New York City officials are moving forward with efforts to put an end to solitary confinement in city jails on Wednesday despite opposition from Mayor Eric Adams.
The development sets up a showdown between City Council leaders and Adams' administration, which has voted to veto the measure. The Council's vote on the matter resulted in 39 to 7 and was framed by supporters as a pivotal moment in a national push to make jails more humane.
New York City Ban on Solitary Confinement
However, the bill also highlighted a broader discussion regarding whether or not solitary confinement is torture or a legitimate form of punishment for detainees who grossly violate codes of conduct.
United Nations officials previously called the practice torture and a large body of research pointed to increased risks for worsened mental illness, self-harm, and suicide. There were also racial disparities in its use, with Black and Latino people more likely to be put in solitary confinement, as per the New York Times.
However, jail officials in New York, as well as Mayor Adams, who is a former police captain himself, said that past abuses of solitary confinement, where detainees were held in isolation for long periods, have already ended.
During a council hearing held last year, city jail officials said 117 people out of roughly 6,000 detainees were being held separately. However, advocates argued that the number of people held in isolation was higher than publicly revealed.
Jail officials have maintained that temporarily separating violent detainees is the only way to keep everyone safe. Adams has also said that the ban would only work to make jails across the city less safe.
Making City Jails Safer and More Humane
Under current rules, jail officials are authorized to punish violent inmates with isolation within a separate cell for up to 23 hours a day for up to 60 days straight for the most serious infractions. The new rules would allow a detainee to be placed into "de-escalation confinement" for up to four hours after an episode of violence. According to Fox News, they would be subjected to wellness checks every 15 minutes.
The new bill also allows any detainee found to have committed a serious infraction to be transferred from a jail's general population to restrictive housing for up to 60 days a year. However, the detainee cannot be isolated in a cell away from shared areas for more than 10 hours daily.
The measure received support from public defender groups, prison reform advocates, and families of people who have died in custody on Rikers Island. The city's public advocate and the prime sponsor of the bill, Jumaane Williams, likened isolation to "torture." He added that many inmates in Rikers Island suffer from mental health issues that are exacerbated by prolonged isolation.
The City Council also approved another measure requiring officers to report all street stops they conduct on duty. Advocates of both bills maintain that they are designed to address accountability, racial disparities, and how police conduct investigations, said ABC7NY.
