NEW YORK: New York City banned most uses of solitary confinement in city jails on Wednesday, setting the stage for a showdown between City Council leaders and Mayor Eric Adams, who opposes the ban and has vowed to veto the measure.
The council vote, 39-7, was framed by supporters as a pivotal moment in a national push to make jails more humane. But the bill also highlighted a broader discussion about whether solitary confinement is torture or a legitimate form of punishment for detainees who grossly violate codes of conduct.
Officials at the United Nations have called the practice torture, and a large body of research links it to increased risks for worsened mental illness, self-harm, and suicide. There are also racial disparities in its use: Black and Latino people are more likely to be put in solitary confinement.
But jail officials in New York and Adams, a former police captain, say that past abuses of solitary confinement, where detainees were held in isolation for long periods, have ended.
City jail officials said at a council hearing last year that 117 people were being held separately out of roughly 6,000 detainees, though advocates say that the number of people held in isolation is higher. Jail officials maintain that separating violent detainees temporarily is the only way to keep everyone safe.
Adams has argued that the ban would make jails less safe.
“This assault on public safety is just wrong,” Adams said on Wednesday evening in a radio interview on WABC after the vote. “There is a philosophical difference in this city, and the numerical minority is controlling the narrative.”
The mayor added that most New Yorkers supported the police and correction officers, but that the “far left” did not support them and had “advocates writing legislation.”
Solitary confinement, also known as punitive segregation, refers to the centuries-old practice of holding a detainee alone in a cell for most of the day. The bill would ban the practice beyond a four-hour “de-escalation” period during an emergency and require that all detainees spend at least 14 hours outside of cells each day.
The bill’s supporters have vowed to override the mayor’s expected veto. The measure had 38 sponsors in the 51-member City Council and support from key allies, including Yusef Salaam, a new council member who will represent Harlem starting in January.
Salaam was wrongfully convicted as a teenager in the Central Park Five case and has been a forceful critic of solitary confinement. After spending nearly seven years in prison, he has said his experience in solitary stuck with him, and that he believes it was torture.
“You can hear people crying out,” he said in an interview. “You can hear people in pain. You can hear people going through a mental breakdown. It’s one of the most horrific things to experience.”
City officials assert that solitary confinement is not used in city jails, but a recent report by Columbia University’s Center for Justice illustrates how the city deploys the tactic using different names. For example, current rules allow for violent detainees to be placed in punitive segregation in a restrictive housing area, where people are locked in their cells for up to 23 hours a day.
Jail officials have also held detainees alone for long periods in so-called shower cages, a small cell that is used to rinse detainees off after they have been hit with pepper spray but is also used to isolate detainees; in a slightly bigger cell with a desk; and during “emergency lockdowns.”
The new law bans shower cages and requires that all detainees, in any housing area, be given 14 hours each day outside a cell.
New York officials are not alone in their efforts. Democrats in Congress introduced a bill this year to ban solitary confinement nationwide. California lawmakers approved a bill last year to limit the practice, but it was vetoed by Gov Gavin Newsom. Officials in the Pittsburgh and Chicago areas have also put restrictions in place.
In New York, the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association vigorously fought the bill. Its leaders have drawn attention to persistent violence at the troubled Rikers Island jail complex, including 6,500 assaults of guards over the last three years.
The union created a website featuring photos of injured guards and targeted the bill’s lead sponsor, Jumaane Williams, the city’s public advocate, urging New Yorkers to call his office to stop the bill. The ad campaign has also been featured on a truck billboard seen outside City Hall this week, which suggested that the ban would lead to more violence in jails.
But the opposition was far outweighed by supporters of the ban, including a key health care union, 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, which announced its backing on Monday, along with dozens of advocacy groups.
The City Council speaker, Adrienne Adams, pledged at a news conference on Wednesday to override a veto and said that change was hard, but necessary. She said the relationship between the council and the mayor had not fallen apart: “There are differences and there will continue to be, and there are supposed to be.”
Members of the council’s Progressive Caucus praised the ban, including Tiffany Cabán, who said that “New York will never torture its way to safety.”
On Wednesday, the City Council also approved a bill that would require the Police Department to report basic information about police stops. The mayor opposes that bill as well and has argued that it would waste police resources and require officers to submit paperwork for basic inquiries like helping a lost tourist. Supporters countered that the electronic filing system was straightforward and the monitoring was necessary to curb past abuses of stop-and-frisk policing.
The jail at Rikers Island is at a major crossroads. Federal officials have sought to strip the Adams administration of control over it in response to persistent violence and chaos. The mayor recently named a new head of city jails to work with the federal monitor overseeing the system to avoid a federal takeover.
Over the last decade, several people who were placed in solitary confinement at Rikers have died. In 2019, Layleen Polanco, a transgender woman, had an epileptic seizure and died while in solitary after guards failed to check on her. Kalief Browder, a teenager who was accused of stealing a backpack and was detained there for three years without a trial, including roughly two years in solitary, died by suicide at home in 2015.
His mother, Venida Browder, died of a heart attack a year later, and her family said her son’s death was a factor.
Browder’s brother, Akeem Browder, said the ban was long overdue.
“They must not let Kalief nor my mother nor any of our loved ones down,” he said. “Our family members did not die in vain.”
The council vote, 39-7, was framed by supporters as a pivotal moment in a national push to make jails more humane. But the bill also highlighted a broader discussion about whether solitary confinement is torture or a legitimate form of punishment for detainees who grossly violate codes of conduct.
Officials at the United Nations have called the practice torture, and a large body of research links it to increased risks for worsened mental illness, self-harm, and suicide. There are also racial disparities in its use: Black and Latino people are more likely to be put in solitary confinement.
But jail officials in New York and Adams, a former police captain, say that past abuses of solitary confinement, where detainees were held in isolation for long periods, have ended.
City jail officials said at a council hearing last year that 117 people were being held separately out of roughly 6,000 detainees, though advocates say that the number of people held in isolation is higher. Jail officials maintain that separating violent detainees temporarily is the only way to keep everyone safe.
Adams has argued that the ban would make jails less safe.
“This assault on public safety is just wrong,” Adams said on Wednesday evening in a radio interview on WABC after the vote. “There is a philosophical difference in this city, and the numerical minority is controlling the narrative.”
The mayor added that most New Yorkers supported the police and correction officers, but that the “far left” did not support them and had “advocates writing legislation.”
Solitary confinement, also known as punitive segregation, refers to the centuries-old practice of holding a detainee alone in a cell for most of the day. The bill would ban the practice beyond a four-hour “de-escalation” period during an emergency and require that all detainees spend at least 14 hours outside of cells each day.
The bill’s supporters have vowed to override the mayor’s expected veto. The measure had 38 sponsors in the 51-member City Council and support from key allies, including Yusef Salaam, a new council member who will represent Harlem starting in January.
Salaam was wrongfully convicted as a teenager in the Central Park Five case and has been a forceful critic of solitary confinement. After spending nearly seven years in prison, he has said his experience in solitary stuck with him, and that he believes it was torture.
“You can hear people crying out,” he said in an interview. “You can hear people in pain. You can hear people going through a mental breakdown. It’s one of the most horrific things to experience.”
City officials assert that solitary confinement is not used in city jails, but a recent report by Columbia University’s Center for Justice illustrates how the city deploys the tactic using different names. For example, current rules allow for violent detainees to be placed in punitive segregation in a restrictive housing area, where people are locked in their cells for up to 23 hours a day.
Jail officials have also held detainees alone for long periods in so-called shower cages, a small cell that is used to rinse detainees off after they have been hit with pepper spray but is also used to isolate detainees; in a slightly bigger cell with a desk; and during “emergency lockdowns.”
The new law bans shower cages and requires that all detainees, in any housing area, be given 14 hours each day outside a cell.
New York officials are not alone in their efforts. Democrats in Congress introduced a bill this year to ban solitary confinement nationwide. California lawmakers approved a bill last year to limit the practice, but it was vetoed by Gov Gavin Newsom. Officials in the Pittsburgh and Chicago areas have also put restrictions in place.
In New York, the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association vigorously fought the bill. Its leaders have drawn attention to persistent violence at the troubled Rikers Island jail complex, including 6,500 assaults of guards over the last three years.
The union created a website featuring photos of injured guards and targeted the bill’s lead sponsor, Jumaane Williams, the city’s public advocate, urging New Yorkers to call his office to stop the bill. The ad campaign has also been featured on a truck billboard seen outside City Hall this week, which suggested that the ban would lead to more violence in jails.
But the opposition was far outweighed by supporters of the ban, including a key health care union, 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, which announced its backing on Monday, along with dozens of advocacy groups.
The City Council speaker, Adrienne Adams, pledged at a news conference on Wednesday to override a veto and said that change was hard, but necessary. She said the relationship between the council and the mayor had not fallen apart: “There are differences and there will continue to be, and there are supposed to be.”
Members of the council’s Progressive Caucus praised the ban, including Tiffany Cabán, who said that “New York will never torture its way to safety.”
On Wednesday, the City Council also approved a bill that would require the Police Department to report basic information about police stops. The mayor opposes that bill as well and has argued that it would waste police resources and require officers to submit paperwork for basic inquiries like helping a lost tourist. Supporters countered that the electronic filing system was straightforward and the monitoring was necessary to curb past abuses of stop-and-frisk policing.
The jail at Rikers Island is at a major crossroads. Federal officials have sought to strip the Adams administration of control over it in response to persistent violence and chaos. The mayor recently named a new head of city jails to work with the federal monitor overseeing the system to avoid a federal takeover.
Over the last decade, several people who were placed in solitary confinement at Rikers have died. In 2019, Layleen Polanco, a transgender woman, had an epileptic seizure and died while in solitary after guards failed to check on her. Kalief Browder, a teenager who was accused of stealing a backpack and was detained there for three years without a trial, including roughly two years in solitary, died by suicide at home in 2015.
His mother, Venida Browder, died of a heart attack a year later, and her family said her son’s death was a factor.
Browder’s brother, Akeem Browder, said the ban was long overdue.
“They must not let Kalief nor my mother nor any of our loved ones down,” he said. “Our family members did not die in vain.”
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