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jumaane williams
'Wrong Side of History': NYC Mayor Adams Vetoes Solitary Confinement Ban
"With this veto, the mayor has condemned New Yorkers to suffer in solitary confinement and isolation, and he did so after the cameras were turned off and backs were turned," the bill's sponsor said.
Jan 20, 2024
New York City Mayor Eric Adams vetoed a New York City Council bill on Friday that would have banned the practice of solitary confinement in city jails.
Also on Friday, Adams vetoed another bill that would have increased transparency and oversight of the New York Police Department (NYPD). However, both bills passed the council with more votes than is required to override a veto.
"To recap: Police transparency is good. Solitary confinement is bad. And Mayor Adams is committed to manufacturing controversy where there is none," Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso wrote on social media in response to the news. "The Mayor shouldn't be spending time sowing dissent on veto-proof bills that will pass regardless of his actions today."
"Solitary confinement is torture. It often results in lasting psychological damage, and undermines public safety both inside and outside New York City's jails."
Solitary confinement is an increasingly controversial practice that has been recognized as torture by the United Nations and human rights groups if it lasts for more than 15 days in a row, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union. Its use at New York's Rikers Island has been linked to at least two recent deaths: Layleen Polanco Xtravaganza, who died after having a seizure while in solitary in 2019 and Kalief Browder, who took his own life after being placed in solitary confinement for two years.
"Solitary confinement is inhumane, and its presence in our city is indefensible," Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who sponsored the legislation, said ahead of its passage last month. "Committing an infraction in jail can cause you to lose privileges, not basic human rights. People in solitary are isolated, denied human contact and connection, denied support, and come out of these deplorable conditions worse than when they went in—and some don't come out at all."
The bill, 549A, would have required that everyone in jail in New York City be allowed to gather with other inmates for at least 14 hours every day, except during emergency lock-ins or to deescalate conflict, ABC News reported. In those cases, inmates could only be confined for up to four hours.
Adams announced the veto by press release, and not during an earlier press conference when he announced his veto of the police transparency measure, as New York Magazine reported.
"Our administration does not support solitary confinement in our jails, and New York City has not used the practice for years. In fact, we have achieved significant reductions in key indicators of violence in our correction system without solitary confinement," Adams said in a statement. "But despite the misleading nickname, had [the bill] taken effect, the Department of Correction would no longer be able to protect people in custody, or the union workers charged with their safety, from violent individuals. I implore the City Council to work with our administration and follow the federal monitor's guidance to abandon this misguided bill."
Williams criticized the mayor's decision.
"With this veto, the mayor has condemned New Yorkers to suffer in solitary confinement and isolation, and he did so after the cameras were turned off and backs were turned. It's cowardly, weak, shameful, and entirely expected from this version of this mayor," Williams said in a statement.
"I don't think there's a single person in the city outside the mayor's office who thinks the status quo on Rikers right now is good and effective," Williams continued. "The ongoing use of solitary confinement and isolation in New York City—no matter what the administration calls it—is indefensible, and vetoing the ban is inexcusable."
Other city council members and rights groups spoke out against the mayor's action.
Speaker Adrienne Adams and Criminal Justice Chair Sandy Nurse promised to "take the steps to enact this law over the Mayor's veto." The measure passed 39-7, and an override requires 34 votes.
"The Council passed Intro. 549-A to ban solitary confinement with more than a veto-proof majority because it is imperative to make the city's jails safer for those who are detained and staff alike," Adams and Nurse said. "We cannot allow the human rights and safety crisis on Rikers to continue by maintaining the status quo of failed policies and practices."
The #HALTsolitary Campaign thanked Adams and Nurse for promising to override the mayor's veto.
"He's on the wrong side of history, human rights, and public safety," the group, which is led by impacted New Yorkers, posted on social media.
The NYCL also encouraged the city council to pass the legislation.
"Solitary confinement is torture," the group wrote on social media. "It often results in lasting psychological damage, and undermines public safety both inside and outside New York City's jails."
Council members and rights groups also criticized Adams' veto of the NYPD transparency measure—5862A or the "How Many Stops Act,"—which passed by a 35-9 margin.
"The Mayor's veto betrays his stated goal of public safety and harms the Black and Latino communities that bear the brunt of these stops."
This bill would have mandated that New York police officers report on civilian stops and searchers and give more detailed information about vehicle stops and searchers, ABC News explained.
In justifying his veto, Adams said that while the legislation "has good intentions behind it, the bill is misguided and compromises our public safety."
"Our administration supports efforts to make law enforcement more transparent, more just, and more accountable, but this bill will handcuff our police by drowning officers in unnecessary paperwork that will saddle taxpayers with tens of millions of dollars in additional NYPD overtime each year, while simultaneously taking officers away from policing our streets and engaging with the community," he said.
In response, Council Speaker Adams said the council was "prepared to override this veto," issuing a joint statement with Public Safety Chair Yusef Salaam.
"The false narrative that we cannot have transparency is bad for our city, and belies the fact that accountability is vital to improving public safety by increasing trust," Adams and Salaam said. "The Mayor's veto betrays his stated goal of public safety and harms the Black and Latino communities that bear the brunt of these stops."
The NYCLU wrote on social media: "The mayor's veto leaves another stain on an administration that has been winding back checks on hyper-aggressive, biased, and unaccountable policing. We are confident the city council will heed the call of impacted New Yorkers and advocates and override the Mayor's veto."
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Ocasio-Cortez, NY State Progressives Call on Cuomo to Pass Billionaires' Tax to Support Immigrants Left Out of Covid-19 Relief
"For so long we've been bailing out corporations. Covid has shown us that the most vulnerable people in our community, they too deserve to be bailed out."
Jul 16, 2020
Progressive lawmakers in New York on Thursday demanded that Gov. Andrew Cuomo impose a tax on the states' billionaires in order to support immigrant workers who have been excluded from relief measures.
As U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) explained in a video released by the Fund Excluded Workers Coalition Thursday, the state is home to 118 billionaires whose wealth has exploded since the pandemic began in March, amassing a collective $556 billion net worth while millions of New Yorkers struggle to pay their rent and afford other necessities.
"For so long we've been bailing out corporations," said state Assemblywoman Carmen De La Rosa, who represents Upper Manhattan. "Covid has shown us that the most vulnerable people in our community, they too deserve to be bailed out."
Watch:
Ocasio-Cortez and De La Rosa were joined in the video by New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou, and state Sen. Jessica Ramos, who sponsored a bill to tax billionaires. The Billionaire Mark to Market Tax Act (S8277) is currently in committee.
"The worker bailout that I'm proposing does two things," Ramos said in the video. "It imposes a tax on the unrealized capital gains of billionaires, and we take that money to fund a bailout for workers that were left out of salary subsidy programs."
Jamaal Bowman, who won the Democratic primary in New York's 16th congressional district last month and is expected to win the general election, expressed his support for the campaign.
\u201cWall Street and the billionaire class need to pay their fair share. Let\u2019s get it done and lift up our communities.\n\n#FundExcludedWorkers #MakeBillionairesPay\n\nhttps://t.co/z7l58kF3Uf\u201d— Jamaal Bowman Ed.D (@Jamaal Bowman Ed.D) 1594905220
In the video, the Fund Excluded Workers Coalition spoke with several immigrants in New York who have been ineligible for unemployment insurance during the pandemic--even as 74% of the immigrants of color surveyed by the group reported job loss--or for the $1,200 direct payment sent to some Americans.
"The millionaires and the rich people of the world should pay what's fair to provide relief for the working class community," said one man interviewed in the video.
The lawmakers took aim at Cuomo, whose proposed budget in April included cuts to Medicaid even as the Covid-19 pandemic was wreaking havoc on New York City and the surrounding area, leaving hospitals and healthcare workers overwhelmed and under-resourced.
At the time, a video of Niou condemning the budget on the state Assembly floor was circulated widely on social media.
"What we need is not the cuts proposed by our governor but strong investments in our infrastructure and the public assets that could have mitigated this crisis had we only been willing to fund them previously," Niou said at the time.
Passing Ramos' billionaires' tax would enable "equitable taxation" in New York State, Williams said in the video Thursday.
"It's frustrating to see a governor who will say, 'I'd rather cut Medicaid, I'd rather force municipalities to cut the school budget, to cut access to the lifelines these communities need,'" said Williams.
"But something like a billionaires' tax, he simply won't entertain."
The tax would help support families "who are facing housing insecurity, food insecurity, and more," Ocasio-Cortez said.
The congresswoman addressed Cuomo directly at the end of the video.
"Gov. Cuomo, we need you to pass a billionaires' tax in order to make sure that we're providing for our working families," she said. "It's time to stop protecting billionaires and it's time to start working for working families."
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'Huge Win for Democracy': Nationwide Celebrations as NYC Residents Approve Ranked-Choice Voting Ballot Measure
With the new system, said one supporter, "candidates will have to knock on the door of not just a certain plurality, but on the diverse doors of NYC's mosaic majority."
Nov 05, 2019
Voting rights advocates celebrated a "huge win for democracy" Tuesday after New Yorkers approved a ballot measure that would establish ranked-choice voting in the nation's most populous city.
"It's been too easy for candidates to ignore marginalized communities, including LGBTQ voters, because they didn't think they needed every vote to win. Ranked-choice voting ends that mindset."
--Rod Townsend, Stonewall Democratic Club of NYC
With 90% reporting as of Wednesday morning, New York City's Ballot Question 1 won approval from 73.5% of voters.
NYC's ranked-choice voting (RCV) measure was supported by a number of advocacy groups, politicians, and even The New York Times editorial board, which called the question the "most exciting proposal" of the five measures considered by city voters Tuesday.
In an RCV system--also known as an instant runoff voting system--voters rank candidates for each office in order of preference on their ballots. If no candidate secures a majority of first-choice votes, an elimination process is triggered and continues until one candidate has majority support.
RCV has been growing in popularity across the United States in recent years. It is used in local and party election in some places around the country and statewide in Maine.
In addition to establishing RCV in primary and special elections for all local offices beginning in 2021, the ballot measure will "increase the time between a city office vacancy and the special election to fill it from 45 days (60 for mayor) to 80 days" and "change the timeline for city council redistricting to complete it prior to city council nominating petition signature collection."
Celebrating the ballot measure's passage on Tuesday night, Common Cause NY executive director Susan Lerner said that RCV "is the simple solution that puts power back in the hands of the people where it belongs. We look forward to working with our diverse partners and elected officials to educate New Yorkers on how this important reform will work in the local 2021 elections and beyond."
The RCV provision garnered support from New Yorkers and national advocates alike. Backers included Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)--a widely popular freshman congresswoman who represents parts of the Bronx and Queens--2020 Democratic presidential primary candidate and city resident Andrew Yang, Rep. Nydia Velasquez (D-N.Y.), state Attorney General Letitia James, Democratic state Sen. Julia Salazar, NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, and actor, activist, and city resident Cynthia Nixon.
\u201cThanks for voting #Yeson1, @CynthiaNixon! \ud83c\udf8a #RankedChoiceVoting reforms NYC\u2019s outdated election system and forces politicians to pay attention to every community. Vote #YesOn1 before 9 pm TODAY to bring RCV to NYC. Find your poll site: https://t.co/UM2LKAPmg7\u201d— Rank The Vote NYC (@Rank The Vote NYC) 1573000206
The advocacy group FairVote, which fights for fair elections and supports RCV, declared on Twitter: "This is huge for the #RankedChoiceVoting movement!"
\u201cThis is huge for the #RankedChoiceVoting movement! "New York City has become the latest \u2014 and most populous \u2014 city to adopt ranked-choice voting, a major milestone for voting reform efforts." https://t.co/Q7iE8pj32R\u201d— FairVote (@FairVote) 1573009125
Supporters of an RCV system argue that it pushes candidates to focus on engaging voters rather than negative campaigning. FairVote president Rob Richie toldPolitico, "You've got to be, I think, a better candidate."
"You as a candidate have a lot more reasons to have conversations and engagements with people," he said. "The candidates that run traditional campaigns that involve using money and not using people have not done as well."
Rod Townsend, president of the Stonewall Democratic Club of NYC, said in statement ahead of the vote Tuesday that "it's been too easy for candidates to ignore marginalized communities, including LGBTQ voters, because they didn't think they needed every vote to win. Ranked-choice voting ends that mindset because with RCV, every vote matters."
"With ranked-choice voting, marginalized communities will be engaged by every candidate," Townsend added. "Candidates will have to knock on the door of not just a certain plurality, but on the diverse doors of NYC's mosaic majority."
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