The City Council passed a bill aiming to ban solitary confinement in New York City jails – but many fear that the bill may get shut down. 

For Akeem Browder, the City Council’s decision to ban solitary confinement was long overdue. 

Browder’s half-brother, Kalief, was jailed at Rikers Island as a teenager for three years – two of which were spent in solitary confinement. Kalief was awaiting trial for allegedly stealing a backpack. Years later he took his own life.

“I feel like Kalief has been vindicated in that sort of way where solitary confinement was the reason and the cause for him not being here,” said Browder. 

Browder says that there is a growing concern that Mayor Eric Adams will veto the bill after the mayor made comments earlier this week indicating he may do so. 

A study in the American Journal of Public Health found that people placed in solitary confinement are over seven times as likely to harm themselves.