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New York Post
30-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Mayor Adams ‘violated' the law, paving way for City Council solitary confinement ban: court
Mayor Eric Adams 'violated' the law when he blocked the City Council's ban on solitary confinement in Big Apple prisons, a Manhattan judge ruled Monday. 'Mayor Adams acted beyond the scope of his emergency powers,' wrote Manhattan Supreme Court judge Jeffery H. Pearlman in his decision on Monday. 5 A Manhattan judge ruled that Mayor Adams violated the law in blocking a solitary confinement ban passed with a veto-proof majority in 2023. Matthew McDermott Advertisement 'He cannot suspend the law because he disapproves of its impact.' The ruling paves the way for a council law — passed in late 2023 — banning solitary confinement to finally take effect. Days before it was set to begin, Adams signed an emergency order blocking it. Advertisement Hizzoner was sued in December by the City Council and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who argued his order was 'arbitrary and capricious.' 5 Mayor Adams 'cannot suspend the law because he disapproves of its impact,' wrote Judge Jeffery Pearlman. Gregory P. Mango Pearlman eviscerated Adams for abusing his emergency powers, stating that they should only be reserved for emergency scenarios. In a democracy, Pearlman wrote, a mayor's veto powers are the 'single tool' to block laws they don't like. Advertisement But when the law passed with a veto-proof majority, Adams lacked the ability to stop it. 5 Judge Pearlman eviscerated Adams for abusing his mayoral emergency powers, stating that they should only be reserved for emergency scenarios. Getty Images 'By declaring a state of emergency and issuing emergency orders, he violated that process,' Pearlman said. Local Law 42 bans punitive segregation in jails — including at the notorious Rikers Island — beyond a four-hour 'de-escalation' period. Advertisement It also changes the way jailers transport inmates by axing the practice of keeping them in handcuffs and leg irons while on buses or in other vehicles. Pearlman did give Adams credit for noting concerns with the law, which were raised by a federally appointed monitor selected to oversee Rikers. 5 The federal monitor overseeing Rikers noted concerns over the City Council law banning solitary confinement, but the judge said that doesn't give the mayor the right to abuse his power to block its implementation. Leonardo Munoz But he also noted that the mayor should have appealed to the federal judge presiding over the monitor who has 'control over whether the law could actually be implemented' — instead of abusing his emergency powers. Council Speaker Adrianne Adams hailed the ruling and demanded the mayor's administration bring the city into compliance. 5 'The mayor must follow the law, just like every New Yorker, and cannot abuse the powers of the office,' said City Council Speaker Adrianne Adams. Getty Images 'The mayor must follow the law, just like every New Yorker, and cannot abuse the powers of the office.' she said. 'Solitary confinement has been proven to cause physical, psychological, and emotional harm, making jails and our city less safe.' Advertisement City Hall spokesperson Liz Garcia said the law 'creates a new definition of solitary confinement' and will lead to a 'public safety emergency in our jails.' Garcia added that solitary confinement hasn't been used in city jails since 2019.
Yahoo
30-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Judge rules Mayor Adams broke law in blocking NYC jails solitary confinement ban
A New York State Supreme Court judge has ruled Mayor Adams broke the law when he refused to implement elements of a city law severely restricting the use of solitary confinement in the jails. Local Law 42 was passed in December 2023, and the City Council overrode the mayor's subsequent veto in January 2024. Since then, Adams has used repeated executive orders to suspend parts of the law, citing public safety. The Council then sued Dec. 9, arguing the mayor could not use emergency powers to override a decision by the city's duly elected legislature. On Monday, Judge Jeffrey Pearlman ruled in the Council's favor. 'When the City Council overturns a mayoral veto, it is not an emergency. It is a democratic process. By declaring a state of emergency and issuing emergency orders, the mayor violated that process,' wrote Pearlman. Pearlman noted the Council passed Local Law 42 after years of hearings and debate including extensive input from the mayor and Department of Correction. That input led to 'material changes' in the law's language. 'While the court respects the immense power that the state gives the executive, that [the Mayor] disagreed with the City Council on the passage of Local Law 42 cannot be considered an emergency of the sort imagined by the state Legislature.' Pearlman wrote that he was referring to state Executive Law 24, which allows mayors to declare emergencies and use broad powers if 'public safety is imperiled.' That law cites 'disaster, rioting, catastrophe, or similar public emergency' as reasons for issuing such an emergency order. Adams first invoked emergency orders to suspend Local Law 42 on July 27, 2024, the date before the law went into effect. Emergency Executive Order 624 stated the law 'severely limits the use of restrictive housing, de-escalation confinement, restraints in movement and emergency lock-ins' and therefore raises 'serious public safety concerns.' Adams also argued the law 'conflicted' with court orders in the Nunez class action lawsuit which alleged the city failed to deal with violence and use of force in the jails. The case led to the creation of the federal monitor to recommend fixes. Mostly recently, the judge in the case ruled a manager will be appointed to take over some functions from city control. The monitor also cited unease with portions of the law. In a Jan. 12 letter to the city, the monitor, Steve Martin, wrote the law 'could inadvertently undermine the overall goals of protecting individuals from harm.' Adams has reissued the order every five days as required by state law. The Council filed its Article 78 lawsuit Dec. 9 with Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, alleging Adams' orders amounted to 'an undemocratic abuse of power that no previous New York City Mayor has even attempted.' 'Mayor Adams' decision to exceed his legal authority, simply because he was overruled, undermines the foundation of our democracy, and it must be invalidated,' Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said at the time. Reps for Adams did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
NYC jail watchdog group warns new Rikers high-security unit is ‘keg of dynamite'
The Department of Correction came under fire Tuesday from a city oversight board for quietly creating a new high-security unit on Rikers Island that may violate a law limiting the use of solitary confinement. The new Special Management Unit at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center limits detainees to just seven hours a day outside of their cells, DOC General Counsel James Conroy said during a Board of Correction meeting. However, Local Law 42, the law limiting solitary, requires 14 hours per day of out-of-cell time. The unit, which opened Wednesday, currently has just five occupants, though the capacity is 40. Board members reported they observed a botched roll-out in visits on Sunday and Monday. 'We are very disturbed by the fact that the board was never privy to the plans with respect to this new unit,' said board member Barry Cozier, a retired state judge. 'We observed numerous operational deficiencies.' Board chairperson Dwayne Sampson questioned creating the new unit without laying the proper groundwork. 'It seems like a keg of dynamite ready to explode,' he said. One thing the board did not question is whether the Adams administration had the right to create a unit that violates the solitary-confinement law — an issue now the subject of a bitter legal battle. The City Council sued the administration Dec. 9 to stop Mayor Adams' practice since July of using 'emergency' executive orders to block elements of the law. The case is pending. The board members focused instead on their contention that correction officials appeared not to have set up the unit for a range of basic services, such as recreation, a law library and health clinic visits, and even access to razors. While the detainees are supposed to be let out of their cells at 10 a.m., a captain and a security team are required to be present to do pat-frisk searches and cell searches — a factor that builds in delays, Cozier said. 'They are at the mercy of that,' he added. The roughly 35 correction officers assigned to staff the unit had yet to be fully trained, board vice chairperson Helen Skipper said. 'I find it hard to believe that you opened the housing unit with officers who are not trained properly,' she said. Skipper recounted an incident where the 64-year-old mother and 8-year-old daughter of a detainee in the unit had to wait six hours for a visit on Sunday. She said they were told the visit room had to be completely empty for the visit to take place. 'That's an unreasonable restriction,' she said. Conroy countered that the federal monitor tracking violence and use of force in the jails approved creation of the new unit as 'sound correctional practice,' as did the state Commission on Correction. He said the unit was intended as a midway step between the highest security units for men, dubbed RESH, at the Rose M. Singer Center, and the Rikers general population. He said the unit's officers had already received five training sessions. 'We have an obligation to control violence in the jails,' Conroy said. Meanwhile, the City Council sent a letter Monday to Judge Laura Taylor Swain, who is weighing whether to appoint an outside receiver to manage the city's jails, urging her to make sure the Council's powers to pass binding legislation are preserved. Swain is presiding over Nunez v. the City of New York, a 2011 class action lawsuit about violence and staff use of force in the jails. The letter also calls on the judge to choose a receiver 'aligned' with the legally mandated closure of Rikers by 2027 — though, in practice, the construction of the four new borough jails intended to replace Rikers is already years behind schedule. In addition, three new amicus curiae briefs were filed this week that oppose selection of a receiver with ties to city government. The city proposed last month that sitting Correction Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie also serve as receiver — an idea immediately rejected by the lawyers representing the plaintiffs. The amicus briefs were filed by a group of influential former city officials, including former First Deputy Mayor Stanley Brezenoff, the New York City Bar Association, and the Vera Institute. 'This Rube Goldberg construction signals that the receiver is subordinate to — not independent of — the Mayor, his government and the political forces that inevitably and always are present in government,' the Brezenoff group wrote, referring to the cartoonist known for drawing fanciful contraptions.
