A new ‘Risk Management and Accountability System’ was all set to go, but following criticism from a federal monitor and reporting by THE CITY, the changes are on hold.
Layleen Polanco
Posted inJails
City Lawmakers Drag Feet on Solitary Confinement Ban After Campaign Promises
The City Council has still not introduced any measure to end solitary confinement in city jails despite a majority of members publicly opposing the practice. The public advocate’s office meanwhile has taken up the mantle and says a bill will be introduced in weeks.
Posted inJails
New Council Members Assail Adams’ Plan to Restore Solitary Confinement in NYC Jails
The progressive contingent of the incoming, new-look City Council launched its first shot against Mayor-elect Eric Adams on Monday, targeting his vow to bring back solitary confinement in city jails. “Solitary confinement is considered by the United Nations, human rights organizations, and medical and mental health experts to be a form of torture,” reads a […]
Posted inSolitary Confinement
Adams Vows to Bring Solitary Confinement Back to Rikers Island, Scrapping Reforms
When scores of city correction officers rallied against proposed jail reforms in front of the bridge leading to Rikers Island last summer, they chanted “Bring back the box!” — referring to solitary confinement. On Thursday, Mayor-elect Eric Adams promised to do so. People in city jails who are violent will be put in so-called punitive […]
Posted inSolitary Confinement
De Blasio’s Order to Delay Solitary Confinement Reforms Over Rikers Chaos Slammed
Mayor Bill de Blasio postponed planned limits on solitary confinement amid Rikers Island chaos — drawing a rebuke Tuesday from the sister of the woman whose death galvanized the push to end inmate isolation in city jails. “He disgusts me as a leader,” said Melania Brown, whose sister, Layleen Polanco, died at Rikers on June […]
Posted inSolitary Confinement
Solitary Confinement Reforms Approved for City Jails, Even as Advocates Decry ‘Broken Promise’
(This story has been updated to reflected the passage of the new rules.) Two years and a day after Layleen Polanco’s death on Rikers Island galvanized a movement to ban solitary confinement, the city Board of Correction on Tuesday approved new rules the de Blasio administration says will effectively end the practice in city jails. […]
Posted inJails
New City Jails Boss Open to Next Mayor Extending His Sentence
Mayor Bill de Blasio tapped Vincent Schiraldi to run the city’s troubled jails Wednesday — and the criminal justice reformer is getting a head start on making his case to stay on when the next mayor takes over. Schiraldi, 62, the co-director of the Columbia University Justice Lab, said he’d consider remaining in place as […]
Posted inSolitary Confinement
De Blasio Promised Nearly Six Months Ago to End Solitary Confinement. So Where’s the Plan?
In June, when Mayor Bill de Blasio announced he would end solitary confinement in city-run jails, he said he expected a working group to give him recommendations on how to do it “in the fall.” The chair of the Board of Correction, which makes the rules for city lockups, said on Oct. 21 that the […]
Posted inJustice
Sex Workers Should Not be Arrested, de Blasio Declares, Invoking Layleen Polanco’s Legacy
The NYPD should not be arresting people for sex work, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday. “To the question of whether sex workers should be arrested, my broad answer is no,” he said when asked about the 2017 arrest of Layleen Polanco, the transgender woman who later died two years later from a seizure in […]
Posted inSolitary Confinement
Mayor de Blasio Vows End of Solitary Confinement in New York City Jails
New York City will soon stop using solitary confinement in city jails, Mayor Bill de Blasio declared Monday as he invoked the death of Layleen Polanco last year at Rikers Island. After resisting calls for change for more than a year, the mayor announced the creation of a “working group” charged with devising a plan […]