The New York City Board of Correction is advancing a proposal to remove the word “inmate” from its jail rules, opting instead for “person in custody” in a broader push to use language that does not reduce people to their incarceration status.
The proposed update expands on a 2021 effort to revise the board’s Minimum Standards, when officials first began phasing out “inmate” after determining that jail terminology should reflect the humanity of those held in Department of Correction custody.
“People in DOC custody are people first and the circumstance of their incarceration is not their defining feature,” the board wrote in 2021. “Therefore, the Board has made a commitment to employ person-first language in its Standards and general communications going forward.”
People in custody at Rikers Island watch the World Cup semifinal soccer match between England and Argentina at the New York jail complex on Wednesday, July 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Since then, the board has moved to swap out references to “inmates” for wording such as “people,” “persons” and “individuals in custody.” The newest proposal would carry those person-first language changes into more sections of New York City jail regulations.
The language revisions appear across the board’s rulebook.
One section once called “Classification of Prisoners” has been retitled “Classification of People in Custody,” and many mentions of “prisoners” and “inmates” have been rewritten. The rules also define a “person in custody” as “any person confined in a facility.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani talks with people in custody on Rikers Island as they watch a World Cup semifinal soccer match on Wednesday, July 15, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
The proposal says the amendments are intended to continue the board’s earlier work.
“In 2021, the Board made a commitment to employ person-first language in its Minimum Standards and communications by deleting references to ‘inmates’ in favor of person-first terms such as ‘people in custody,'” the proposal states. “The Board proposes continuing this vital effort in Chapters 2 and 3.”
The city is not alone in moving away from the word “inmate.”
Views of the New York City jails on Rikers Island, as seen from a departing flight from Laguardia Airport on Dec. 10, 2022 in Queens, New York. (Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)
In 2022, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation replacing references to “inmate” throughout state law with “incarcerated individual.”
The measure amended dozens of provisions across New York law to adopt the new terminology, though New York City instead chose the phrase “person in custody.”
The terminology debate has resurfaced as New York City’s correction system has drawn renewed public attention following a FIFA World Cup semifinal watch party at Rikers Island attended by Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
During the event, Mamdani told attendees, “These are New Yorkers, and they will be New Yorkers when they get out of Rikers.”
The city’s terminology changes do not alter jail operations, housing policies or disciplinary procedures.
Instead, the board has characterized the revisions as an effort to modernize its regulations and ensure the language reflects its long-standing philosophy that people should not be defined solely by their incarceration.
INC News reached out to the New York City Board of Correction asking why it chose “person in custody” instead of “incarcerated individual,” the term adopted by New York state, and whether the board received public feedback on the proposal.
Requests for comment were also sent to the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, which represents New York City’s correction officers, and the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit criminal justice reform organization.
