Council overrides mayor’s vetoes of criminal justice bills

Council overrides mayor’s vetoes of criminal justice bills

The City Council on Tuesday voted to override the mayor’s veto of a bill aimed at increasing transparency in the NYPD and a bill to ban solitary confinement in the city’s jails, putting to an end a weeks-long public debate riddled with accusations from both councilmembers, Mayor Eric Adams and his allies that the other side purposely were spreading half-truths or outright lies.

Read More

Federal monitor calls for ‘significant revisions’ to solitary ban

Federal monitor calls for ‘significant revisions’ to solitary ban

The federal monitor charged with keeping track of violent conditions on Rikers Island said that he and his team disapprove of the City Council’s ban on solitary confinement, which the legislative body passed with a veto-proof majority at the tail end of last year’s legislative session. 

Read More

Mayor grumbles about Rikers reforms at correction officer graduation

Mayor grumbles about Rikers reforms at correction officer graduation

While giving remarks at a graduation ceremony for Department of Correction officers on Friday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams bristled at recent attempts from the City Council and others to make reforms to the troubled jail complex on Rikers Island.

Read More

No sprinklers or guards as detainees were trapped during Rikers fire, report says

No sprinklers or guards as detainees were trapped during Rikers fire, report says

Detainees were held in locked cells that were filling up with smoke for nearly a half hour as a fire spread through a Rikers Island facility in April, a new report from the city’s Board of Correction found.

Read More