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Rikers to Ban Isolation for Inmates 21 and Younger

New York Times; Michael Winerip and Michael Schwirtz, 1/13/2015

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���������� City officials agreed on Tuesday to a plan that would eliminate the use of����for all inmates 21 and younger, a move that would place the long-troubled�� complex at the forefront of national jail reform efforts.

The policy change was a stark turnaround by the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio, which recently eliminated the use of solitary confinement for 16- and 17-year-olds but, backed by the powerful correction officers union, had resisted curtailing the practice more broadly.

Even the most innovative jails in the country punish disruptive inmates over age 18 with solitary confinement, said Christine Herrman, director of the Segregation Reduction Project at the Vera Institute of Justice. “I’ve never heard of anything like that happening anywhere else,” she said, referring to the ���������� City plan. “It would definitely be an innovation.”

The Correction Department has faced repeated criticism over the past year after����and neglect of inmates at Rikers, the country’s second-largest jail system. Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of ����������,����over the treatment of adolescent inmates at the jail complex.

In the face of mounting scrutiny, the city has provided millions of dollars for better staffing and improved programs for inmates.

A large body of scientific research indicates that solitary confinement is particularly damaging to adolescents and young adults because their brains are still developing. Prolonged isolation in solitary cells can worsen mental illness and in some cases cause it, studies have shown.

Inmates in solitary confinement at Rikers are locked in their cells for 23 hours a day, with one hour of recreation, which they spend by themselves in a small caged area outdoors. A����in August by Mr. Bharara’s office described the use of solitary cells for young people at Rikers as “excessive and inappropriate.” Inmates can be locked away for weeks and months and, in some cases, even over a year.

As of Jan. 9, according to recently released city data, there were 497 inmates between ages 19 and 21 at Rikers, with 103 of them held in solitary confinement.

“The majority of inmates in the 18- to 21-year-old cohort are young men of color whom we presume innocent under our laws because they are awaiting trial,” said Bryanne Hamill, one of the board’s strongest voices for eliminating solitary for young inmates. “The evidence showed that solitary confinement will not improve their future behavior, but will reliably convert anger and frustration today into rage and violence tomorrow.”

The plan to further reduce the use of solitary confinement was approved unanimously, 7 to 0, by the city’s����on Tuesday morning and is supported by the correction commissioner, Joseph Ponte, who was appointed by Mr. de Blasio last year to spearhead reforms at Rikers. The change would not take effect until January 2016 and is contingent on obtaining financing for additional officers and clinical staff members.

Jail reform advocates who have criticized the Correction Department for years praised the initiative. The ���������� Civil Liberties Union said the change would “make Rikers a leader in solitary confinement reform.”

“With these reforms, ���������� City has taken an important stand for basic human rights and reaffirmed its commitment to the safety of prisoners, prison staff and our communities,” said Donna Lieberman, the organization’s director. “An institution as profoundly broken as Rikers Island will require wholesale reform to transform into a humane environment that emphasizes treatment and rehabilitation over punishment and isolation, and these rules are a major step forward.”

Norman Seabrook, president of the 9,000-member correction officers’ union, said the plan, which appeared to take him by surprise, would endanger correction officers, leading to more inmate attacks. He vowed to sue the board for every guard assaulted.

“I’m deeply, deeply bothered by a decision that you would make, jeopardizing the safety and security of inmates and officers,” he told the board on Tuesday.

Union officials said they felt excluded from the discussions about solitary confinement.

“It’s a blindside,” said Sidney Schwartzbaum, who leads the union for assistant deputy wardens.

“Eighteen- to 21-year-olds are a very violent group,” said Mr. Schwartzbaum, who added that he had not met with Mr. Ponte since mid-December. “If we can’t secure them, violence is going to go on unabated. What do we do with a guy who slashes someone’s throat?”

After years of wrangling between inmate advocates and city officials over solitary confinement, the agreement on Tuesday appeared to have been worked out in a private meeting between Mr. Ponte and Ms. Hamill. The two met on Monday morning at the behest of Mr. Ponte and spent 45 minutes developing the details of the initiative.

Along with the changes to solitary confinement, the new initiative allows the department to open a new 250-bed housing unit for the most violent inmates, known as enhanced supervision housing.

The unit will hold inmates with a history of violence, including those affiliated with gangs and who have assaulted officers or other inmates. They will be locked in their cells for 17 hours a day, rather than the standard 10 hours.

Effective immediately, the new rules will reduce the maximum amount of time inmates age 18 and older can be sentenced to solitary confinement to 30 days, from 90. The department also will eliminate so-called owed time. In the past, inmates who left Rikers before completing their stint in solitary confinement returned there if they went back to the jail.

“For years, ���������� City has locked people up without the provision of adequate programs and treatment to change their thinking and their behavior,” Mr. de Blasio said in a statement. “We are pursuing evidence-based practices that will lead to a safer and more humane system.”

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Mr. Ponte said he was confident he would be able to get the necessary resources from the city to put the plan in place next year. Ultimately, he said, getting young inmates out of solitary confinement will drive down violence.

“The idea we lock people up for any length of time and don’t provide them with programs or treatments” does not lead to good outcomes, he said. “It seems to defy logic.”

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