The City Council has filed a lawsuit over Mayor Eric Adams' executive order that ignored a controversial ban on solitary confinement in city jails, calling the mayor's enforcement an overreach and an “unprecedented” abuse of power. .
The lawsuit, filed Monday in Manhattan Supreme Court, seeks to halt part of a newly passed law that Hizoner enacted in July that aims to limit the amount of time inmates can be separated from the general population. They are seeking to invalidate the emergency order issued.
The mayor only issued the order just one day before Local Law 42 was scheduled to go into effect in retaliation after the council overrode his veto of the confinement ban, the complaint alleges. There is.
“There is no justification for declaring a state of emergency over a democratic legislative process, and Mayor Adams' emergency order is an illegal and unprecedented abuse of power,” Speaker Adrian Adams said in a statement.
“The City Council overrode the Mayor’s veto to ban the use of solitary confinement in city jails. The use of solitary confinement causes physical, mental, and emotional harm and makes the city and jail less safe.” “It's been proven that it does,” she continued.
“Mayor Adams' decision, which exceeded his legal authority just because it was overruled, undermines the foundations of our democracy and should be invalidated.”
If enacted, Local Law 42, passed by the City Council last December, would extend punitive segregation in prisons, including the troubled Rikers Island Correctional Facility, beyond a four-hour “de-escalation” period. It will be banned.
It would also change the way inmates are transported from one location to another by eliminating the practice of guards keeping inmates in handcuffs or leg irons while on buses and other vehicles.
However, the mayor's order modified this ban to allow the Department of Corrections to tailor alone time to individual inmates' needs.
At the time, City Hall justified the emergency order by saying the ban could have been dangerous to prison staff and other inmates.
Still, the council claims in court papers that Mr Adams acted “in excess of his legal authority” and is calling for it to be scrapped completely.
Since issuing the order, Hizzoner has also extended the state of emergency every 30 days and extended the order suspending the law every five days, the complaint alleges.
“This lawsuit does not tolerate the mayor's abuse of democratic politics and is aimed at ensuring an end to the human rights and safety crisis for Riker residents caused by the status quo of failed policies and practices,” Adams said. said.
“Despite his desperate power grab, this mayor cannot ignore laws he doesn't like,” added public defender Jumaane D. Williams.
“Despite the moral and legal obligation to end the harmful segregation of people living alone, the government is desperately trying to maintain the status quo in Rikers, which is dangerous for people on both sides of the fence.”
Several groups plan to support the lawsuit, including the Bronx Defenders and the New York Civil Liberties Union.
