A new proposal being considered by the New York City Council would limit correction officers’ use of pepper spray to control inmates acting out in the city’s jails.
The bill, introduced Thursday, would require correction officers to obtain authorization from their tour commander before using high-powered oleoresin capsicum sprays, otherwise known as pepper spray, on inmates except in emergency situations.
Democrat Councilwoman Sandy Nurse, who chairs the criminal justice committee, introduced the bill at Thursday’s council meeting, putting it on the agenda but never discussing it, according to the New York Post. Democrat Councilwoman Tiffany Cabán signed onto the legislation as a co-sponsor.
Under the proposal, pepper spray could only be fired in “emergency cases when a delay in use … presents an immediate threat of death or serious injury or severely threatens the safety or security of the facility.”
But the city’s correction officers union is warning that this bill puts both correction officers and inmates in harm’s way, with the group’s president, Benny Boscio, telling the New York Post that deploying chemical agents “actually makes it less likely for inmates and officers to sustain serious injuries than by using physical force instead.”
“We invite Councilmember Nurse and any other councilmembers who support this reckless legislation to spend a full day with us in a housing area with gang-affiliated inmates and see if they still think our officers’ hands should be tied when utilizing chemical agents,” Boscio told the outlet.
Boscio also explained that Nurse was at a criminal justice committee hearing in September 2022 in which female correction officers recounted their experiences of being sexually assaulted.
He said Nurse “should know full well by now that chemical agents are only used in emergency situations, and it must be deployed immediately in order to save the lives of anyone in our jails who is being attacked by assaultive inmates.”
The bill “will only put correction officers in danger, so I am very confident it will pass the City Council,” Republican Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli told the New York Post in jest.
The legislation was introduced after a city jails oversight board released a report in February criticizing the New York City Department of Correction’s “overreliance on chemical agents.”
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The Board of Correction found there were 2,972 pepper spray “incidents” in city jails during the first 10 months of 2023, an increase of nearly 50% from the first 10 months of 2018.
The board also pointed to 24 examples in October in which correction officers deployed pepper spray on mentally ill inmates without first consulting mental health staff, as required.
The report further cited eight cases that same month, when officers used pepper spray on inmates attempting to hang themselves instead of first cutting or removing the ropes or other ligature.
This comes after the city council approved a bill in December to severely limit the use of solitary confinement in jails, although Democrat Mayor Eric Adams signed an emergency executive order last month blocking major parts of the measure shortly before it was slated to go into effect.
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