New York City officials, community advocates slam mayor’s order dismantling new law to ban solitary confinement
Elected city officials and community advocates are slamming Mayor Eric Adams’ executive order, claiming it dismantles a law meant to ban solitary confinement and is a “shameful” abuse of power.
Adams declared a state of emergency Saturday and issued an order to suspend parts of Local Law 42, set to take effect Sunday.
“This is a shameful tactic, another desperate abuse of power by this administration to try and ignore laws it opposes. Misusing a ‘state of emergency’ is dangerous, especially from a mayor who claims to care about public safety,” said Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who helped introduce the legislation.
“Now, the mayor wants to throw out yet another law of our city in order to maintain a status quo that threatens people on both sides of the bars. At the last possible moment, he is declaring an ‘emergency’ without public notification or legitimate justification.”
The mayor’s order eliminated the four-hour cap on holding detainees in “de-escalation confinement.” Instead, Department of Correction staff will be allowed to release detainees “as soon as practicable” once they no longer pose a danger to themselves or others, the order states.
The mayor also put the kibosh on a section of the law limiting the use of restraints during detainee transport.
A City Hall spokesperson stated the DOC has been “laser-focused” on reducing violence in city jails, and argued the mayor’s “narrowly-tailored” order aims to continue to do so.
“The federal monitor appointed under the Nunez consent decree has now stated in writing multiple times that attempting to implement Local Law 42 at this time ‘would be dangerous’ for those who live and work in our jails,” the spokesperson wrote.
Williams, however, called the move “inexcusable,” vowing the council would “explore all means” of making sure the city sticks to their “duty” to execute a law that’s been approved by the Council twice.
Councilwoman Sandy Nurse also railed at the order Sunday.
“I’m disappointed, but not surprised that Mayor Adams has not put effort into developing an implementation plan, even a phased plan. Meanwhile, his Correction Department repeatedly prevented care for Charizma Jones, effectively killing her,” Nurse said, referring to a 23-year-old detainee who died July 14.
Jones died of unspecified causes after medical notes showed correction officers repeatedly prevented nurses from entering her cell to check on her May 5 and 6, though she had a rash covering much of her body.
Members of the #HALTsolitary campaign, an organization that played a role in creating the law, pointed to the deaths of Layleen Cubilette-Polanco in 2019 and Kalief Browder in 2015. Both detainees died in solitary confinement on Rikers Island.
“The Mayor and Department of Correction must stop trying to play legal games with people’s lives, and instead implement Local Law 42 to finally end solitary confinement and utilize alternative forms of separation proven to reduce violence and improve everyone’s safety and health,” Anisah Sabur of #HALTsolitary said in a statement.
The law, passed in December after a year of debate, was vetoed by Adams in January. The Council immediately over-rode the veto. The city then sent a letter to U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain asking her to suspend elements of the law, arguing the law makes the jails unsafe.
Swain is presiding over Nunez v. City of New York, a 2011 class action that led to the 2015 appointment of a monitor to track violence and staff use of force in the jails. The monitor, Steve Martin, penned a letter in January with his own concerns about the solitary ban, saying it would “exacerbate already dangerous conditions.”
