- Solitary confinement is government torture that inflicts devastating and deadly harm. Solitary causes people to engage in self-mutilation. It causes heart disease. It causes anxiety, depression, and psychosis. In NYC, solitary confinement is almost exclusively inflicted on Black and brown people, who make up over 90% of all people in NYC jails.
- Even after release from incarceration, a study of hundreds of thousands of people released from prison in North Carolina over a 15 year period found that people who had spent time in solitary were significantly more likely to die by suicide and other causes. Research shows that even only one or two days in solitary leads to significantly heightened risk of death by accident, suicide, violence, overdose, and other causes.
- Solitary confinement killed Kalief Browder 9 years ago and Layleen Polanco 5 years ago. On the day of her death in solitary confinement on Rikers Island, Layleen Polanco had been locked in her cell for two or three hours before she died.
- Contrary to the purported justification for its use, solitary also makes jails and outside communities less safe for everyone by causing people to deteriorate and in turn increasing the risk of harmful acts. Numerous studies, such as here and here show that people who have spent time in solitary or restrictive housing are more likely to be re-arrested after release from incarceration.
- On the other hand, the evidence is clear: if a system is trying to reduce violence what works much better than solitary is the exact opposite of solitary: pro-social program-based interventions that involve full days of out-of-cell group programming and engagement, like the CAPS program in NYC jails, the Merle Cooper Program in NYS, and the RSVP program in San Francisco jails.
- For example, the RSVP program included people who had carried out acts of assault, sexual assault, other violent acts, and repeated “heinous” acts. It led to a precipitous drop in violence among participants to the point of having zero incidents over a one year period. People who participated in the program also had dramatically lower rates of re-arrest for violent charges after release from jail.
- Best practices in youth and mental health facilities limit isolation to minutes or hours at most, with positive impacts on safety and people’s health and well-being.
- Despite repeated promises over many years to end solitary – invoking Layleen’s and Kalief’s names, the city jails continue to lock people in solitary by many different names, with torturous and deadly results.
- Brandon Rodriguez died after he was locked in solitary in a shower cage. The city jails locked Elijah Muhammad in solitary in those same shower cages to the point he was found with a ligature around his neck, and then placed Elijah in another form of solitary confinement that is supposed to be “de-escalation confinement”, leading to his death. DOC initiated yet another form of solitary in 2022 through automatic lockdowns in general population in George R. Vierno Center, and that is where Erick Tavira died after being locked in solitary.
- People in the city jails continue to be locked in solitary in: (1) so-called de-escalation units and decontamination showers, (2) so-called structurally restrictive housing in North Infirmary Command (NIC) and West Facility that is nothing more than solitary confinement by another name for 23 to 24 hours a day, (3) Enhanced Supervision Housing (ESH), (4) Rose M Singer ESH (RESH), (5) George R. Vierno Center automatic lockdowns in supposed general population, (6) repeated lockdowns throughout the jails, and more. People are still locked in solitary for 23 to 24 hours a day for days, weeks, months and more. There are people who have been in solitary for nearly a year and are still there.
- Op-ed by Tamara Carter: While the Mayor falsely claims there’s been no solitary in NYC since 2019, Tamara’s son Brandon died in solitary in a shower cage in August 2021. Tamara talks about all the continued various forms of solitary and their harmful impacts, and how her son would still be alive today if Local Law 42 had been in place. “I couldn’t save my son’s life, but if I can help save another person’s life and make sure no other family has to go through what we have gone through, that is so important to me.”
- Op-ed by Dr. James Gilligan and Dr. Bandy Lee, who have decades of experience designing, operating, and evaluating violence prevention programs in jails and prisons: lauding the Council for taking a crucial step toward scientifically proven methods of violence prevention by passing Local Law 42 and documenting how – contrary to critics’ claims – Local Law 42’s ban on solitary and utilization of proven alternatives, will stop torture, save lives, and reduce violence.
- A Columbia University Center for Justice report documents how NYC jails continue to lock people in solitary confinement in various units by various names, with devastating and deadly consequences.
- As reported by the New York Times and the Associated Press, a New York supreme court has ruled that NY prisons have systematically violated the HALT Solitary Confinement Law, following a class action lawsuit brought by people incarcerated in New York prisons – represented by Prisoners Legal Services (PLS) and the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU).
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