Solitary Confinement Nears End In NYC Jails, Officials Say

NEW YORK CITY — Solitary confinement's days within New York City's jails could be near a long-awaited end.

The city's board of corrections on Tuesday proposed new rules to completely halt solitary confinement and other isolating, punitive practices.

"Working with our Board of Corrections, we've found a plan that will work, that will provide a safe environment for those who are incarcerated and officers alike, but will end the scourge of solitary confinement," Mayor Bill de Blasio said during his daily briefing.

De Blasio committed to end the practice and conduct other reforms at Rikers Island after the suicide of Kalief Browder, a Bronx youth who spent two years in solitary confinement at the infamous city jail.

Browder's treatment — all for an offense for which he was never charged — exposed the "original sin" of solitary confinement and its harmful toll on inmates, de Blasio said.

The plan proposed by the board of corrections not only calls to end the practice, but includes "positive alternatives" with eye toward rehabilitation rather than punishment, de Blasio said.

Those include giving inmates a minimum of 10 hours out of a cell and the opportunity to socialize with at least one person; individualized behavioral support plans; and ending the use of routine non-individualized restraints.

New York City has a chance to lead the nation in showing it doesn't take brutality to change behavior, said Stanley Richards, who co-chairs the Board of Corrections.

“This is not the end, this is the beginning of the process,” he said.

City Council Member Keith Powers said the proposal will kick off a public process.

"This is the beginning of that process today, so we have a few months ahead of us to make sure that we deliver on that promise to end solitary confinement, but today is undoubtedly a step forward," he said.