Union leader says city shouldn’t end ‘punitive confinement’ in jails

The head of the city’s correction officers union on Sunday bashed an elected leader’s push to end punitive confinement in Big Apple jails.

Elias Husamudeen, the president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, said City Council Speaker Cory Johnson’s push to eliminate the segregation would lead to “more assault on correction officers, other inmates and civilians.”

“We need our elected officials to step up and protect the men and women and protect the correction officers,” Husamudeen said. “We are in charge of protecting inmates, to keep the people safe and we can’t do that without being able to segregate these violent inmates from the rest.”

He said punitive segregation is drastically different than solitary confinement.

“[Inmates] still get visits, still get the library, still get to go to recreation, and that stuff doesn’t happen where they actually practice solitary confinement,” he said.

Husamudeen says that while solitary confinement can go on for an uncertain amount of time,  punitive segregation can only last up to 30 days,

“After that, we have to take them out regardless if they broke my jaw, raped another inmate, it doesn’t matter. We can’t keep them for more than 30 days, which makes us ask everybody ‘after 30 days what do we do with them? Especially if their behavior doesn’t change and isn’t modified?’ ”

Despite the population decline in New York City jails, there still remains an uptick in violence and in spending.

There were a reported 12,000 inmate fight/assault instances last year, and only 6,458 in 1998.

Husamudeen says that within the next two weeks his team will have a statement on what they think should be done.

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