New York City Council bill would limit the use of pepper spray in prisons to emergencies

A new proposal currently being considered by the New York City Council would restrict the use of pepper spray by correctional officers to control inmates in city jails.

The bill introduced Thursday would require correctional officers to obtain approval from their department chief before using high-strength oleoresin capsicum sprays (also known as pepper spray) on inmates, except in emergency situations.

Democratic Councilwoman Sandy Nurse, who chairs the Criminal Justice Committee, introduced the bill at Thursday’s council meeting and placed it on the agenda, but never discussed it, according to the New York Post. Democratic Councilwoman Tiffany Cabán signed the bill as a co-signatory.

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

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City Councilwoman Sandy Nurse introduced the bill at Thursday’s City Council meeting. (Getty Images)

But the city’s correctional officers’ union warns that the bill puts both correctional officers and inmates at risk. The group’s president, Benny Boscio, told the New York Post that the use of chemical weapons “actually results in less serious injuries to inmates and officers than the use of physical force.”

“We invite Councilmember Nurse and any other councilmembers 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 told the outlet.

Boscio also stated that Nurse attended a criminal justice committee hearing in September 2022 where female correctional officers described their experiences with sexual assault.

He said Nurse “should know full well by now that chemical warfare agents are for emergency use only and must be used immediately to save the lives of anyone attacked by violent inmates in our prisons.”

The bill “will only put correctional officers in danger, so I’m very confident it will pass the City Council,” Republican City Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli jokingly told the New York Post.

The law was introduced after a city prison oversight board released a report in February criticizing the New York City Department of Correction’s “excessive use of chemical warfare agents.”

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Pepper spray is bottled on March 2, 2016 by the manufacturer Ballistol in Aham (Baden-Württemberg). (Getty Images)

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

The committee also referred to 24 cases in October in which prison officers used pepper spray against mentally ill inmates without first consulting psychiatric staff, as required.

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The report also cites eight cases in the same month in which officers used pepper spray on inmates who attempted to hang themselves instead of first cutting or removing ropes or other restraints.

The City Council previously approved a bill in December to drastically limit solitary confinement in prisons, but Democratic Mayor Eric Adams signed an emergency order last month blocking much of the measure shortly before it was due to take effect.