New York City Mayor Eric Adams has issued an emergency executive order suspending parts of a new law that would limit solitary confinement in city jails, arguing that it would put correctional staff and inmates at further risk.
The new law, which went into effect Sunday, originally intended to impose a four-hour time limit on holding prisoners who pose safety concerns in “de-escalation confinement” and limit the use of restraints on prisoners while they are transported to courts or within jails.
“It is of the utmost importance to protect the health and safety of all persons in the custody of the Department of Correction and of all officers and persons who work in the City of New York jails and who transport persons in custody to court and other facilities, and the public,” the Democrat mayor wrote in his order.
He added that “attempting to comply with many of the provisions … such as transporting individuals to court without restraints, would require a massive increase in staff and other resources, which are not available.”
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A solitary confinement cell at New York’s Rikers Island jail. New York City’s mayor on Saturday issued an emergency order suspending parts of a new law intended to ban solitary confinement in local jails a day before it was to take effect, citing concerns for the safety of staff and detainees. (AP/Bebeto Matthews)
Adams also suspended a part of the law that prohibited jail officials from placing a prisoner in longer-term “restrictive housing” for more than a total of 60 days in any 12-month period. His order says jail officials must review a prisoner’s placement in restrictive housing every 15 days.
The law was passed by the New York City Council in December last year. A veto from Adams was then overridden by the Council the following month.
“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. In this case, our city and everyone in its dysfunctional and dangerous jail system, including staff, are left less safe,” City Council spokesperson Shirley Limongi told The Associated Press in the wake of Adams’ order.
“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,” she added.
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New York City Mayor Eric Adams holds a press conference at City Hall in June in New York City. (Adam Gray/Getty Images)
The bill had been introduced by New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who argued that solitary confinement amounts to torture for those subjected to lengthy hours in isolation in small jail cells, according to the AP.
Williams and other supporters of the new law, including prominent members of New York’s congressional delegation, have pointed to research showing solitary confinement, even only for a few days, increases the likelihood an inmate will die by suicide, violence or overdose. It also leads to acute anxiety, depression, psychosis and other impairments that may reduce an inmate’s ability to reintegrate into society when they are released, they said.
A security fence surrounds the inmate housing on New York’s Rikers Island correctional facility in New York. (AP/Bebeto Matthews)
The labor union representing the city’s jail guards opposed the legislation at the time, saying that it would make it more difficult to protect jail workers from violence by detainees.
The Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association noted that even with the old punitive segregation rules in place, there were more than 6,000 episodes of detainees assaulting jail guards in the last three years, including 50 cases of sexual assault.
Fox News’ Bradford Betz and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
