By Katie Honan and Reuven Blau / THE CITY
This story was originally published by THE CITY. Sign up to get the latest New York City news delivered to you each morning.”
The City Council on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to override Mayor Eric Adams’ vetoes of two bills — one to ban solitary confinement in jails and another to require more NYPD reporting — after a weeks-long public campaign by City Hall to keep them from becoming law.
The Council overrode both vetoes on 42 to 9 votes, easily clearing the two-thirds support needed.
Those were higher tallies than when the bills originally passed, when 34 members voted for the “How Many Stops” act and 39 voted to ban solitary confinement — meaning some members who originally voted against the bill, also then voted down the veto.
“Public safety is a collective effort, but it can only be achieved when there’s transparency and accountability in policing,” Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said before the vote.
“Transparency fosters the community trust that is necessary to make our neighborhoods safer.”
Councilmember Crystal Hudson, a Democrat from Brooklyn, said the bills will provide more transparency for the public and lawmakers.
“The passage of this legislative package, and Int. 586 in particular, will bolster the civil liberties of New Yorkers across the five boroughs,” she said, voting in favor of the override.
After the vote, Mayor Eric Adams touted the city’s public safety numbers during his tenure and reiterated his stance that the bills will make the city less safe.
“These bills will make New Yorkers less safe on the streets, while police officers are forced to fill out additional paperwork rather than focus on helping New Yorkers and strengthening community bonds,” he said.
Asked earlier Tuesday about what he planned to do if the veto override happened, he said his administration would “follow the law.”
“I am doing and I did my part,” he said.
Those opposed to the bills and voting against overriding a veto also pointed to public safety. Councilwoman Joann Ariola, a Republican who represents parts of southern Queens, said both bills “will make this city and our correctional facilities less safe.”
“The public safety of our entire city is at risk,” she said.
Councilmember Bob Holden, a Democrat from Queens, also voted against the override.
“We’re asking fewer police officers to do a lot more,” he said. “That makes no sense.”
Both Ariola and Holden had voted against the original bills, as well.
Under the bill language, the solitary ban goes into effect 60 days after becoming law. Police will be required to release reports on more stops, including so-called Level 1 stops, starting after September of this year, according to the bill. The mayor has argued that requiring police officers to file paperwork about lower-level stops would force them to prioritize paperwork over public safety.
The veto overrides were the second and third during Mayor Adams’ tenure. The first happened last year after the mayor vetoed a bill to make apartment rental subsidy vouchers available to a wider range of people — although the administration declared to the Council earlier this month that the law “cannot be implemented at this time,” effectively challenging lawmakers to take the administration to court.
‘Grabbing at Straws’
The votes capped a contentious period between the mayor on one side and the Council and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams on the other. The weeks of fighting often involved personal pot shots and, in one bizarre case, a fight over chairs in City Hall’s rotunda.
Although Adams opposed both bills before the Council voted on them last December, he saved his harshest and strongest criticism for after they passed with veto-proof majorities.
He went after Williams, was a co-sponsor of the “How Many Stops” bill, for living behind security and gates on the Fort Hamilton military base in Brooklyn.
“He lives in a fort. He doesn’t take the subway,”Adams said. The public advocate then held a virtual press conference to respond, saying the mayor “sounded like a 5-year-old throwing a temper tantrum, grabbing at straws because he didn’t get what he wanted.”
He then brought up questions about Adams’ own living arrangements, saying it was his understanding that “the mayor lives in New Jersey with his girlfriend.”
The Adams team also released an animated video to illustrate what they felt would be the dangers of the police reporting bill, and the mayor even urged attendees of a teen’s bar mitzvah in Queens to speak out about the bill.
After the Council moved a press conference about the bills from the City Hall steps to inside the building due to weather last week, a deputy chief of staff to the mayor tried to take away seats, saying they belonged to the mayor’s office.
Staffers for the mayor also then refused to turn the lights on inside City Hall’s rotunda, leaving the council members and supporters literally in the dark to discuss what they called “myths” the mayor spread about the bills.
Before the vote on Tuesday, Speaker Adams said the debate over the bill was “healthy conversation around differing opinions of a law” — but took issue with some of the “misinformation” surrounding it.
“We have laid out this legislation as honestly as we can in its presentation,” she said.
“Our issue has been the proliferation of misinformation that has gone out kind of late in the process, after we already passed the legislation.”
Who Enforces the Enforcers?
As for the solitary bill, some jail insiders remain skeptical it will actually be properly implemented. They note former jail commissioner Louis Molina argued that the department no longer uses solitary confinement as a punishment.
Instead, detainees who are deemed trouble makers or violent are also sometimes placed in Enhanced Supervision Housing units, which were introduced in 2015 as an alternative to solitary.
But some detainees accused of misbehaving are also placed in so-called intake areas, sometimes for days with minimal, or no outside cell time, according to jail records. People behind bars are also locked up for days in the North Infirmary Command medical facility on Rikers, according to DOC records.
The legislation specifies that the use of solitary confinement must be strictly limited even if the department uses a different name for the punishment. If jail officials violate the new law they can be taken to court.
But there are already four court-appointed monitors overseeing the Correction Department, with various levels of effectiveness.
Asked Tuesday how she planned to ensure the NYPD and the Department of Correction upheld what’s laid out in their bills, Speaker Adams said she “expect[s] the department to comply with the law just like any citizen should comply with the law.”
In 2019, Gotham Gazette noted that many of the reports due to the City Council from various agencies get done late or not at all.
Melania Brown, whose sister, Layleen Polanco, died at Rikers on June 7, 2019 during a stint in solitary, hailed the veto override.
“It’s been a long fight,” she told THE CITY shortly after the Council vote. “I’m at a loss for words. I started to lose faith but today shows when the community comes together changes can happen.”
“I know today my sister smiled,” she added. “I can finally start my healing, and grieving, process.”
Editor’s Note: This month makes four years since ScheerPost was born, maturing into an award-winning top news source on the most important issues of our time at a moment when the once vaunted model of responsible journalism is overwhelmingly the play thing of self-serving billionaires and their corporate scribes. Alternatives of integrity are desperately needed, and we are one of them. Please support our independent journalism by contributing a “birthday gift” to help us reach our goal of $50,000 — we are 75% there. We can’t thank you enough, and promise to keep bringing you this kind of vital news.
You can also make a donation to our PayPal or subscribe to our Patreon.