Monday marked the two-year anniversary of the death of Layleen Polanco, an Afro-Latina transgender woman who died in solitary confinement at Rikers Island. Advocates, including Polanco’s sister Melania Brown, are urging elected officials who have pledged to end the controversial practice, such as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and President Joe Biden, to finally make good on their promises.
The New York Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement (CAIC) led a march through lower Manhattan to New York City Hall on Monday morning. Brown and Akeem Browder, the brother of Kalief Browder, who committed suicide in 2015 at age 22 after being held in solitary confinement for two years, spearheaded the protest.
At the event, Brown alleged that de Blasio had promised her family that he would end solitary confinement but said that “he has broken that promise, ” according to local news outlet WPIX. After de Blasio announced the creation of a working group to end administrative segregation in New York City prisons last June, his administration announced plans to “end solitary confinement” 9 months later.
However, Brown and other advocates for incarcerated people have criticized these plans repeatedly, claiming that they don’t go far enough.
The administration’s proposal would replace solitary confinement with a so-called Risk Management Accountability System. These regulations would allow incarcerated people at least 10 hours of time outside of their cell each day, which includes time to socialize “with at least one other person.” Inmates are also permitted “5 hours of daily programming,” “steady, experienced case managers,” and “individualized behavioral support plans.” Additionally, the model would end the usage of “routine non-individualized restraints,” such as restraint desks.
The city is expected to approve these rules on Tuesday, and they would go into effect on November 1.
Protestors at Monday’s march demanded that all prisoners be allowed a minimum standard of 14 hours per day outside a cell, including “meaningful socialization and programming,” according to local publication AM New York Metro.
National organizations amplified the call to end solitary confinement on the anniversary of Polanco’s death as well. Over 130 advocacy groups signed onto a letter organized by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) calling on Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to fulfill the administration’s promise of ending the practice.
The letter, which was co-signed by organizations from the National Disability Rights Network to the Episcopal Church, was published Monday, but appears to have been drafted prior to Biden’s inauguration. It urges the president and vice president to implement “plans necessary to end the practice of solitary confinement on day one of your administration,” a deadline that has long passed.
