By Emma G. Fitzsimmons, published December 20, 2023

“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 to 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 Mr. 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.

Mr. Adams has argued that the ban would make jails less safe.

“This assault on public safety is just wrong,” Mr. 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.”

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/20/nyregion/solitary-confinement-jails-nyc.html