Mayor Defends Sending Youths to Jails With Solitary Confinement

The city has banned solitary confinement for individuals under 22, a policy that helped cement Mayor Bill de Blasio’s national reputation as a criminal-justice reformer. Yet late Monday the mayor defended the city’s practice of “occasionally” sending [individuals that are incarcerated] who pose a security or safety risk to county jails where they can be held in solitary confinement.

Defense lawyers, advocates and some elected officials continued to criticize the practice, calling it an end-run around the city’s ban, and urged the mayor Monday to review its use for young [individuals]. Others said the city should simply stop transferring youths to county jails where the ban does not exist.

JoAnne Page, president of the Fortune Society, which helps [individuals with justice experience] make the transition back into society, commended the mayor’s overall efforts, but criticized the practice of transferring young [individuals] to places like Albany County where they can be held in solitary confinement.

“I think it’s wrong,” she said. “They should be doing something different in a way that is keeping them safe and not being placed in solitary confinement in upstate New York.”