The Metropolis Council has filed a lawsuit over Mayor Eric Adams’ government order flouting a controversial solitary confinement ban in metropolis jails — arguing his push is an overstep and “unprecedented” abuse of energy.
The go well with, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court docket on Monday, is pushing to quash the emergency order Hizzoner enacted again in July to droop components of a newly handed legislation in search of to restrict the period of time inmates could be remoted from the overall inhabitants.
The mayor solely issued the orders — simply someday earlier than Native Legislation 42 was because of come into impact — as a retaliatory transfer after the council overrode his veto of the confinement ban, the go well with argues.
“The democratic process of lawmaking cannot justifiably be declared a state of emergency, and Mayor Adams’ emergency orders are an unlawful and unprecedented abuse of power,” Speaker Adrienne Adams stated.
“The City Council overrode the Mayor’s veto to ban solitary confinement in city jails because its use has been proven to cause physical, psychological, and emotional harm and makes our city and jails less safe,” she continued.
“Mayor Adams’ decision to exceed his legal authority, simply because he was overruled, undermines the foundation of our democracy, and it must be invalidated.”
If enacted, Native Legislation 42, which was handed by the council final December, would have banned punitive segregation in jails — together with on the troubled Rikers Island Correctional Facility — past a four-hour “de-escalation” interval.
It additionally would have modified the best way jailers transported inmates from place to position by axing the follow of conserving them in handcuffs and leg irons whereas on buses or in different automobiles.
The mayor’s order, nevertheless, modified the ban to permit the Division of Corrections to tailor solitary instances relying on particular person inmates’ wants.
Metropolis Corridor, on the time, justified the emergency order as a result of the ban might have been harmful for jail staffers and different inmates.
Nonetheless, the council argues in courtroom papers that Adams acted “beyond lawful authority” — and is asking for it to be scrapped totally.
Since issuing the orders, Hizzoner, too, has prolonged the emergency declaration each 30 days and his order suspending the legislation each 5 days, the go well with costs.
“This lawsuit is aimed at ensuring mayoral abuse of democratic government cannot stand, and the human rights and safety crisis on Rikers caused by maintaining the status quo of failed policies and practices is discontinued,” Speaker Adams stated.
“Despite his desperate power grabs, this mayor can’t just ignore the laws he doesn’t like,” Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams added.
“Ending the harmful isolation of solitary is a moral and legal imperative, yet the administration is desperately trying to maintain a status quo on Rikers that is dangerous to people on both sides of the bars.”
A number of organizations are set to again the authorized submitting — together with the The Bronx Defenders and the New York Civil Liberties Union.
