NYC Wants To Ban Solitary Confinement At Rikers, Orders Review Of Migrant Shelters

NEW YORK CITY — Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed two emergency executive orders on Tuesday, including one that would give the city 45 days to create a plan to either close or renovate the city’s emergency migrant shelters and another that would limit solitary confinement on Rikers Island.

The Law Department and Department of Social Services are instructed to develop a plan by Feb. 19 for the city's shelter to come into compliance with city shelter law requiring cooking facilities in shelters for families with children and capacity limits on adult shelters.

In addition, a separate executive order calls for the Department of Corrections and the Law Department to develop a plan to get shelters to come into compliance with the Board of Corrections’ Minimum Standards.

The mayor has also directed the Law Department to work with the federal monitor to develop a plan to implement Local Law 42, which bans solitary confinement.

Some of the directives had been suspended by emergency executive orders signed by then-mayor Eric Adams in 2022 in an effort to manage the influx of migrants in the city's shelter system.

Last year, the city started to close a number of migrants shelters citywide. 25 shelter sites closed by March 2025 including Floyd Bennet Field and Randall’s Island. Another 10 sites officially closed in June 2025.

"The previous Administration’s refusal to meet their legal obligations on Rikers has left us with troubling conditions that will take time to resolve,” Mamdani said in a statement. “In order to fix this, I am signing a new emergency executive order instructing the relevant agencies to develop a compliance plan within 45 days. I am also directing the Law Department to work with the federal monitor and the parties in court so that we can end solitary confinement."