NYC to end solitary confinement of inmates 21 and younger

Inmates under the age of 21 will not be placed in solitary confinement at Rikers Island beginning next year.

The seven-member board that oversees correction policies voted unanimously Tuesday morning to adopt recommendations by Correction Commissioner Joseph Ponte to eliminate “punitive segregation” for young inmates by January 2016.

However, adoption of the policy is contingent on the department hiring new officers and staff.

The board also affirmed that the Corrections Department can use a new 250-room Enhanced Supervision Housing Unit, or ESHU, to lock up any inmate considered a serious threat to safety for up to 23 hours a day and for no more than 30 consecutive days.

Some inmates previously spent as many as 90 days in solitary confinement.

Activists at Tuesday’s vote protested against the ESHU as a potential backdoor to solitary confinement.

The New York Civil Liberties Union shared those concerns with the board in December but today hailed the decision as an important stand for basic human rights and that new “rules are a major step forward,” wrote NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman.

“Today’s vote to eliminate punitive segregation for inmates under 21 years old and to create a new, non-punitive housing unit for the most violent inmates will enhance the safety and security of every person on Rikers Island,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement.

De Blasio went to Rikers Island in December to announce the end of solitary confinement for 16- and 17-year-old inmates.

On the same day that de Blasio toured Rikers, a jury convicted a Rikers corrections officer for his part in the 2012 death a mentally ill man held in solitary confinement.

On Dec. 18, Manhattan U.S. District Attorney Preet Bharara announced his office would join a class action suit against the city and its management of city jails.