Mayor Eric Adams’ emergency order on Saturday halted parts of a contentious City Council ban on solitary confinement in city jails, according to The New York Post. The ban was due to commence on Sunday and would have prohibited punitive segregation in prisons beyond a four-hour “de-escalation” period, as well as altering the way jailers transport detainees by eliminating handcuffs and leg irons while on buses or other vehicles.
Local Law 42, enacted in December, intends to curb the amount of time inmates can be separated from the general population, including at Rikers Island Correctional Facility. Mayor Adams’ order adjusts the ban and allows the city Department of Corrections to tailor solitary confinement time according to individual inmates’ needs, so an offender involved in a violent altercation isn’t immediately returned to the main population after four hours.
The law also prohibits leg irons and handcuffs on detainees aboard city jail buses and other vehicles transporting them to court dates and medical appointments. The mayor’s emergency order would eliminate that aspect of the ban. Between 20 and 40 Department of Correction vehicles transport about 500 inmates daily, according to a law enforcement source.
The mayor issued the “narrowly tailored order” because the initial ban posed danger to those living and working within jails, City Hall stated. The Department of Corrections has been focused on reducing violence in jails to protect both the incarcerated and correctional staff who serve the city, according to a statement from the mayor’s office.
A federal monitor appointed to oversee the city’s troubled jails — which have faced issues with violence and drugs — wrote in a letter earlier this month that the law could “actually result in an increased risk of harm to other incarcerated individuals and staff.” The Correction Officers Benevolent Association has opposed the ban, claiming it would place its officers in danger.
City officials stated that one-third of detainees at Rikers are facing homicide charges, and most are being held for violent crimes. There were 258 assaults on jail staff, 189 serious injuries to inmates, and 152 slashings and stabbings at Rikers from December 20th to June 19th, the latest available data shows. State lawmakers limited the practice of solitary confinement in other facilities to no more than 15 consecutive days in 2021. In New York City, a ban on solitary confinement for all inmates 21 and younger was implemented after the death of Kalief Browder, who spent three years in jail at Rikers, most of that time in solitary confinement.
