City begins testing path to enact long-stalled solitary ban
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The city has begun crafting two pilot programs regarding elements of Local Law 42, a long-delayed law meant to ban solitary confinement in the city’s jails. AP file photo by Bebeto Matthews
By Jacob Kaye
The city’s Department of Correction may soon begin to implement parts of a local law banning solitary confinement in the city’s jails, nearly two and a half years after the bill was first passed.
The DOC recently began crafting a pair of pilot programs to implement two elements of Local Law 42, a controversial bill banning solitary on Rikers Island that has yet to be put into practice because a federal judge has ruled it would make the jails more dangerous.
The pilot programs would focus on improving the jail system’s restricted housing program and on fulfilling a due process provision of the law, which requires that the DOC grant detainees a hearing before placing them in restricted housing.
The pilot programs were first mentioned in a court filing last week in the ongoing detainee civil rights case known as Nunez v. City of New York, the same case that resulted in the creation of a “remediation manager” charged with assuming significant control over the DOC in an effort to tamp down violent conditions behind bars.
The pilots, should they be developed and implemented, would mark a major breakthrough for Local Law 42, which has sat on ice since being passed by the City Council in the final days of the 2023 legislative session.
The bill’s first obstacle was former Mayor Eric Adams, who vetoed Local Law 42 and later, after the Council overrode his veto, passed an executive order that allowed him to skirt its implementation. Another hurdle arose when Steve J. Martin, the federal monitor in the Nunez case, claimed in a report that not only would the law be dangerous to put into practice but that it would put the city in violation of several provisions of the consent judgment in the case. Federal Judge Laura Swain, who oversees Nunez, then blocked the law from taking effect and ordered the city to meet with the monitor, attorneys for the city’s detainees, and her newly appointed remediation manager to figure out the law’s future.
It now seems the future of Local Law 42 will begin – and potentially end – with the pilot programs.
In his April 23 report, Martin said the pilot projects will “help to determine the feasibility of implementing certain aspects of LL42, specifically whether certain aspects of LL42 may be implemented in a safe manner, such that they could obtain the monitor’s approval.”
The “development and outcomes” of the pilots will determine whether or not both Martin and the recently installed remediation manager, Nicholas Deml, recommend that Swain allow the law to be put into practice in full, according to the report.
The planning of both pilots is already underway, Martin said.
The pilot program to design new restricted housing units will be led by Deml, who was granted by Swain vast powers over the jail system, including the power to hire, fire, and discipline any member of the DOC except the commissioner.
To get the pilot going, Deml recently hired two correctional experts who previously worked on programming and security practices in restricted housing units, according to the report.
Similar work has begun on the due process pilot. According to Martin, the DOC has begun meeting with public defender organizations and has planned to begin discussions about “logistical and substantive issues that must be resolved in order to provide representation to people in custody who are being referred to restricted housing.”
It’s unclear when the city will finish creating the pilot programs and put them into practice.
Martin refrained from putting the city on a deadline, noting that “the history of this case clearly shows that simply imposing deadlines has not been effective in actually changing practice, and too often results in missed deadlines, failed efforts and poor outcomes.”
“Deadlines and timelines are clearly necessary to ensure this work moves forward,” the report read. “However, timelines for the pilot projects must be anchored in the present realities and constructed to ensure sufficient time and attention for key implementation tasks.”
The Department of Correction did not respond to the Eagle’s request for comment.
The pilots won’t address the full scope of Local Law 42, which, if implemented, would require the city to change its policies regarding the use of restraints, escorts, de-escalation, lock-in procedures, options for out of cell time, restrictive housing and due process.
Central to the law is its ban on solitary confinement, a practice deemed torture by the United Nations. The law would prevent incarcerated individuals from being held in an isolated cell for more than two hours per day within a 24-hour period and for more than eight hours at night directly after an alleged offense occurred – the confinement would be referred to as a “de-escalation” period. Should corrections officials determine that further confinement is required to de-escalate a situation, an incarcerated person could be held for up to four hours total in a 24-hour period.
In his report, Martin appeared to be generally optimistic about the pilots and the future of the city’s jails under the new leadership of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, DOC Commissioner Stanley Richards, and Deml.
During his first week in office, Mamdani passed an executive order directing the DOC to craft a plan to implement Local Law 42 in coordination with the monitor and remediation manager, breaking from his predecessor, who fought the law at every opportunity.
“The city’s and department’s new approach toward reform in these areas, coupled with the direct expertise brought by the remediation manager team, are cause for optimism that the current work to develop pilot projects will progress methodically [and] be implemented with fidelity,” the monitor wrote.
But Martin remained concerned about violence in the jails, which Swain ruled had generally gone unabated for the past decade.
“The monitoring team is encouraged and optimistic about the newly installed leadership for the city’s jails but remains gravely concerned about the dangerous conditions in the jails that present a risk of harm — and too often, actual harm — to people in custody and staff, as detailed throughout the record in this case,” Martin said in his recent report. “Although capable leaders with new perspectives and skillsets are an obvious asset for reform, the dangerous conditions and poor outcomes in safety-related measures will continue until practice enhancements become embedded and meaningful culture change has been achieved.”
The monitor is next expected to provide Swain with a report on Local Law 42 in June.
