About this episode

The episode discusses the transformation of Rikers Island from a place of punishment to a hub of renewable energy and community sustainability.

What happens to a place built on punishment when a movement demands it be rebuilt for life? On this episode, Dr. Lesley Joseph sits down with two frontline fighters in the battle to close Rikers Island and transform it into something radically different: a hub of renewable energy and community sustainability. Manuel Figueroa — Member of Freedom Agenda, and a justice-impacted individual who lived through the system — brings the raw, on-the-ground truth of what it means to be caught between broken promises and political whiplash. He watched the city’s reentry programs get gutted under Mayor Eric Adams, and he knows what happens when people in power decide the “built-in forgetter” kicks in. Michael Higgins Jr. — Land use planner at the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance and coordinator of the Renewable Rikers Coalition — walks us through the legislative machinery: the Renewable Rikers Act, Intro 881, and the decades-long fight to not just close the jails but to reimagine the island — with wastewater treatment, solar energy, and infrastructure that actually serves the communities that have been choked by pollution and incarceration for generations. Together, they talk about the real…

People in this episode

Host: Dr. Lesley Joseph

Guests: Manuel Figueroa, Michael Higgins Jr.

Topics covered

• renewable energy
• criminal justice reform
• environmental justice
• community sustainability
• Rikers Island
• political activism

Keywords

• Rikers Island
• renewable energy
• environmental justice
• community sustainability
• criminal justice reform
• political activism
• Freedom Agenda
• NYC Environmental Justice Alliance

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Freedom Agenda, NYC Environmental Justice Alliance, Renewable Rikers Coalition, Mayor Eric Adams

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