New York City Mayor Eric Adams vetoed a bill banning solitary confinement in city jails on Friday, saying it would result in more dangerous conditions for incarcerated people and correction workers as well as denying that the practice is still used in the state.
Adams’ veto sets up yet another battle with the City Council, as it came on the same day that he vetoed police transparency legislation requiring NYPD officers to report details on low-level investigatory stops of civilians. Both measures passed with veto-proof majorities last month, though several new councilmembers elected in 2023 have assumed office since the start of the new year.
During a press conference held to announce his veto of the police transparency legislation, the mayor said “there is no such thing” as solitary confinement in New York and that the bill uses the term as a “buzzword.” Later, in a release, his office repeated concerns that provisions in the bill could inadvertently undermine safety in the city’s jails.
“There is no solitary confinement in New York state,” Adams told reporters. “Let’s stop saying that.”
Supporters of a ban on solitary confinement have challenged similar assertions since a state law strictly limiting the practice passed in 2021, and have accused jail officials of violating the restrictions, including on how long a person can be placed in isolation and which infractions can land a person there.
The City Council looks likely to override Adams’ veto of the solitary confinement bill, which passed with more than a two-thirds majority in December. Speaker Adrienne Adams signaled that possibility following the mayor’s rejection of the bill.
“The Council stands by its passage of this legislation and will take the steps to enact this law over the mayor’s veto to address the catastrophic conditions that are taking the lives of people in our city’s custody,” the speaker said in a joint statement with Sandy Nurse, the councilmember who chairs the criminal justice committee. “We urge the mayor’s administration to begin addressing the Council as a co-equal branch of government by coming to legislative negotiations with the competence and good faith that has too often been lacking to best serve our city.”
Other critics echoed the Council leaders’ pushback against Adams’ veto, and alleged that the mayor was being inconsistent in his messaging.
“Which is it — that solitary confinement doesn’t exist, or that they don’t want to ban it?” said Jumaane Williams, the city’s public advocate and the bill’s sponsor, in a statement. He also sponsored the police transparency legislation Adams vetoed on Friday, which is known as the “How Many Stops Act.”
The solitary confinement bill drew blowback from the city correction officers’ union and local editorial boards, as well as the federal monitor appointed to oversee the jails on Rikers Island. The monitor’s team recently called for revisions to the bill to reduce “the risk of harm to both persons in custody and Department [of Correction] staff.”
“The monitoring team believes that eliminating solitary confinement is necessary and important,” a letter this month from the monitor’s office reads. “However, the monitoring team has deep concerns about many of the bill’s provisions related to the use of restrictive housing, de-escalation, emergency lock-ins, and the use of restraints and escort procedures.”
Under city law, once the bill is formally returned to the Council with the mayor’s objections, the Council will have 30 days to override his veto — an outcome Williams expressed confidence about.
“We would be happy to clarify for the administration the key elements of a bill they clearly haven’t read, after the City Council overrides this misguided, performative, ego-driven veto,” he said.
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