The bill city lawmakers passed places a four-hour limit on isolating inmates who pose an immediate risk of violence to others or themselves in “de-escalation” units.
In a televised interview ahead of the vote, he took specific aim at a provision of the bill that requires an inmate be granted a hearing before being placed in solitary confinement.
“What City Council is saying is while they’re in jail if they commit an assault on someone, an inmate or a correction officer, before we place them into punitive segregation, we need to allow them to have a trial of due process,” Adams told WNYW. “That makes no sense.”
The Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, the union representing staff in the city’s jails, also railed against the bill, as did the conservative Common Sense Caucus of the council.
Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli, who co-chairs the caucus, said the proposal would “essentially take away a vital tool our correction officers have to keep everyone safe.”
Adams, a former NYPD captain, also slammed another council proposal approved Wednesday dealing with police officers.
That bill requires the NYPD publicly report on all investigative stops conducted by officers, including relatively low-level encounters with civilians. Police are currently only required to fill out reports following “reasonable suspicion” stops, where an officer has the legal authority to search and detain someone.
The mayor warned that the expanded reporting would only serve to slow down police response times and divert officers from quickly responding to emergencies.
“In every City Council district in this city, our officers will be forced to spend more time in their cars and on their phones, and less time walking the streets and engaging with New Yorkers,” he said in an emailed statement.
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