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The federal monitor overseeing Big Apple jails slammed the City Council’s controversial move to ban solitary confinement — saying it will only “exacerbate the already dangerous conditions” behind bars.
Restrictive housing is an “essential component” of jail safety protocols and doing away with the practice will “undermine the overall goals of protecting individuals” in custody, the federal monitoring team wrote in a letter obtained by The Post.
“Those who engage in serious violence while in custody must be supervised in a manner that is different from that used for the general population,” reads the letter.
Bill 549-A — was opposed by Mayor Eric Adams as well as police and jail guard unions — stipulates that an inmate can only be separated from the general population if they behave violently while in custody.
The monitoring team warned that the legislation, which the council passed on Dec. 20, could impede the New York City Department of Correction’s ability to comply with the 2015 Nunez court orders aimed at reducing jail violence and use of force by guards.
“The Monitoring Team strongly believes…that the various operational requirements and constraints that accompany the elimination of solitary confinement in Council Bill 549-A will likely exacerbate the already dangerous conditions in the jails,” the letter states.
The bill’s requirement that all inmates — regardless of status — receive 14 hours of out-of-cell time per 24-hour period raised red flags for the feds.
“A global approach to out-of-cell time for all individuals in custody significantly endangers both persons in custody and staff and is not consistent with sound correctional practice,” the monitoring team insisted.
“The Department must be able to effectively separate those who have engaged in serious acts of violence from potential victims and, to some degree, limit their freedom of movement when they are engaged in congregate activity outside their cells,” the letter states.
The monitor’s note also asked the council to reconsider the difference between solitary confinement and restrictive housing, and noted that the latter “enables the Department to safely manage violence-prone individuals in a congregate setting wherein they also retain some access to privileges and programming.”
The limitations placed by 549-A — including setting “arbitrary timeframes” for discharges from restrictive housing that do not account for whether the individual still poses a threat — compromise the DOC’s ability to use restrictive housing as a more holistic alternative to solitary, the feds said.
“The programming requirements for restrictive housing are at odds with the reality of evidence-based practice,” the letter states. “None of the evidence-based curricula with which the Monitoring Team is familiar can be completed within the proposed 15/30-day maximum length of stay in restrictive housing.”
The concerns were summed up in another letter from DOC Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie to the City Council.
“I believe I must warn you that implementing Intro. 549-A as written is a serious threat to the safety of incarcerated people and DOC staff; the very people we are supposed to protect,” Maginley-Liddie wrote in the letter viewed by The Post.
“Separating persistently violent individuals from the general population is critical to maintaining a safe correctional environment,” she added. “That separation needs to be administered humanely, but it also must provide a meaningful deterrent for violent behavior.”
The federal monitor was appointed to oversee city jails as part of a settlement in the Nunez class-action lawsuit more than a decade ago as a result of excess violence and abusive use of solitary confinement.
The current monitor, Steve Martin, has been at odds with the Adams administration since the mayor took office.
With the threat of a federal takeover looming, Adams late last year took a step to mend the relationship by naming Maginley-Liddie as a replacement for former Commissioner Louis Molina, with the approval of the monitor.
The monitor’s notes on the solitary bill were praised by City Hall.
“We are exceptionally grateful to the federal monitor for providing guidance on Intro 549-A and validating precisely what Mayor Adams has been saying all along — this bill could endanger both our Department of Correction staff and those in our care,” a spokesperson said. “The monitor also notes that this bill could impede our ability to comply with the Nunez court orders — something this legislation’s staunchest supporters claim to care deeply about.”
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams — who has pushed 549-A — and City Council members “are among the several who have touted the federal monitor as an independent body whose voice should be listened to when it comes to the safest practices on Rikers,” the statement added.
“We encourage them to heed their own advice here.”
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