Dec 22, 2023
City Council Votes To BAN Solitary Confinement In New York Jails
City Council Votes To BAN Solitary Confinement In New York Jails
- 10 minutes
There's something brewing out of
New York City Council voting to ban
solitary confinement in jails.
No more, they say, per the New York Times
with the reporting on Wednesday,
New York City banned most uses of
solitary confinement in city jails.
Setting the stage for a showdown
between city council leaders and
[00:00:19]
Mayor Eric Adams, who opposes the ban and
has vowed to veto the measure.
Now the mayor in New York City,
a former cop.
Council vote, 39 to 7, framed by
supporters as a pivotal moment in
a national push to make jails more humane.
[00:00:35]
But the bill also highlighted a broader
discussion about whether solitary
confinement is torture.
Or a legitimate form of punishment for
detainees who grossly violate codes
of conduct New York Times
again with the details.
Officials at the United Nations
have called the practice torture,
[00:00:52]
and a large body of research
links it to increased risk for
worsened mental illness,
self-harm and suicide.
There are also racial disparities
in its use, imagine that Black and
Latino people are more likely to
be put in solitary confinement.
[00:01:08]
But jail officials in New York and
Mr Adams, a former police captain,
say past abuses of solitary confinement,
where detainees were held in isolation for
long periods, have ended.
We're supposed to take your word for
it, okay.
City jail officials said at
a Council hearing last year that 117
[00:01:27]
people were being held separately
out of roughly 6000 detainees.
Though advocates say that the number
of people held in isolation is higher.
Jail officials maintain that separating
violent detainees temporarily is
the only way to keep everyone safe.
[00:01:43]
Mr Adams has argued that the ban
would make jails less safe.
This assault on public
safety is just wrong,
Mr Adams said on Wednesday evening in
a radio interview on WABC after the vote.
There is a philosophical
difference in this city, and
the numerical minority is
controlling the narrative.
[00:02:01]
The mayor added that most
New Yorkers supported the police and
correction officers, but
that the far left did not support them and
had advocates writing legislation.
Solitary confinement,
also known as punitive segregation,
[00:02:18]
refers to the centuries-old practice of
holding a detainee alone in a cell for
most of the day.
The bill would ban the practice
beyond a four hour de-escalation
period during an emergency.
And would require that all
detainees spend at least 14 hours
[00:02:35]
outside of their cells each day.
The bill supporters have vowed to
override the mayor's expected veto.
The measure had 38 sponsors and
51-member City Council and
support from key allies,
including Dr. Yusef Salam,
new council member who will represent
Harlem starting in January.
[00:02:54]
Dr Salam was one of the wrongfully
convicted teenagers in the Central Park
five case.
And has been a forceful critic of solitary
confinement after spending nearly seven
years in prison.
He has said his experience in solitary
stuck with him and felt it was torture,
he said in an interview, quote,
you can hear people crying out.
[00:03:13]
You can hear people in pain,
people going through a mental breakdown
it's one of the most horrific
things to experience.
City officials assert that solitary
confinement is not used in city jails,
but a recent report by
Columbia University center for
[00:03:30]
Justice illustrates how the city deploys
the tactic using different names.
For example, current rules allow for
violent detainees to be placed in punitive
segregation in a restrictive housing area,
where people are locked in their cells for
up to 23 hours a day.
[00:03:47]
Jail officials have also held
detainees alone for long periods in so
called shower cages.
Small cell that is used to rinse
detainees off after they've been hit with
pepper spray.
But is also used to isolate detainees in
a slightly bigger cell with a desk and
during emergency lockdowns.
[00:04:04]
The new law bans shower cages and
requires that all detainees in any
housing area be given 14 hours
each day outside a cell.
New York officials not alone in their
efforts Democrats in Congress introduced
a bill this year to ban solitary
confinement nationwide.
[00:04:21]
California lawmakers approved a bill
last year to limit the practice,
but it was vetoed by
Governor Gavin Newsom.
Officials in the Pittsburgh and Chicago
areas have also put restrictions in place.
[00:04:37]
Correction Officers' Benevolent
association,
led by President Benny Boscio Jr.
Have vigorously fought the bill.
Drawing attention to persistent
violence at the troubled Rikers Island
jail complex, including 6500 assaults
of guards over the last 3 years.
[00:04:57]
Union created a website featuring
photos of injured guards and
targeting the bill's lead sponsor.
Jermaine Williams,
the city's public advocate,
urging New Yorkers urging New Yorkers
to call his office to stop this bill.
[00:05:14]
The ad campaign was also utilized as
a truck billboard outside city hall this
week, which suggested the ban would
lead to more violence in jails.
City Council Speaker Adrian Adams
pledged during a Wednesday news
conference to override a veto and
said, change was hard but necessary.
[00:05:33]
Now, the jail at Rikers Island
is a major crossroads.
It's at one Federal officials have sought
to strip the Adams administration of
control over it in response to
persistent violence and chaos.
Mr Adams recently named a new
head of city jails to work with
the federal monitor overseeing
the system to avoid federal takeover.
[00:05:53]
Over the last decade,
several people who were placed in
solitary confinement at Rikers have died.
Again, the reporting,
the details from the New York Times.
Rayyvana, I think,
it's rich that the police association
talks about all the injured guards.
[00:06:10]
I don't want people who are just
showing up to work being injured, but
we've heard for decades now about
the conditions at Rikers Island.
Can we also see the prisoners
who have largely gone unheard?
Can we chronicle some lawsuits?
[00:06:27]
Prisoners who were violently attacked and
accused law enforcement guards,
and by the way,
when you use the word cages,
even put the word shower in front
of it and hosing human beings off.
Which came first?
[00:06:43]
Okay, chicken or the egg?
This place is an abomination and
it seems successful for
civil rights and human rights
violations but I'll give you the floor.
>> Speaker 2: Yeah,
I'm glad we're covering the story and
[00:06:59]
it is an important vote.
Although, of course, Mayor Eric Adams,
who in my opinion is a clown,
but first and foremost is a cop,
would not support it and
has vowed to veto it.
That he, as well as the associations
of correction officers,
[00:07:19]
police officers, stand in
opposition to this type of change.
Because we have irrefutable evidence, that
the use of this does not make jail safer.
It does not make inmates less violent.
[00:07:34]
All it does is psychologically
torture the individuals
subjected to this disgusting,
inhumane treatment.
They're treated worse than
animals in these prisons.
These are human beings who
are dehumanized on every
[00:07:51]
level inside these prisons,
treated like dirt.
And there's evidence to
suggest that it actually
increases instance of violent behavior,
the longer someone is tortured
inside of this type of isolation.
[00:08:10]
And it stands in the face
of the fact that we have
decades upon decades of
research that shows this.
There is a science behind this.
It has been studied,
we know that it doesn't work for
its intended purposes,
it doesn't make anyone safer.
[00:08:29]
It doesn't lower chances of
individuals once they're released,
reoffending and returning recidivism,
returning to prison.
We know that it
psychologically tortures them.
Even being in solitary confinement one
time changes the chemistry of their brain.
[00:08:49]
>> Speaker 2: Yeah.
>> We know all this and yet
it is an uphill battle to change
the conditions for these prisoners.
Because so
often people will hear these stories, and
they, too, dehumanize the individuals
who are incarcerated.
[00:09:06]
They don't see them as people or
they think, well, they deserve this,
but it doesn't make anybody safe.
It doesn't rehabilitate them, which is the
purpose that if we are gonna have prisons,
they should be serving.
It doesn't keep the public safe,
it doesn't keep the prison safe it sure
as hell doesn't keep the guard safe.
[00:09:22]
So that entire argument is based
on nothing when the opposing
argument is based on decades
of thorough research.
It is absurd that we're still even
having to have this conversation.
It's absurd that this practice is
still used, and it's absurd that
[00:09:41]
they try to hide their usage of it
by calling it by a different name.
Just ridiculous.
>> Speaker 1: You wouldn't represent
me if I was in uniform and
this is what you were said 6500 assaults,
you're right.
It's like people are so
entrenched they can't think that there
might be another option a better way.
[00:09:57]
I interviewed Eric Adams
when he was Canada and
I led with people are concerned because
of your history with law enforcement.
They're concerned that you don't get it,
he pointed to an incident where he was
abused by law enforcement and
said, there's gonna be changes.
[00:10:14]
I don't hear changes, I hear Manny's
entrenched in his view and blue
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