The move comes a month after federal prosecutors sued New York City for alleged civil rights violations against teenage inmates in Rikers Island.
The New York City Board of Corrections voted on Tuesday to end solitary confinement for people under 21, a source with knowledge of the matter confirmed to BuzzFeed News.
Inmates at Rikers Island hug each other during a service on December 24, 2013.
Lucas Jackson / Reuters
The agreement, first reported by the New York Times, comes a month after federal prosecutors sued the city for civil rights violations against young inmates in Rikers, the city's main jail.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara on December 18, 2014.
Brendan Mcdermid / Reuters
Known as "punitive segregation," solitary confinement was used as a form of punishment in New York City's jails. Inmates subject to it spend up to 23 hours a day by themselves in their cells, many of them for months at a time.
According to a report prepared by the office of Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, up to 25% of Rikers' teenage population was held in solitary confinement on any given day.
Between September and November of 2014, the federal lawsuit noted, there were 71 reports of use of force incidents against 18-year-old inmates — all in facilities without security cameras.
Bharara's lawsuit was only one of several scandals rocking the city's jail in recent months. In July, the New York Times published an investigation showing how corrections officers seriously injured 129 inmates over 11 months.
In one incident, an inmate was left to die in a cell that reached 100 degrees.
"He basically baked to death," a corrections official told the Associated Press at the time.
Mayor Bill de Blasio had previously ended solitary confinement for 16 and 17-year-old inmates.
Mayor Bill de Blasio at an alternative housing facility for incarcerated adolescents at Rikers Island on December 17, 2014.
Pool / Reuters
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