Mamdani moves to limit solitary confinement on Rikers

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is acting to adopt policies meant to improve conditions in city jails – ones that his predecessor Eric Adams fought tooth and nail to block, arguing they’d actually make Rikers Island more dangerous.

Mamdani signed an emergency executive order Monday night instructing the Department of Correction and the city’s Law Department to come up with a plan within the next 45 days to bring city jails into compliance with the Board of Correction’s rules regulating staffing and the rights of people incarcerated in New York.

The new mayor is also directing the law department to help implement a law placing stricter limits on solitary confinement passed by the City Council two years ago, a spokesperson for City Hall told City & State.

A federal judge sided with the Adams administration and blocked the law from taking effect last year, finding such a “ban” could lead to increased violence. Now Mamdani wants the city’s law department to work with the federal monitor overseeing Rikers and the other parties involved in the long-running Nunez case to come up with a plan to implement the solitary confinement legislation known as Local Law 42 of 2024. 

“I applaud the public advocate and the City Council for the passage of Local Law 42 and for always standing up for people on Rikers, despite tremendous opposition from City Hall at the time,” Mamdani said in a statement. “We will work closely with the federal monitor and the parties to put the city back on track to end solitary confinement as soon as possible.”

In the final months of his tenure, former Mayor Bill de Blasio declared a state of emergency in city jails, allowing the city to legally flout certain jail safety rules. Adams followed, extending the emergency order every five days throughout his entire tenure, as THE CITY reported.  

While Mamdani extended the state of emergency once again Monday, the new order could be expected to please the left-leaning criminal justice advocates who supported his campaign, and infuriate the correction officers' unions which oppose such limits.

“I was elected because of my values, and my promise to always be honest with New Yorkers – and now is a moment for blunt truths,” Mamdani said in a statement, explaining the rationale for issuing the new executive order. “The previous administration’s refusal to meet their legal obligations on Rikers has left us with troubling conditions that will take time to resolve.”

Mamdani spoke little on the campaign trail about how he’d manage the city’s notoriously troubled jail system, and he has yet to announce an appointment for correction commissioner. The matter is further complicated by the fact that the federal judge overseeing the Nunez case stripped the city of its control over Rikers last summer and ordered a third party “remediation manager.” While that person hasn’t been appointed yet, Mamdani’s commissioner will be tasked with working closely with them – and may find their power to lead city jails usurped. 

The city must also close all the jails on Rikers Island in 2027 by law, but with the replacement jails years behind schedule, the City Council is expected to extend that deadline. While Mamdani once protested the construction of new jails, he’s since changed his position and said he now supports the plan.