New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams continued his push to end the torture of solitary confinement by correcting misinformation from the Correction Officers' Benevolent Association (COBA) and mischaracterizations from City Hall about the bill. The Public Advocate is a prime sponsor of Intro. 549, the most comprehensive and concrete legislative effort to end the practice of solitary, which the United Nations defines as torture, on a citywide level. The ongoing work to end solitary both in name and in practice, while maintaining the ability to temporarily separate individuals, comes as eighteen incarcerated New Yorkers have already died this year alone, and people on both sides of the bars face danger.
The Public Advocate issued the following statement in response to efforts by COBA president Benny Boscio yesterday to blame the current dangers on his bill and mislead the public about the impact the bill would have.
“The danger and harm that corrections officers face, the pain and suffering many have endured, are real – the claims and arguments being used by COBA are not. A bill to finally ban solitary, which is torture, in New York City, a bill which has not even been enacted yet, is clearly not causing the current crisis conditions on Rikers. This is misinformation, spread in the hopes of propagating misconceptions about the bill and preserving a dangerous status quo on Rikers, where this week an officer was stabbed fifteen times the same day that an eighteenth detainee of the year lost their life.
“I'm not interested in personal attacks, I'm interested in progress. If leadership would like to further discuss what the legislation would actually do, and how we can work together to end the crisis conditions on Rikers that threaten people on both sides of the bars, they can finally agree to meet with my office and me.”
COBA has repeatedly refused to meet with the Public Advocate as well as his staff about Intro 549, despite persistent and ongoing outreach.
Yesterday’s comments from COBA are part of a longstanding effort to amplify disinformation regarding the causes behind current conditions on the island and argue that legislation to ban torture is both unnecessary and unacceptable. In September, at a hearing on Intro. 549, both COBA and DOC leadership repeated several misconceptions about the legislation. Following the hearing, the Public Advocate wrote a letter to City Hall in an attempt to “address these misunderstandings so we can partner to end torture in a city that can and should lead on issues of justice.”
Those misconceptions include the wrongful assertions that:
- There is no solitary confinement currently on Rikers Island.
- Maintaining the status quo will make Rikers Island safer for both staff and incarcerated people.
- Under this legislation, no one can be separated or face consequences after a violent incident.
DOC leadership has agreed that the torturous practice is “inhumane” and supported the call to prohibit it in New York City, yet refuses to support the legislation that would finally end solitary confinement once and for all. DOC has also argued that solitary confinement is necessary to punish incarcerated individuals who attack others, and the bill does not allow for separation for someone who has engaged in violence. The opposite is true: the bill lays out a strategy to separate, de-escalate, and investigate violent incidents, and solitary confinement makes it more likely for incarcerated individuals to be violent.
The administration has yet to respond to this letter.
Read the full letter from the Public Advocate to the administration about the ongoing effort to make New York City a leader in the effort to reform a system of legal justice that has for far too long been unjust.
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