Neighbor in the News: Soffiyah Elijah

Neighbor Soffiyah Elijah is the Executive Director of the Correctional Association of New York, making her the first woman and the first person of color to lead the nearly 170-year old organization. In a recent Q&A in am New York, she talks about how visiting her sweetheart in high school when he got sent to Auburn for a drug-related theft led her to where she is today, why she feels all drug usage should be decriminalized, and why she thinks Attica should be shut down.

To learn more about her thoughts on Attica, be sure to check out a piece she wrote in September for City Limits. In it, she says that “inhumane treatment, sexual misconduct by staff, physical brutality, harassment, racist attitudes, inadequate programming and an atmosphere of violence still shape the profile of the institution.”

Photo via amNY