Calls for Local Law 42’s full implementation rang across the Civic Center as the city government’s court battle over Mayor Eric Adam’s attempt to block the solitary ban raged on this past Friday, June 6.
The date marks ten years since Kalief Browder took his life following two years in solitary confinement and a day before six years since Layleen Xtravaganza Cubilette-Polanco died in a Restrictive Housing Unit.
“I’m really tired of holding signs with people’s names who are no longer with us,” said #HALTSolitary organizer Anisah Sabur. “Why? Because our system decides to use a practice of torture, torment and death.”
Kalief’s brother Akeem Browder was slated to join but encountered travel issues according to the organizers. The advocates demonstrated outside the Supreme Court of New York where a federal court would hear oral arguments over Adams’ use of emergency provisions to delay Local Law 42’s implementation. He previously vetoed the bill but a city council supermajority overruled him.
Browder’s death at age 22 galvanized criminal justice reforms on the city, state and federal level. Held on Rikers at age 16, he faced charges for a stolen backpack he maintained innocence for.
His three-year imprisonment subjected the young Black New Yorker to regressive discovery laws, high bail costs, trauma-inducing solitary confinement and dangerous jail conditions —- ostensibly every facet of the city’s broken carceral system. His charges were ultimately dropped and he committed suicide around a year after release.
The Adams administration maintains the city does not practice solitary confinement in its jails. The United Nation’s Mandela Laws defines the practice as 22 hours or more a day without meaningful human interaction. However, other forms of separation can cause similar health and mental health conditions stemming from solitary.
Other laws tied to Browder face stiff resistance on a state-level, most notably the bail and discovery reform laws implemented in 2020.
New York state eliminated cash bail for most nonviolent and lower-level offenses. Browder’s case inspired the legislation after his family could not afford the $3,000 bail to release him from pretrial detention.
He was also prevented from accessing the state’s evidence against him during his incarceration due to New York’s “blindfold” laws. Discovery reform, named Kalief’s Law with Akeem Browder’s permission, now strictly enforces evidence-sharing between prosecutors and defendants to ensure a fair trial.
However, the state has already modified both laws since enactment. Bail reform remains maligned for crime and recidivism despite evidence showing the contrary. As a result, several amendments expand the ability for a judge to set cash bail although the law largely remains intact. Earlier this year, the final state budget included amendments to discovery reform after pushback from prosecutors.
“What once felt like a reckoning gives way again to routine,” said Akeem Browder over text message. “Across the country, legally innocent people continue to sit in jail cells simply because they can’t afford bail. Time in jail still destroys lives – costing people jobs, housing, and custody of their children. And too often, it still kills.
“And so we find ourselves a decade later, in a landscape not so different from the one that trapped Kalief, still debating whether a person’s freedom should carry a price tag, still ignoring the value of human life and the consequences of time spent in a jail cell.”
Layleen Xtravaganza Cubilette-Polanco died on Rikers in 2019 while held on $500 bail. She was held in a “punitive segregation” unit which advocates say is ostensibly solitary confinement and would be banned under Local Law 42.
Legal Aid Society intern Kennedy Felder, who was held on Rikers Island with Polanco and is also transgender, recounted her time in solitary confinement as inhumane.
“I even witnessed a dorm mate who never returned back from solitary confinement: Layleen Polanco,” said Felder. “She died alone in a cold cell due to [NYC Department of Correction’s] negligence. Did I mention she was trans? We heard that part, right? Not that it shouldn’t matter. Because she was a human first, as they all are.
“So it’s unfortunate that the same officers who walk in from the street into the facilities quickly forget that. And it’s unfortunate that during this month, a lot of politicians cosplay as allies for LGBTQ detainees.”
A spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams pointed to concerns from the federal monitor appointed to audit improvements to city jail conditions over how Local Law 42 would impact constitutional compliance.
“The safety of every person in our custody is our priority, and what happened to Kalief Browder in 2015 was a horrible tragedy that could have been prevented,” said the spokesperson. “But to be clear, Local Law 42 is not about banning solitary confinement, because solitary confinement has not been used in New York City jails since 2019.
“Instead, Local Law 42 would impede our ability to protect both the people in our custody and our staff — something the independent federal monitor himself has acknowledged multiple times.”
Author’s Note: A quote from Akeem Browder was added after publish.
Well. They down there in Allred prison got all the inmates on 24 hours a day lockdown they can’t come out of their cells period
Hi – I am not transgender and would appreciate that this post removes that. Thank you. That information should not even be present.