This week, the New York City Council agreed to give Speaker Adrienne Adams the power to sue the mayor's office to make sure that later this month, city jails will no longer keep people in solitary confinement.

NYC Mayor Eric Adams.Photo byFrejus From Flickr

Council members approved a motion Thursday allowing the speaker to sue to uphold the moratorium should it be shelved or cancelled. The outcome marks yet another phase in Mayor Eric Adams' protracted conflict with the Council. He has been accused by council members of disregarding particular policies they disagree with.

The ban passed the Council with solid support at the end of last year. However, the mayor vetoed it in January, and council members overrode it. They also overrode another mayoral veto of a bill to report police stops. The ban on being alone is set to start on July 28.

To Overturn The Rules of Local Law 42

In a June letter, the city's law department told a federal judge in a different prisoners' rights case that it planned to ask a court to overturn the rules of Local Law 42, which says that criminals can't be kept alone.

The Council cited studies that showed people who are locked up alone are much more likely to kill themselves or hurt themselves while they are there than people who are not locked up alone.

NYC Mayor's Office

A spokesperson for the mayor's office said that comments should be sent to the Department of Correction. The Department of Correction said that it was talking with the Law Department and the federal monitor for Rikers Island jails about how to apply the law.

During a news conference to announce his veto, Mayor Adams criticised the ban. He said that the law put city jails' safety at risk and that solitary confinement was just a "buzzword" for something that wasn't happening. His fight against the solitary confinement law and another bill about police stops were more signs that the mayor's relationship with the Council was getting worse.