BOC approves new plan to end solitary
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The Board of Correction announced it voted to approve a new plan to end solitary confinement Tuesday. Photo via BOC via FOIL request
By Rachel Vick
The Board Of Correction unanimously voted to end traditional solitary confinement Tuesday.
A newly approved plan eliminates 24 hour isolation and replaces it with a two-level Risk Management Accountability System, which will include increased transparency and protections for inmates, according to the BOC.
“This rule ends solitary confinement in the New York City jail system once and for all, replacing it with a system that balances the need for safety in the jail and the need to provide the care and support to address behaviors for all concerned,” said Board of Correction Chair and CEO Jennifer Jones Austin. “These reforms are necessary for a safer and more humane jail system, for people in custody and staff.”
If placed in the unit, inmates will still have 10 hours of out-of-cell time and the “strong presumption” of moving from a higher to lower risk level within 15 days and release from RMAS all together within a month.
After being released from RMAS, they’ll be transferred to a second unit resembling general population, but with fewer people, to adjust.
For any extended period of time spent in confinement, officers will have to prove a clear threat to safety and the person in custody will have the right to appeal with attorney representation. Representation is also allowed at the infraction hearing and throughout the process.
The rule also ends routine use of restraint desks and mass lockdowns instead of just in target areas, and requires regular and public reporting on average number of people placed and out-of-cell time allotted.
Rule changes in 2015 banned solitary for 16- to 21-year-olds and people with serious mental illness. Recently passed state legislation, known as the HALT Solitary Confinement Act, also bans cell confinement for more than 17 hours a day. The BOC plan states that RMAS was designed to ensure nobody would be kept in cells for more than 14 hours a day and restructured the plan to include the 30 day limit to maintain compliance.
Though the BOC said that “new rule recognizes that solitary confinement creates significant risks of psychological and physical harm to people in custody,” opponents of the plan say that it didn’t go far enough, and maintain that the new cell model will still result in a majority of time being spent in isolation.
“The Board of Correction’s rules do not end solitary confinement,” said Melania Brown. “They fully allow solitary but just give it another name. This type of confinement would not have saved my sister, Layleen Polanco.”
Members of Polanco’s family joined a rally in front of City Hall on Monday against the rule changes approved Tuesday. Polanco died in a solitary confinement cell on Rikers Island in 2019.
