DEMANDING CHANGES: New Council Members Denounce Conditions At Rikers Island

CITY AND STATE: Four new members of the New York City Council – Alexa Avilés, Tiffany Cabán, Shahana Hanif and Sandy Nurse – held a press conference on Friday decrying the abysmal conditions at Rikers Island, following a visit to the jails complex the day before.

THE BRONX: In addition to speaking about the general conditions at the jails, some advocates for inmates and Cabán drew particular attention to an issue that has become an early debate between the new City Council and new mayor Eric Adams – the use of solitary confinement for detainees who use violence.

Cabán said on Friday that she spoke with someone in punitive segregation during their visit who had been given 30 days “in the box,” and when she asked why he was there, he said that he had thrown water at a correction officer.

Melania Brown, the sister of Layleen Polanco – a transgender women who died while in solitary confinement at Rikers in 2019 – was also at the virtual press conference.

“Solitary confinement is a practice that was put in place to mentally, physically, emotionally break us down as human beings,” Brown said. “My sister was left there to die alone.”

The press conference was just the latest occasion to draw attention to the roundly and frequently criticized conditions on Rikers Island.

The complex has been thrown into chaos by violence from both correction officers and inmates, a staffing emergency, deteriorating physical conditions and overcrowding, and widespread mismanagement.

In 2021 alone, 16 people died while detained at or shortly after being released from Rikers. Several died by suicide....

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https://www.cityandstateny.com/policy/2022/01/new-council-members-denou…