New York City jails were ordered on Monday to end the use of solitary confinement, a move that criminal justice reform advocates have been pushing for over the years. Effective immediately, solitary confinement, also known as punitive segregation, will be prohibited for inmates with underlying health conditions.
Mayor de Blasio said that the eventual objective is to end punitive segregation completely. De Blasio and the Board of Correction Chair Jennifer Jones Austin said the city is forming a special panel that will help oversee the end of solitary confinement for all inmates.
Austin told NY1 that the panel will bring together the Department of Corrections, COBA, the union that represents correction officers from city jails and individuals who experienced punitive segregation.
The Board of Correction chair also says concerns have been raised about safety and the management of inmates who pose a threat to the jail population at large.
“We know that we have to ensure accountability for people when they engage in certain infractions, in certain behaviors that are dangerous and that affect the population at large. We’ve got to figure out how to manage that, but we want to make sure that we do it in a way that everyone is kept safe,” she said on Inside City Hall.
“Officers have concerns about safety,” she added. “We want to make sure that we address their concerns as it relates to safety, but we also want to make sure that the detained persons are treated humanely.”
Austin says the panel allows all parties involved to discuss these concerns.
“This time that we’re going to take, this working group, is to make sure that we’re looking at all of those issues so that when we come up with a plan everybody’s onboard and they’re implementing it,” she said.
The mayor's pledge to end solitary confinement comes days after the city disciplined more than a dozen correction officers for the death of Layleen Polanco, a 27-year-old transgender woman detained at Rikers Island. Polanco died in solitary confinement last June after having a seizure.
Austin says that the city has learned a lot from Polanco’s case.