Alliance Note: Yesterday, NYC Mayor Eric Adams issued an emergency order to stop the recently passed solitary confinement ban in NYC jails from going into effect. Solitary confinement is torture and does nothing to rehabilitate the people who are subjected to this dehumanizing practice. There is extensive research proving solitary confinement leads to increases in serious mental health challenges and higher chances of suicide. The law, passed by City Council after overriding Mayor Adams’ veto, sets the maximum time for isolating people to four hours for de-escalation and guarantees people continue to receive needed programming when in restricted housing.
In response to Mayor Adams’ emergency suspension of the law, the Jails Action Coalition and #HALTsolitary Campaign have put together a sign on letter and will be hosting a rally TODAY (Monday July 29th) at 12pm on the City Hall steps to demand the full implementation of the solitary ban. See below for more information, including the sign on letter and registration for the rally.
From Jails Action Coalition and #HALTSolitary Campaign:
Today, Monday, July 29, 12 pm: Rally to Implement Local Law 42 to End Solitary
The Mayor has unlawfully declared an “emergency” without any justifiable reason in order to try to suspend Local Law 42 to continue solitary confinement in NYC jails. Please help us push back! Please retweet this statement from Anisah, and please join the Jails Action Coalition and #HALTsolitary Campaign for a rally on the NYC City Hall steps TODAY, Monday, July 29, 12 pm. (Please arrive at 11:50 to go through security to get to the steps). Join us to demand the Mayor and DOC fully and effectively implement the law to finally end solitary confinement in NYC.
Register Here: Rally to End Solitary Confinement in NYC – July 29, 12 pm, City Hall Steps (google.com)
Sign on Letter to Implement Local Law 42 to End Solitary in NYC
Please sign and have your organization or group sign on to this letter – https://bit.ly/LocalLaw42 – urging the Mayor and DOC Commissioner to fully and effectively implement Local Law 42 to finally end solitary confinement in NYC jails, while also calling on all local and state officials to release people, stop sending people to deadly jails, and protect the human rights of all New Yorkers.
Dear Mayor Adams and Commissioner Maginley-Liddie,
We, the undersigned, are urging you to act immediately to fully and effectively implement Local Law 42 in order to stop torture, improve safety for everyone, and save lives. It is long past time for NYC to end solitary confinement. DOC must act now to implement Local Law 42 to finally do so and utilize alternative forms of separation proven to reduce violence and better protect people’s health.
Solitary confinement is torture. It causes devastating and deadly harm and worsens safety for everyone. In NYC, it is almost exclusively inflicted on Black and Latinx people. Solitary leads to heart disease, anxiety, depression, psychosis, self-harm, and death. Solitary in NYC jails has killed so many people, including Kalief Browder, Layleen Polanco, Brandon Rodriguez, Elijah Muhammad, Erick Tavira, Bradley Ballard, Jason Echeverria, Carina Montes, and countless others.
Alternative forms of separation, like the original CAPS and PACE programs in NYC jails, the former Merle Cooper Program in NYS, and the original RSVP program in San Francisco jails, have been scientifically proven to reduce violence and better protect people’s health and well-being. For example, the RSVP program led to a precipitous drop in violence among participants to the point of having zero incidents over a one year period and dramatically lower rates of re-arrest after release from jail.
In line with this longstanding evidence, Local Law 42 rightfully bans solitary beyond four hours and instead allows proven alternative forms of separation with access to 14 hours of real daily out of cell time with group programming and activities. An overwhelming supermajority of the New York City Council enacted Local Law 42 and the jails oversight body, the Board of Correction, unanimously adopted rules to implement Local Law 42.
Now it is time for DOC to implement the law, bring in outside experts who have designed successful interventions like the RSVP program in San Francisco jails, and start operating that type of intervention and programming.
Beyond ending solitary, we urge you – and all local and state officials – to act now to release people from New York City’s jails, stop sending people to these deadly jails, and protect the human rights of all New Yorkers. New York City jails have faced an acute and deadly humanitarian crisis for years, on top of an already decades-long history of racism, torture, and brutality. New York City jails have killed at least 31 people since January 2022 and 47 people since January 2021. Over half of all people in the city jails have diagnosed mental health needs. The vast majority of people in NYC jails are there pre-trial, awaiting their day in court; everyone else has a sentence of less than one year. Yet, people are spending months and years in New York City jails. Urgent action is needed to immediately reduce the number of people jailed in NYC.
Thank you for your consideration.
See below for more.
Mayor Adams Issues Order to Overrule Law Limiting Solitary Confinement at NYC Jails
By Ransey Khalifeh and Matt Katz | Gothamist | July 28, 2024
Mayor Eric Adams on Saturday issued an emergency order to stop the city Department of Correction from implementing major components of a new law to limit solitary confinement in city jails — a day before it was slated to go into effect.
Local Law 42 mandates that detainees get at least 14 hours of time outside their cells in shared spaces every day, and puts a four-hour cap on solitary “de-escalation confinement.” The law also limits the use of handcuffs and leg restraints on detainees. Those aspects of the law will be paused through Adams’ order.
The move is the latest chapter in a back-and-forth battle between Adams and the City Council. Adams vetoed the law after it was passed by the Council, which then overrode the mayor’s veto in January.
Adams’ order cites filings by the federal monitor put in place to oversee reforms at Rikers Island, which states the new law would put both correction officers and detainees in harm’s way.
The law “includes unprecedented provisions regarding the management of incarcerated individuals following serious acts of violence and eliminates necessary discretion by correctional management in a manner that could actually result in an increased risk of harm to other incarcerated individuals and staff,” the mayor’s order states.
The order also said the correction department “would require a massive increase in staff and other resources, which are not available” in order to comply with provisions of the new law.
Department of Correction officials reached out to the City Council last week requesting to push back the launch of the law, which was rejected by Council members, according to the order.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who introduced the legislation, accused the mayor of “covering up the crisis” at Rikers Island and “spreading misinformation.”
“This is a shameful tactic, another desperate abuse of power by this administration to try and ignore laws it opposes,” Williams said in a statement. “Misusing a ‘state of emergency’ is dangerous, especially from a mayor who claims to care about public safety. Any state of emergency on Rikers continues to be caused by an administration that has refused to engage with partners to meaningfully improve conditions.”
Williams said he would use “all means” force the mayor to implement the law, suggesting he may sue over Adams’ executive order. The City Council last week voted on a resolution to allow Speaker Adrienne Adams to take legal action against the mayor if he didn’t implement the law.
“Each day Mayor Adams’ Administration shows how little respect it has for the laws and democracy, it sets more hypocritical double standards for complying with the law that leave New Yorkers worse off,” City Council spokesperson Shirley Limongi said in a statement. “In this case, our city and everyone in its dysfunctional and dangerous jail system, including staff, are left less safe. The reality is that the law already included broad safety exemptions that make this ‘emergency order’ unnecessary and another example of Mayor Adams overusing executive orders without justification.”
The law’s proponents say any form of solitary confinement is inhumane and increases the risk of death and self-harm. But the law’s opponents argue that its definition of solitary confinement is too broad, and doesn’t give correction officials the tools to punish violent behavior and separate attackers from victims.
In a court filing last week, city Correction Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie said that a ban would risk harm to both detainees and jail staff.
“Put simply, there would be an increase in violence and transportation of incarcerated individuals to court would become virtually impossible, among other adverse consequences,” she said.
Steve Martin, the federal monitor who oversees Rikers, said that the correction department is too dysfunctional to implement the new law. He wrote in a court filing earlier this year that given the department’s inability to “manage the jails safely and effectively,” the new law “will only exacerbate the current dysfunction.”
“Attempting to implement a complex law that fundamentally changes many of the department’s standard practices …. would increase the risk of harm to incarcerated individuals and staff and therefore would be dangerous for those incarcerated and work in the jails,” Martin wrote.
This story has been updated with a statement from City Council spokesperson Shirley Limongi.
Mayor Adams issues order to overrule law limiting solitary confinement at NYC jails – Gothamist