Jails oversight board votes to propose limits on solitary confinement
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Photo via DOC.
By David Brand
New York City’s jails oversight board voted Thursday to officially propose new limits on the use of solitary confinement in detention facilities, including Rikers Island jails — the first step in a rule-making process that now proceeds to public review.
The nine-member Board of Correction, which sets minimum standards for the city jail system, voted unanimously to propose the new rules, including reducing the maximum solitary confinement sentence from 30 days to 15 days, except in cases of an assault on corrections staff which will continue to result in a 60-day sentence.
The vote initiates the Citywide Administrative Procedure Act (CAPA) rulemaking process, which includes a 30-day public comment period and a public hearing on Dec. 2. New amendments may be added to the proposals after this period.
After several scheduled speakers at Thursday’s public hearing assailed solitary confinement — which the city calls “punitive segregation — at least one board member suggested that the city should go even further to reduce the use of solitary confinement.
“I ask City Hall to listen to the modern world, to listen to the critique of solitary confinement and direct its Department of Corrections to enter into the 21st Century,” said Dr. Robert Cohen, a former director of the Montefiore Rikers Island Health Services.
A federal monitor’s report “describes barbarisms that need to be addressed,” Cohen said. He cited a “fundamental failure to manage staff” who “are often hyper-confrontational.”
Harvey Murphy, a member of the justice reform organization JustLeadershipUSA described his 120-day stint in solitary ahead of the board’s vote. He said he lost nearly 70 lbs. during his term in solitary and still deals with the emotional toll of the experience.
“I was treated like an animal,” Murphy said. “I was taunted by corrections officers, I was sprayed with mace.”
Violent offenses have increased in city jails in the past year, according to the most recent Mayor’s Management Report. The Corrections Officers’ Benevolent Association contends that solitary confinement is the only option for punishing violent detainees. The union opposes limits on solitary confinement.
“COBA’s position has always been that violent offender who create violent conditions in jails belong in punitive segregation because they are a threat,” said COBA spokesperson Michael Skelly. “Not having any consequences essentially increases violent behavior.”
