New York City Council bill would severely restrict the use of pepper spray in prisons; union criticizes law as “reckless”

Published on August 17, 2024, 10:10 a.m. ET

By Rich Calder

Except in rare emergencies, New York City correctional officers at Rikers Island and other prisons in the Big Apple will no longer be allowed to use pepper spray to protect themselves or inmates, thanks to a new, “reckless” bill currently being considered by the City Council.

The bill, sponsored by left-leaning Democratic City Councilwoman Sandy Nurse, would require correctional officers to first obtain authorization from the Department of Corrections before firing “high-strength oleoresin capsicum sprays” – better known as pepper spray – at out-of-control inmates.

The left-leaning Brooklyn politician, who chairs the Criminal Justice Committee, quietly introduced the bill at Thursday's council meeting and placed it on the agenda without discussing it.

Councilwoman Tiffany Cabán, a Democratic Socialist from Queens, co-signed the petition.

If the law is passed, pepper spray would only be allowed to be used in “emergency situations” “when delaying use … would create an imminent threat of death or serious injury or seriously endanger the safety of the facility.”

And that puts both correctional officers and inmates at risk, says Benny Boscio, president of the city's correctional officers' union.

“The use of chemical agents actually reduces the likelihood of serious injury to prisoners and officers than the use of physical force,” he told the Post.

“We invite Councilmember Nurse and all other council members who support this reckless legislation to spend a full day with us in a neighborhood with gang members and find out if they still believe our officers should have their hands tied when it comes to using chemical warfare agents.”

Boscio also noted that the Manhattan politician attended a House Criminal Justice Committee hearing on September 28, 2022, where female correctional officers provided harrowing accounts of sexual assault.

Nurses “should know by now that chemical warfare agents are used only in emergency situations and must be deployed immediately to save the lives of all those in our prisons who are attacked by violent inmates,” Boscio said.

Nurse's bill is the latest attempt by the left-leaning majority on the City Council to loosen conditions for inmates in local jails while a federal judge decides whether the city's decades-long inaction to curb violence on Rikers justifies an independent agency, or “receiver,” to run the jails.

In December, the City Council approved a bill that would severely restrict the use of solitary confinement in prisons. But Mayor Eric Adams, a moderate Democrat, signed an emergency order last month blocking key parts of the plan just hours before it was due to take effect.

“[Nurse’s] “This bill will only put correctional officers in danger, so I'm very confident it will pass the City Council,” joked City Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island).

Nurse did not respond to messages, but introduced the bill six months after a city prison oversight panel released a scathing report criticizing the New York Department of Corrections for its staff's “excessive use of chemical warfare agents.”

The Board of Correction found that there were 2,972 pepper spray “incidents” in city jails during the first 10 months of 2023, a nearly 50% increase over the same period in 2018.

The committee also cited 24 cases in October in which correctional officers fired pepper spray at mentally ill inmates without first consulting psychiatric staff, as required.

In the same month, eight cases were also recorded in which officers used pepper spray on prisoners who attempted to hang themselves instead of first cutting or removing the ropes or other “restraints”.

The DOC did not respond to messages and the mayor's office said the legislation was under review.