the prison system, and connections between ableism, racism, class oppression please send along as well! Strong preference for intro level (101 level) resources!
If you know of ways to access pro bono legal representation or legal advice, please get in touch!
Email script
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing to report an urgent and ongoing violation of medical rights and the Americans with Disabilities Act regarding Joshua Evans, a Type 1 diabetic currently detained at GRVC[4] Facility on Rikers Island.
Mr. Evans requires consistent medical care for Type 1 Juvenile Diabetes, including:
- Minimum of 3 blood sugar tests daily
- Regular administration of both long-lasting and fast-acting insulin
- Coordinated timing of insulin with meals
- Access to water when blood sugar levels are elevated
- Consistent access to medical staff
Current Violations:
- On December 18, 2024, Mr. Evans was transferred to GRVC general population instead of the promised NIC facility, where proper medical care would have been available.
- As of December 19, 2024, Mr. Evans has received only one morning medical visit, far below the minimum standard of care for Type 1 diabetes management.
- As of December 24th, 2024, Mr Evans was provided long-acting insulin and had his blood sugar monitored briefly. But he still has no food and was denied the necessary combination of both long-acting and fast-acting insulin on the morning of 25th December. Joshua Evans also has not had all his 3, necessary medical visits and Rikers Medical has falsely claimed that Mr Evans does not “need” fast-acting insulin.
- As of 26th December a reported transfer for Joshua to NIC was interrupted by a random lockdown which put a stop to any such plans. Joshua was unable to contact family during the lockdown, and of course could not access medical treatment as his relatives have been demanding. The following day, 27th of December, Joshua’s blood sugar levels reached above 250 and he still has not been nor was given fast-acting insulin in order to lower his blood sugar levels, a necessary pre-requisite for any possible food intake.
- This represents an ongoing pattern of medical neglect, including:
- Denial of proper insulin administration
- Denial of access to food during treatment
- Denial of water when blood sugar levels are elevated
- Insufficient medical monitoring
These violations put Mr. Evans at immediate risk of serious medical complications, including diabetic ketoacidosis, which can be life-threatening. This treatment violates:
- The Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment
- The Americans with Disabilities Act
- NYC Department of Correction's own medical care standards
- Basic human rights standards for incarcerated individuals
Immediate Actions Required:
- Transfer Mr. Evans to appropriate medical housing (NIC) as previously promised
- Implement proper diabetes management protocol including regular testing and insulin administration (both long-acting and fast-acting)
- Ensure consistent access to medical staff
- Provide documentation of all medical care given
- Investigate the pattern of medical neglect
We request an immediate response and intervention in this matter. Should this situation not be remedied within 24 hours, we will be forced to seek emergency court intervention.
Please respond with your immediate action plan to address these violations.
Additional Notes
You can call 311. But if you aren’t from NYC, you can have your local hotline transfer you and from there ask 311 to direct you to the Department of Corrections. More info on contact is here Contact Department of Correction
From someone named Ms. Glover - send details about the violations: boc@boc.nyc.gov
Political Education
The issues Joshua Evans is being faced with are not unique to his experience. Here are some questions for your reflection.
Did you know that Rikers Island is notorious for human rights abuses?
Are you aware that medical neglect is a staple feature of systematic racism in the prison system?
Have you ever heard of the term “carceral ableism”? What about the term “medical apartheid”?
Do you or any of your relatives, friends, community members, etc have any personal experiences with similar kinds of injustice?
From https://www.vera.org/its-a-torture-chamber
* In 2021, 16 people died on Rikers Island
* “You are not real anymore. You are less than human” - Eileen Maher, formerly spent 420 days detained on Rikers Island.
* No COVID protections on Rikers Island. Only 38% of those incarcerated in Dec 2021 were vaccinated and documented positive rates were at 17%. Mind you, COVID is known to affect the immune system, and type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease.
* Only allowed one hour of recreation, but is now cut down to no time outside of the cells due to staffing and (likely but not mentioned) to overcrowding.
* “Rikers Island is a torture chamber. It’s the worst place you could be.” -Jovada Senhouse, formerly spent two months detained on Rikers Island
* Account from Rikers being in “squalid conditions, rampant violence among and to detainees, and a lack of essential services such as food and water.”
* Elected officials touring Rikers called it “a horror house of abuse and neglect” where feces flowed from toilets onto floors, people slept without cots or bedding, and many went unfed and without basic medical care
* There has been an increase in use of excessive force incidents from “hyper-confrontational” staff
From
This is Rikers | The Marshall Project
* Rikers was once a slaughterhouse for pigs. It was then converted into a landfill with trash and manure. The island was full of rodents before it was turned into a prison. From its beginnings, Rikers has concentrated health hazards in its walls!
* The majority of those on Rikers Island are awaiting trial, or otherwise trapped by delays in the legal processes, unable to afford bail. This was the kind of situation that cost Kalief Browder his life.
* Gangs and officers collude around illicit networks of trade (drugs, sex, cigarettes).
* An inmate named Bradley Ballard suffered from cardiac arrest (heart attack) in his cell after being locked inside without food, water, or medicine. Mr Ballard was diabetic.
Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Professor of geography in Earth and Environmental Sciences at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York
“Racism, specifically, is the state-sanctioned or extralegal production and exploitation of group-differentiated vulnerabilities to premature death.”
Joshua Evans is dealing with this kind of racism. When people say the prison/jail is a systematically racist institution it is because there are formal and also technically illegal ways that prisons will sort certain groups into being more vulnerable than other groups to an early grave. Technically, Rikers cannot ignore Joshua’s medical needs, but they have, and in doing so they make him vulnerable to life-threatening health issues with the authority of those in power.
Harriet A. Washington, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present (2007)
"Medical apartheid" is a term used originally to describe the history of medical experimentation on African Americans. The term is expanded to describe the "racial health gap," which Washington describes as "a chasm wider and deeper than a mass grave. This gulf has riven our nation so dramatically that it appears as if we are considering the health profiles of people in two different countries - a medical apartheid." (2006)
Joshua Evans is facing this kind of apartheid. Despite living in a country with immense access to resources, his experience of health is almost like he existed outside the nation. This is a contradiction. In the mid-to-late 20th century, Black revolutionaries in the US often used the term "apartheid" from South Africa and "colonialism" from other contexts, to describe the differential outcomes faced here for Black communities versus white America. Even the term "ghetto" to describe experiences in poverty-stricken hoods was originally a reference to the struggles of minoritized ethnic groups outside the US.
When Joshua was first diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes as a kid, it was after moving back to one of the most heavily polluted boroughs in the city (the Bronx), where environmental hazards such as unclean air disproportionately cause all kinds of illnesses and ailments in poor and nonwhite communities. These are areas that face medical apartheid on a daily; to then be shut in a jail built on a landfill, and denied life-saving medication, means that Joshua now finds himself squeezed into a more concentrated battle with medical apartheid than ever before. His is an experience shared with others locally and abroad living under racist conditions.
Liat Ben-Moshe, Associate Professor of Criminology, Law and Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago
“Ableism” is a term to describe “the oppression faced due to disability/impairment (perceived or lived) which signals disability not only as a form of difference but constructs it as inferior,” according to Ben-Moshe.
Now, in the criminal legal system, ableism becomes “carceral” (connected to mass incarceration). In that context, a “carceral ableism” describes “the practice and the belief” that disabled/mad people need special protections in ways that often increase their proximity to carcerality and vulnerability to death,” writes Ben-Moshe.
Joshua Evans is facing carceral ableism. Like many families of disabled and sick folks, Mister Evans’ relatives often prefer to use “person-first” language to describe his experience of type 1 diabetes. This kind of choice is an awareness that in an Ableist society, health differentials are not just painted as a distinct experience of the body, but rather as a marker of inferiority, lesser-than status.
Ableism is baked into systematic racial oppression. Many stereotypes or narratives about a “criminal pathology” in the so-called hood (often blamed on so-called “single mothers” or “absent fathers”) get used to frame up poor and non-white communities. A pathology literally refers to a disease; systemic racism/classism uses white standards about family structure to suggest that all Black, working class folks have a disease of the mind that makes us predisposed to criminal activity. The police profile us and jails or prisons are filled with us because of these narratives.
There’s something very paternalistic about ableism in the carceral state. The prison/jail bills itself as a mechanism to help people reform or change, but creates a torture chamber instead that merely concentrates social issues in its walls. This is a contradiction. Joshua Evans is being held without bond and facing incredible delays in the legal process, with assumptions about his case from media narratives floating around him. Presumed a criminal, Rikers’ miscarriages of justice feel like attempts to “fix” a so-called “criminal pathology” by pushing him to an early grave. This is something that is often done to marginalized people, and it becomes most pronounced when folks in jail or in prison have health issues or disabilities.
Updates
25th December 2024 -
Calls made a slight effect
COs got concerned
Rikers Medical has not followed through with all the demands
Joshua Evans was provided Lantus 24th december (long-acting insulin)
He had his blood sugar monitored
He still has no food
Denied both Lantus and fast-acting insulin morning of 25th December
He has not had all his 3, necessary medical visits
Rikers has claimed that Mr Evans has no “need” for fast-acting insulin
26th December 2024 -
Family member hosting a zoom call to get folks on-board with a phone zap/emailing campaign and introduced to the toolkit
Talking about how former Black Panther, imam Jamil Al-Amin is facing life-threatening medical neglect while behind bars as well.
Talking about how former Black Panther, Assata Shakur’s autobiography describes similar conditions of medical neglect in prison.
Reflecting on heavy emotions in this time period, especially during holidays.
Recitation of “The Affirmation” by Assata
Going over the toolkit
Beginning calls at 11am
GRVC was put on lock down - Joshua was about to be moved to NIC but the lockdowns prevented all detainees from having medical visits. Joshua did get some food but chose to not eat properly because his blood sugar is still high and he has not gotten his full insulin treatment. Joshua does not have his tablet - they are cutting him off from technological access. All demands have yet to be met.
Bronx Community Justice Center is sending information about Joshua’s plight to City Council
30th December, 2024 -
Reports from supporters of Joshua on the outside who have made calls/sent emails indicate the following:
Clinic staff confirmed he came down yesterday (29th December) for a finger stick (to check his blood sugar).
Clinic staff indicate that he declined to come down on a separate occasion to see the doctor (reportedly stating that he would see them another time)
Clinic staff claim he is on the PM list for insulin today (30th December 2024)
Important response from Joshua’s mother:
Supporters making calls/sending emails should clarify with any staff what exactly Joshua’s blood sugar numbers are and why.
Supporters should be aware that according to records, Joshua is not being given insulin above 250 blood sugar levels. Therefore when he has visited, the staff have refused to provide even long-term insulin. Since being in the GRVC in particular, Joshua is being denied the fast-acting insulin which is necessary for any meals/food intake – this is why he’s refused to go (because his blood sugar levels are already high at that point. This predicament forces Joshua to have to ration out portions across the day, a survival strategy that is not at all ideal!).
Supporters should understand that essentially Rikers is incorrectly managing Joshua as if he were a type 2 diabetic rather than a type 1 diabetic. The distinction is important: with type 2 diabetes, it would be sufficient to provide long-lasting insulin only, without any urgent treatment via fast-acting insulin. This distinction is being obscured when supporters make calls because the staff understand that HIPAA prevents them from providing details of an inmate’s medical history.
Connections to other medical neglect struggles in US prisons
Imam Jamil Al-Amin
520-663-5000 (Designation and Sentence Computation Center)
“Please grant Jamil Al-Amin an emergency transfer from United States Penitentiary (USP) Tucson to Federal Medical Center (FMC) Butner for his immediate medical treatment. Mr. Al-Amin is a beloved elder dealing with a growth on his face that is life-threatening. Nobody, regardless of status, should be subjected to medical neglect.”
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Badge #1396 -
Deputy Green,
Captain # 1775,
harassing, forcing him, spraying, lining , swinging on him, teasing that he will call his mother. Threatening him uncalled for, scanner consistently, uncalled for trays, and other CO Threatening him and disabled inmates. Baiting him with verbal assault, taking about him loud ....I'm sending this so I can keep track
Been adjourning for so long (prolonging pretrial detention). No evidence that he committed crime.
Lawyer has not made appointment to speak with him. Hasnt been able to get a trial date bc of being bombarded with other clients.
Looking for another lawyer.
[1] North Infirmary Command
[2] George R. Vierno Center, where inmates are typically kept in a cell for 23 hours a day
[3] North Infirmary Command
[4] George R. Vierno Center, where inmates are typically kept in a cell for 23 hours a day