Press Room

"The mayor’s opposition to a law doesn’t make it optional. I commend the Speaker and Council for taking this step, even though it should never have reached this point. Expanding access to vouchers amid an affordable housing crisis should not be a point of contention. It is a common sense step that will have a positive impact on the lives of many New Yorkers – which is why the Council passed the package in the first place, then overrode the mayor’s misguided veto. Expanding voucher access is key to helping New Yorkers get out of shelters and into permanent housing – and in this moment, to help alleviate the shelter challenges related to the arrival of migrants.

"Beyond this specific resolution, this controversy casts doubt on the administration’s willingness or ability to implement the public safety reforms which the Council overrode into law last week, and could lead to New Yorkers further distrusting the ability of the administration to serve the city’s needs. I hope that the administration will now realize the need to rebuild that trust instead of continuing to oppose the laws that their partners in government overwhelmingly enact."

"As the proud son of Grenadian immigrants, I want to wish a Happy 50th Independence Anniversary to all who share heritage from Grenada, Carriacou, and Petite Martinique. I am forever proud of and shaped by my roots and the time I’ve spent on the Isle of Spice, and proud to join in the Golden Jubilee celebrations.

"In my work in New York City, home to tens of thousands of Grenadians, I celebrate and uplift the ways in which Grenadian culture has shaped our communities, and strive to honor the proud history of the island in my work for justice, equity, and liberty. We celebrate those values today, as we have throughout five decades of independence, and look to the promising future."

Following a Special Joint Sitting of Parliament in Grenada yesterday, the Public Advocate met with local dignitaries and presented the Prime Minister, the Hon. Dickon Mitchell, with a proclamation. Photos are available here.

"Our office has consistently raised the failures of management at NYCHA as the worst landlord in the city, but the charges today are nonetheless a staggering statement on the widespread abuses of power and tenant trust at the core of the agency’s deficiencies.

"The shameful conduct alleged ultimately harms not only tenant trust but tenant safety, as it corrupts the repair process and contributes to dangerous conditions at complexes across the city – which can prove deadly, as with the recent death from Legionnaires disease. As the legal process moves forward, accountability for bad actors and implementation of reforms are essential for NYCHA to prove its commitment to repairing both its buildings and the trust of the tenants paying to live there."

NEW YORK: New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams released the following statement after the City Council voted 42-9 to override vetoes of his legislation to ban solitary confinement in city jails and require basic policing transparency.

"These votes are a victory for transparency and public safety in our city, no matter what this administration would like New Yorkers to believe. Because of the advocates, the impacted individuals and families, the Speaker, City Council, and everyone who worked on this legislation, we have taken major steps forward in the difficult work of making our jails and our streets safer. It’s an important day for everyone committed to the hard work of advancing true public safety, made all the harder by a relentless misinformation campaign from this administration. It could take years to undo the damage from an intentional campaign of dishonesty. 

"The How Many Stops Act is a reporting bill. It is not the burden that the administration pretends it is – unless they choose to make it one. But let’s be clear, while the reporting is not as onerous as described, it is necessary and its impact is essential, building on the work of a decade ago and preventing us from going back to the bad old days. This isn’t preventing police work, it’s part of police work. It will help us get basic data on how policing practices are in effect on our streets, and craft public safety policy moving forward. It's clear we need change informed by data, not hysteria. 

"Banning the lasting vestiges of solitary confinement – and the use of isolation to try and change behavior– is a moral and governing imperative. Isolation causes lasting harm, causes recidivism, causes more violence, makes our jails less safe for people on both sides of the bars, and our city less safe. Our law allows for separation, for de-escalation, but not the harm which isolation is universally acknowledged to cause. Instead, it implements programming that might actually improve behavior and outcomes. We cannot keep the status quo of crisis on Rikers, and if we want different results, we have to do something different – but based on what we know can work.

"I sincerely hope that the administration will stop wasting time with misinformation and instead work with us on the most streamlined, effective way to implement these bills. The past several weeks of resources used to obstruct, and ultimately, to absurdly, dishonestly blame these bills for every unsafe incident in our city, have been harmful. We don’t have to guess the impact of how misinformation will work – too many who know better, including the mayor, have been doing it with bail reform for years despite evidence to the contrary — harming public safety discussions, public trust, and public policy in the process. When the public knows what these bills actually do, they support them, and the principles at their core. New Yorkers deserve to be safe and feel safe – these bills only serve to help achieve the first, while any continued misinformation and fear-mongering from the administration will prevent the second. 

"Having seen multiple vetoes overridden in just over two years in office, I hope that the mayor will now recognize the need to collaborate and prioritize true, holistic public safety solutions over politics."

"While the mayor included some promising proposals in his address, including recognizing the harm of social media on public health and safety, what was left unsaid was his attempt to pit the city against itself over a basic data reporting bill that strengthens public safety.

"I invite Mayor Adams to have a public, honest discussion with me about my office’s legislation so that New Yorkers can hear what the bill actually does: provide greater transparency in policing practices. After months of misinformation, I think the people who elected us both deserve to hear the truth."

New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams released the following statement after Mayor Eric Adams' press conference today which amplified misinformation about Intro 549-A banning solitary confinement and Intro 586-A requiring basic police transparency. On Friday the mayor vetoed these bills, which passed with veto-proof majorities last month.

"I hope that the media will tell New Yorkers the truth about these bills because it’s clear we cannot trust the mayor to. Mayor Adams is threatening the long-term safety of our city every time he speaks about the imaginary legislation he opposes.

"Today’s press conference was a grotesque example of the mayor hiding behind the pain and fears of people he misinforms and manipulates. The weakness and shamelessness on display is astonishing.

"There was too much misinformation to address individually, but it’s infuriating to see the administration continue to deceive people about these bills and the reality on Rikers and in our streets. In particular, to defend the status quo on Rikers the day after another detainee died under the oversight of this administration, left without so much as a mattress to lay on, is disgusting. The Mayor is downplaying death on Rikers. And to attribute the real risks corrections officers face – including one whose arm as broken yesterday  – to a bill he just vetoed is absurd. 

"Whatever the administration wants to categorize a Level One Stop as – today, they breathtakingly asserted it is ‘not a stop,’ the NYPD Patrol Guide already requires logging of those interactions. Is the mayor suggesting officers are already violating the patrol guide?

"We can’t hear from Layleen Polanco, Brandon Rodriguez, or Kalief Browder about the need to ban solitary confinement on Rikers, because it took their lives. We can’t hear from Allan Feliz, Delrawn Small, or Eric Garner about the need for accountability and transparency in policing stops. So it’s up to those of us invested in public safety, not political protection, to speak up, call out the misinformation propping up unjust systems, and change those systems."

Excerpts refuting the mayor’s misinformation:

From the How Many Stops Act:

“The term “investigative encounter” means an interaction between a member of the department and a member of the public for a law enforcement or investigative purpose. The term does not include a casual conversation or interaction between a member of the department and a member of the public unless such conversation or interaction is based on or, in the course of such conversation or interaction, an officer develops: an objective credible reason to approach; a founded suspicion that such member of the public has engaged in or will engage in criminal activity; a reasonable suspicion that such member of the public has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime; or a reasonable cause to believe that an offense is being or has been committed.

From the Solitary Confinement ban:

“Use of restraints. 1. The department shall not place an incarcerated person in restraints unless an individualized determination is made that restraints are necessary to prevent an imminent risk of self-injury or injury to other persons. In such instances, only the least restrictive form of restraints may be used and may be used no longer than is necessary to abate such imminent harm. Restraints shall not be used on an incarcerated person under the age of 22 except in the following circumstances: (i) during transportation in and out of a facility, provided that during transportation no person shall be secured to an immovable object; and (ii) during escorted movement within a facility to and from out-of-cell activities where an individualized determination is made that restraints are necessary to prevent an immediate risk of self-injury or injury to other persons."