Occupy activist Cecily McMillan released from jail after two months

[Joe Shlabotnik]

Cecily McMillan, the Occupy Wall Street activist who was imprisoned for assaulting a police officer, was released on Wednesday after spending eight weeks at New York’s Rikers Island jail.

McMillan, 25, left the facility after serving two thirds of the three-month jail sentence that she received in May for deliberately striking NYPD officer Grantley Bovell as he led her away from a protest in lower Manhattan in 2012. She now faces five years of probation.

At a press conference on Wednesday afternoon beside the entrance bridge to Rikers Island, in Queens, McMillan read a lengthy statement that she said was on behalf of a group of female inmates in which she called for better access to healthcare, drug rehabilitation services and education inside the jail.

"I am inspired by the resilient community I have encountered in a system that is stacked against us," she said. Promising to continue her activism, she said: "The court sent me here to frighten me and others into silencing our dissent, but I am proud to walk out saying that the 99% is, in fact, stronger than ever. We will continue to fight until we gain all the rights we deserve as citizens".

More: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/02/occupy-activist-cecily-mcmillan-released

Cecily McMillan Released from Rikers Island: Uses Platform to Challenge Systemic Injustices Incarcerated Women Face Daily

The Following is Cecily’s Statement as read to members of the press at 1pm EST:

“Fifty nine days ago, The City and State of New York labeled me a criminal. Millionaires and billionaire–who had a vested interest in silencing a peaceful protest about the growing inequalities in America–coerced the justice system, manipulated the evidence, and suddenly I became dangerous and distinguished from law-abiding citizens. On May 5th, the jury delivered its verdict, the judge deemed me undesirable, and officers drove me across that bridge and barred me within. On the outside, I had spent my time fighting for freedom and rights. On the inside, I discovered a world where words like freedom and rights don’t even exist in the first place. I walked in with one movement, and return to you a representative of another. That bridge right there, that divides the city from Rikers Island, divides two worlds – today I hope to bring them closer together. Crossing back over, I have a message to you from several concerned citizens currently serving time at the Rose M. Singer Center.

“Incarceration is meant to prevent crime. Its purpose is to penalize and then return us to the outside world ready to start anew. The world I saw at Rikers isn’t concerned with that. Many of the tactics employed are aimed at simple dehumanization. In the interests of returning the facility to its mission and restoring dignity to its inmates, we, the women of Rikers, have several demands that will make this system more functional. These were collectively drafted for me to read before you today.

“First of all, we demand that we be provided with adequate, safe, and timely healthcare at all times. That, of course, includes mental health care services and the ability to request female doctors if desired at all times for safety and comfort. We often have to wait for up to 12 hours a day for a simple clinic visit, and occasionally 12 hours a day for up to a full week before we see anyone.

“The women of Rikers feel a special sense of urgency for this demand because of a particular event that occurred recently. About a week ago, our friend Judith died as a result of inadequate medical care. Judith had been in RSMC for a while, but was transferred to our dorm 4 East A, where I was housed, only a few days before her death. She had recently been in the infirmary for a back problem, and had been prescribed methadone pills for the pain for quite a while. A few days before she died, they decided to change the medicine to liquid despite her dissent. They gave her a dosage of 190mg, which any doctor will tell you is a dangerous dosage, far higher than what anyone should be taking unless it is a serious emergency. Judith was not allowed to turn down the medicine or visit the clinic to get the dosage adjusted.

The rest at: http://www.sparrowmedia.net/2014/07/cecily-mcmillan-released/

[littlemissmartypants]

1. Hero. nt

[DRoseDARs]

2. "for deliberately striking NYPD officer Grantley Bovell" after he grabbed her breast...

...from behind her. 2 rather salient facts Jon Swaine of The Guardian deliberately left out to color the article against her.

[yallerdawg]

3. Jail can often make you even more radical.

It is a Republican world of revenge and punishment, Old Testament crap.

For Democrats, we would prefer justice and mercy, and the Golden Rule. The New Covenant.

Jail can radicalize you.

[delphi72]

4. Really

" We often have to wait for up to 12 hours a day for a simple clinic visit, and occasionally 12 hours a day for up to a full week before we see anyone. "

Some veterans have to wait years in the VA system. Let's fix that first.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

5. I think we can walk and chew gum at the same time,

provided of course that the will is there. And there is even less will to ease the suffering of those languishing within the prison industrial complex, many of whom shouldn't be there in the first place (IMO).

[rhett o rick]

6. Are you an activist for better treatment for our vets? nm