An executive order from Mayor Zohran Mamdani to end solitary confinement in jails is receiving praise from some advocates, who say they know firsthand about the damage that could be done inside a cell.<\/p>\n
Melquan Thawney, Kayeye Inman and Quayshawn Smith walked through New York City streets as free men on Thursday.<\/p>\n
It’s a much different reality than the time they spent behind bars, including more than two years straight in solitary confinement combined.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing in a box,\u201d said Smith, \u201cIt messes with your mental a lot. You’re locked in 23 hours a day, you weren’t getting any commissary. Dinner’s at 4 p.m., the rest of the day you are starving, it’s cold in there sometimes, the heat turns off.\u201d<\/p>\n
They also add that rodents would often become their closest neighbors.<\/p>\n
After serving time on Rikers Island, a jail known for its overcrowding, violence, and poor conditions, they\u2019re now dedicating their lives to saving the next generation from making the same mistakes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just have this one thing in common that we want to see change in our community,\u201d said Thawney.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re breaking the norms,\u201d said Inman. \u201cThe community norms, which is just because you’re from over here and over here, we got to be at odds. So that’s why we do this. This means together, and we’re leading by example.\u201d<\/p>\n
When news broke of Mayor Mamdani signing an executive order instructing officials to develop a plan to put an end to solitary confinement, the men said they felt a sigh of relief.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a great step forward,\u201d said Nick Smith, who says his first experience in solitary confinement was the age of 16. \u201cFor the kids mainly, but for everybody. When you go in that box, it\u2019s like jail inside of jail.\u201d<\/p>\n
Advocates say although it may feel like a step forward, it\u2019s not the finish line. They warn that without strict oversight, solitary confinement could still appear under a different name.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere should be more programs,\u201d said Thawney. \u201cWhether it\u2019s for anger, substance abuse or whatever it is. Everyone is different.\u201d<\/p>\n
The alternative plan is expected from the mayor’s administration in the next 45 days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An executive order from Mayor Zohran Mamdani to end solitary confinement in jails is receiving praise from some…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":503825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,1121,22806,19887,12784,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,74350,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,5301],"class_list":{"0":"post-503824","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-brownsville","11":"tag-executive-orders","12":"tag-gangs","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkcity","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-rikers-island","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa","26":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115865412254290980","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}