Why solitary confinement may be limited in New York prisons

Good morning. It’s Tuesday. We’ll look at why the City Council is expected to pass a bill that would largely ban solitary confinement in city jails. We’ll also find out what George Santos said in the final stop on his celebrity tour, a highly anticipated Ziwe interview.

Solitary confinement in New York City jails could end soon, despite objections from Mayor Eric Adams.

On Wednesday, the City Council will vote on a bill that would largely ban solitary confinement. The measure was introduced by the city’s public advocate, Jumaane Williams, and backed by a left-wing coalition on the predominantly Democratic Council. Its members urged Council President Adrienne Adams to schedule a vote.

To further build momentum, 11 city members of Congress signed a letter in support of the bill last week. Representative Adriano Espaillat, a longtime ally of Adams, and Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leader in the House of Representatives, were among the signatories.

Here’s what Emma G. Fitzsimmons, the head of the City Hall bureau, told me about the bill.

What changes would it require?

It will limit the use of solitary confinement in city jails in most cases. Currently, inmates can spend long periods alone – up to 23 hours a day as punishment for violent crimes, although prison officials say 17 hours is typical for such situations, allowing prisoners to remain out of their cells for seven hours.

The bill would limit time to four hours only in urgent situations and would require all prisoners to be out of their cells for at least 14 hours every day.

How many prisoners are in solitary confinement in city jails?

Mayor Eric Adams prefers to use the term “punitive segregation,” which means segregating violent inmates into a restricted living environment. Last year, the head of the Department of Corrections said there were 117 people in restricted housing at the time.

Does solitary confinement hinder the rehabilitation of prisoners?

A large body of research links solitary confinement to increased risk of self-harm and suicide, worsening of mental illness, and higher mortality rates after release. There are also racial differences in their use; Black and Latino people are at greater risk of ending up in solitary confinement.

Several people have died after being held in solitary confinement at the Rikers Island prison complex over the past decade, including Kalief Browder, who was accused of stealing a backpack and held there for three years.

What does the mayor say?

He is against the municipal council’s bill and calls on members to vote against it. He says some violent inmates need to be separated to protect prison staff and other inmates.

He has used his background as a former police officer to say he understands the issue better than the Council. Shortly before becoming mayor, he said: “I wore a bulletproof vest for 22 years and protected the people of this city. And if you do, you have the right to question me about security and public safety issues.”

The mayor and the corrections officers union, which also oppose the bill, continue to lobby against it. Could it be defeated? What happens if the Council approves it and the Mayor vetoes it?

The mayor and the corrections officers union will argue before Wednesday’s vote that the bill is dangerous. A bill needs a majority vote in the 51-member council to pass, and it has 38 sponsors, which is more than enough.

But that coalition will have to stay together under pressure.

If the mayor vetoes the bill, the Council can override it with a two-thirds majority.

The bill failed after a hearing in the city council last year. What stopped it, and what broke the impasse?

The Council heard from prison officials, labor leaders, advocates and the families of people who died in solitary confinement. The bill’s supporters say Adams was unwilling to negotiate a compromise.

Another factor was the unions representing healthcare workers on Rikers Island. The Council negotiated with them, and on Monday a The major union – 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East – approved the ban. George Gresham, the president of 1199SEIU, said in a statement that ending solitary confinement was “long overdue and necessary to build a fairer and more effective criminal justice system.”

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The latest Metro news

A year ago today, The New York Times reported that George Santos’ resume was largely fiction. At the time, it was just over two weeks before Santos was sworn in as a member of Congress.

On Monday, just over two weeks after being expelled from the House of Representatives, Santos appeared in a 17-minute interview with Ziwe Fumudoh, who is known for asking uncomfortable questions. “One joker and a national joke,” a voice-over announcer said to introduce the interview.

“What can we do to get you to leave?” Fumudoh asked at one point.

“Stop inviting me to your shows,” he replied.

“So the lesson,” Fumudoh said later, “is that you have to stop inviting places.”

“But that’s not possible,” he replied. “Because people want the content.”

My colleague Grace Ashford writes that for once it was the truth. Santos has managed to remain visible. He has also exploited his status as a disgraced ex-congressman for profit, charging $500 for every video he records through the platform Cameo. And he has a private subscription service on X.com, where he has promised to share scandalous details about his former colleagues in Congress.

In the interview with Fumudoh, Santos dodged pointed questions, for example when she tried to pin him down on topics such as his use of campaign funds. He was rarely defensive, even when admitting his unfamiliarity with queer stars like James Baldwin (“Who is James Baldwin?” asked Santos) and Harvey Milk (“I have no idea who that is,” he said) .

When Fumudoh asked who else in Congress was committing fraud, he replied: “They are all fraudsters.”

“If you put them all under the same control as me, you would evacuate the entire building,” he said, adding an expletive.

Santos was even willing to jokingly play along with the ongoing criminal case against him – joking near the end of the show about wanting to keep Fumodoh’s signature for a suspected fraudulent purpose. Santos has pleaded not guilty to 23 charges but has begun negotiating with prosecutors in hopes of avoiding a trial.

METROPOLITAN diary

40 winks

Dear Diary:

It was a few years ago and I was a third-year obstetrician at one of New York City’s major hospitals.

After a particularly grueling week, I had finally gone to sleep in the call room on the first floor of the hospital. Within minutes my pager sounded and I was called for a c-section on the top floor.

Blue-eyed, I stumbled into the elevator and pressed the button. Halfway up, the elevator shuddered to a stop and went dark.

I called the ward nurse via the elevator phone.

“I’m stuck in the elevator and want you to grab one of the other residents to do the C-section,” I said. “Also call maintenance, but tell them they are not in a hurry.”

I hung up the phone, curled up in the corner of the elevator and immediately fell asleep.

Before I knew it, the doors opened and a handyman walked into the car.

I blinked.

“So fast?” I said.

He looked at me in surprise.

“Ma’am,” he said, “you’ve been stuck here for two hours.”

– Emily Hartzog

Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send your entries here And read more Metropolitan Diary here.

Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. – JB

PS Here is today’s Mini crossword And Game competition. You can find all our puzzles here.