About

The #HALTsolitary Campaign / New York Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement (CAIC) has led efforts to end the torture of solitary confinement in New York since 2012. Led by individuals who have survived solitary and family members of people inside, the #HALTsolitary Campaign is a broad-based campaign comprised of more than 400 organizational supporters, as well as other survivors of solitary, family members, and leaders in the human rights, advocacy, health, and faith communities. The Campaign aims to end the torture of solitary for all people and create more humane and effective alternatives. CAIC also aims to build on these changes – and their pursuit – to dismantle the racial injustices and punishment paradigm that underpin the entire incarceration system.

Our small staff is made up of two Co-Directors, Victor Pate and Jerome Wright, who have led the campaign for many years, and we have many active volunteers and individual and institutional supporters.

To get involved, please contact Victor at vpate@nycaic.org, or feel free to join us at an upcoming meeting or event by checking our Events page.

Legislative Victories

On March 31, 2022, the HALT Solitary Confinement Law went into effect. HALT is legislation our campaign pushed for eight years thanks to the support of Unlock the Box and others, which passed by a supermajority in both houses of the state legislature and was signed by Governor Cuomo on March 31, 2021. Among other provisions, for all NY prisons and jails, HALT bans solitary beyond 15 consecutive days for all people, bans it entirely for people with mental health needs, young people, elderly people, pregnant people, and new mothers, and requires that people in alternatives to solitary have access to at least seven hours of daily out-of-cell time with congregate therapeutic and rehabilitative programming and activities.

Due to HALT’s passage and intense advocacy since its passage, the state closed Southport prison, one of NY’s two supermax prisons dedicated to solitary that had a long history of abuse, ended one form of solitary called keeplock, dramatically reduced the number of people in another form of solitary SHU from the thousands to the two hundreds, began operating some alternative units where people have access to group programming and activities, finally officially report having no one in SHU beyond 15 consecutive days, and transferred some people out of solitary who had spent years and decades in solitary, some of whom have now come home to the outside community. As such, the HALT Law has relieved suffering and reduced torture.

At the same time, the state prisons continue to flagrantly violate many of the core components of the law, for example keeping people with mental health diagnoses in solitary and failing to provide people in alternatives the required access to real out-of-cell time and programming. Through media and social media attention, engagement with people in prison and family members, engagement with legal and other organizations, engagement with oversight bodies, engagement with policy-makers, and direct advocacy, the campaign continues to push for full and effective implementation.

Also in 2024, after years of organizing and advocacy in partnership with the Jails Action Coalition, the New York City Council enacted Local Law 42, legislation to fully end solitary confinement beyond four hours of emergency de-escalation while otherwise requiring that all people in the city jails, including those in alternatives to solitary, have access to the minimum standard of 14 hours out of cell per day. The law has very clear and specific definitions to ensure access to real out of cell time and programming in a group setting and shared space conducive to meaningful human engagement. The Campaign, along with the Jails Action Coalition, is currently pushing for the law to be fully and effectively implemented.