CRUEL

‘Enjoy the Reprieve’: NYC Mayor to Bring Back Solitary Confinement at Rikers

“I’m not going to allow inmates and officers to be the victims of violent people,” Adams declared.

Eric Adams has announced that his first day as New York City’s mayor will be a busy one at Rikers Island jail. In a press conference Thursday, the mayor-elect slammed outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio’s efforts to end solitary confinement, and promised to reinstate it as soon as he can. De Blasio began transferring detainees out of confinement earlier this week, the New York Daily News reported, due to staffing shortages and concerns about inhumane treatment. Inmates are typically removed from the general jail population and placed in solitary confinement, known as “punitive segregation,” for committing violence. Adams, however, said, “So the mayor announced December 31 he’s going to empty out punitive segregation. January 1, they are going back into segregation.... You know, I’m not going to allow inmates and officers to be the victims of violent people.”