The representatives of the city of New York in the United States Congress called on the City Council to approve the bill that would end solitary confinement in municipal jails, which they consider a “form of torture”, and that it has caused deaths.
The congressmen sent a letter to the President of the Council, Corey Johnson, in which they express their support for the end of the lockdown and assure him that it “can help our justice system to focus on rehabilitation and mental health, and not on the punishment”.
“Solitary confinement is a sham, and New York City has a historic opportunity to lead the nation to end this practice of deadly torture,” says the letter from the congressional delegation, led by Representative Adriano Espaillat.
They also remind Johnson that this type of punishment can have serious consequences such as death and mention several victims, among them the transgender Layleen Polanco, who died in 2019 in the Rikers municipal jail, where she was in confinement, after suffering an attack of epilepsy.
They also recalled the case of Kalief Brouder, who spent two years in solitary confinement at Rikers, where he was between 2010 and 2013, accused of stealing a backpack containing valuables.
Two years after his release, Browder hanged himself in his parents’ home.
Congressman Espaillat posted a message on social media with a copy of the letter and where he explains the reasons why he is leading this effort to end solitary confinement.
Solitary confinement is torture — and one of the many inhumane and racist facets of our criminal justice system.
That’s why I led our delegation in a letter calling on New York City to end solitary confinement once and for all. pic.twitter.com/Qe0qWlX8xK
– Adriano Espaillat (@RepEspaillat) December 8, 2021
“Solitary confinement is torture and it is time that we solve the institutional problems that have plagued our criminal justice system since its inception in our nation,” they indicate in the letter, which also underlines that black people constitute 18% of the population of New York, but they represent 48% of the population in state prisons and almost 60% of the population currently held in solitary confinement in the state.
The congressmen’s action comes after the city’s Department of Correction (DOC) affirmed that it will continue to use solitary confinement, where people can be locked up alone in a cell for up to 23 hours a day, indefinitely, it indicates also the statement.
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