By Reuven Blau and Katie Honan, published December 20, 2023
More than four years after the death of a transgender woman in solitary on Rikers Island galvanized the nation, the City Council Wednesday passed legislation to strictly limit the use of the punishment that the United Nations has deemed torture.
The 39 to 7 vote, with one abstention, is the culmination of even longer years of advocacy and gives the Council a veto proof majority should Mayor Eric Adams move to block the legislation.
Paradoxically, Adams is against the legislation while also contending the city’s Department of Correction (DOC) does not use solitary confinement as a punishment.
“Instead of promoting a humane environment within our jails, the Council’s bill would foster an environment of fear and instability,” said mayoral spokesperson Kayla Mamelak. “It would make it harder to protect people in custody, and the predominantly Black and brown workers charged with their safety, from violent individuals.”
Supporters of the legislation argue that locking people in isolation for long stretches does serious mental harm and actually makes city jails — and streets — less safe.
“We want to make sure that the psychological effects of isolation that are proven is not something that is done anywhere in the city,” said Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, the bill’s sponsor. “And hopefully that will expand across the country because we know that it’s torture.”
Under the bill, all people in DOC custody would be entitled to at least 14-hours of out of cell time. It would allow jail officials to isolate detainees — who attack others or act out or try to harm themselves — for a maximum of four hours.
Those people could be brought to “de-escalation” units where they would have to be be checked on by staff every 15 minutes. They also must have access to a tablet or device that allows them to make phone calls or summon medical staff.
“This is about safety at Rikers,” Williams said before the vote.
The city’s solitary confinement practices came under national scrutiny after the death of Layleen Polanco on June 7, 2019. The 27-year-old transgender woman was in the ninth day of a 20-day solitary confinement sentence when she was found lifeless inside her Rikers cell. She was being held in lieu of a $500 bond for misdemeanor sex work and drug possession charges.
Other jails and prisons that have drastically reduced the use of solitary confinement use bigger spaces to hold individuals who act out and boost social programming. They include the Middlesex County Adult Corrections Center in New Jersey, Nebraska Department of Corrections and the North Carolina adult correction and juvenile justice system.
“For decades, solitary confinement has been used as a disciplinary tool in our jail system, and the reality is this: no matter what you call it, solitary confinement is horrific, and inhumane,” said Councilmember Carlina Rivera, chair of the Committee on Criminal Justice.
A bill to ban the use of solitary in New York City lockups was first introduced in December 2020 by former Councilmember Daniel Dromm.
On Wednesday, he said he first learned about solitary through a formerly incarcerated friend, who spent 150 days in isolation on Rikers. As a council member he also recalled a visit to the jails complex where he saw a teenaged boy in solitary with his face pressed up against the glass.
“It’s torture, it comes down to torture, and I’ve always said that Rikers is a hell hole, but imagine being tortured in a hell hole,” he said.
Read more: https://www.thecity.nyc/2023/12/20/nyc-council-passes-solitary-ban/