Candie Hailey on Friday described a harrowing experience on Rikers Island, where she says she tried repeatedly to kill herself during three years in solitary confinement, including by cutting, hanging and poisoning herself.

“I remember officers used to stand in front of my door and laugh at me and tell me, ‘Oh hurry up and kill yourself,’ ‘Oh we have eight hours until your body gets cold,’” she told City Council members.

What You Need To Know

  • The City Council heard testimony Friday about self-harm and suicides in city jails and the role of the correction department

  • Witnesses and advocates are pushing for an end to solitary confinement; the council is considering more incremental legislation

  • Correction Commissioner Louis Molina testified that COVID restrictions were partly to blame for mental health issues

  • Mayor Adams in his executive budget this week proposed hiring almost 600 new correction officers

Hailey was among several witnesses at a council hearing on self-harm and suicides in city jails, of which there were five last year.

Melania Brown is the sister of Layleen Polanco, a transgender woman who died while in solitary confinement on Rikers in a highly publicized 2019 case.

“They’re dropping like flies, right before our eyes,” she testified. “And nothing is being done about it.”

In another high-profile case, Kalief Browder killed himself after spending three years jailed on a minor charge that was later dismissed. His brother and other advocates have been pressing for an end to solitary confinement.

“How do we keep allowing stuff like this to happen?” Akeem Browder testified. “It’s been seven years since my brother died, May 25 is his birthday, coming up soon, and we’re still talking about solitary confinement.”

For now the council is taking up two pieces of legislation, to better address inmates’ medical needs and to require that the department publicly report all its protocols.

“What you heard here today is not an outlier,” said City Councilwoman Tiffany Caban of Queens, a former public defender. “These are not the few families that were uniquely impacted by our correctional system. This happens every single day.”

Correction commissioner Louis Molina also testified, and began by recounting the names of detainees who died by suicide.

“You have my sincere commitment as the leader of this agency to enacting meaningful change within our city’s jail system, so that tragedies like these do not occur again," he said.

But Molina also testified that COVID restrictions were partly to blame for mental health issues.

“These measures,” he said, “and the systemic disinvestment in our city jails and workforce had a profound impact on the mental health and overall well-being of those in our care.”

Mayor Adams in his executive budget this week proposed hiring almost 600 new correction officers to staff punitive segregation units. City Councilwoman Carlina Rivera of Manhattan, who chairs the council’s Criminal Justice Committee, denounced the proposal.

“We know the numbers don’t add up, and we know that rationale doesn’t work,” she said. “And we will fight it.”