Legislators and Over 800 People from Across the State Rally in the Capitol Demanding New York Complete Unfinished Business by Passing HALT Solitary Confinement Act Immediately

January 21, 2020 by

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Jerome Wright

jwright@nycaic.org, 716.909.2425 

(Albany, NY) — Over 800 people, including survivors of solitary confinement, family members of people in solitary, New York State legislators (see thread), and other advocates held a rally and press conference in the Capitol to demand that New York complete the unfinished business from last session, follow the will of a majority of state legislators, and vote to pass the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act (S.1623/A.2500) to end the racist torture of prolonged solitary confinement. On the day after Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, advocates invoked the Reverend Doctor and his time in solitary to call out the ongoing racist infliction of solitary in New York. While human rights standards adopted by the United Nations state that solitary beyond 15 days is torture for all people in all circumstances, New York State regularly holds people in solitary for months, years, and decades.

Alicia Barraza, mother of the late Ben Van Zandt, said: “As the parent of a young man who took his life in solitary confinement, I demand that our legislative leaders and Governor Cuomo put politics aside and do the right thing. Solitary confinement serves no useful purpose, and destroys the lives of incarcerated people and their families. Make New York State truly progressive and pass the HALT bill in 2020.”

Serena Liguori, Executive Director of New Hour for Women and Children of Long Island, said: “As a survivor of 23-hour lockdown myself, I know the deep and lasting scars isolated confinement creates. New Hour continues to work with incarcerated women, some of who are pregnant and enduring this barbaric practice. It is unconscionable lawmakers have not put an end to this form of torture.”

NYS Senate HALT Sponsor and Correction Committee Chair Luis Sepúlveda said: “The time has long come to end solitary confinement in New York State. We refuse to let torture take place in our state facilities. We know that solitary confinement does not change behavior nor rehabilitate. This is the year we end it and instead create meaningful pathways for safety and rehabilitation for all those impacted. I am proud to stand with hundreds of organizers, leaders, and survivors to fight for human rights and dignity in our justice system, and to pass HALT.”

Nicole Triplett, Policy Counsel for the New York Civil Liberties Union, said: “New York has long engaged in state-sanctioned torture through its use of prolonged solitary confinement of individuals who are incarcerated. Locking people in isolation and depriving them of social interaction, sensory stimulation, and adequate medical attention causes psychological and physical harm that last long after a person’s release. Legislators have the opportunity to end prolonged solitary confinement by passing the HALT Act and push New York further in ensuring that our legal system starts treating people as people.”

NYS Senator Zellnor Y. Myrie said: “Solitary confinement is as counterproductive as it is cruel. The majority of countries around the world have recognized that this torturous practice has no place in a modern, humane society, and it’s time that our state do the same.”

NYS Senator Julia Salazar said: “Solitary confinement for punishment purposes is torture and has no place in New York State prisons. We need to move beyond a punitive approach to ensuring community safety and emphasize rehabilitation and reentry for people impacted by the mass incarceration system. I fully support the HALT Solitary campaign and this legislation and I hope to continue working with the coalition to create better conditions and better results for our prison system.”

NYS Assemblywoman Carmen De La Rosa said: “The use of solitary confinement in prisons to address discipline as a form of punishment is completely inhumane. It endangers the physical and psychological health of individuals and it causes even greater negative impacts to individuals who are in vulnerable conditions. Solitary confinement is abusive and we need to make sure we pass HALT in order to end torture in New York prisons.”

NYS Senator James Sanders Jr. said: “Long-term solitary confinement amounts to cruel and unusual punishment and has been shown to cause physical, emotional and psychological damage. Moreover it fails to address and treat the underlying cause of an offender’s behavior. We need to rehabilitate people in prisons and jails so that they can become productive members of society and are less likely to commit future crimes. There can be no benefit to locking someone away in a cell for 22 to 24 hours a day without any meaningful human contact or therapy.  I am proud to join my colleagues in supporting the HALT Solitary Confinement Act, which will implement restrictions on who can be confined and for how long and will create more humane and effective alternatives to such confinement.”

Assistant NYS Assembly Speaker Félix W. Ortiz said: “It’s time for New York to end the use of long-term isolated confinement for incarcerated people and exclude certain vulnerable individuals entirely. It’s the right thing to do. All humans deserve to be treated humanely.”

“The Governor’s proposed changes to solitary confinement are inadequate and do not go far enough to stop the psychological torture and isolation of incarcerated New Yorkers. The proposed regulations still allow for elderly New Yorkers to be put in isolation, and give New York jurisdiction to hold a person in solitary confinement for lengths that amount to torture under United Nations standards. The Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act will put New York State on a path towards significantly limiting the use of solitary confinement and healing our communities through rehabilitative solutions. I thank the solitary survivors, their loved ones, and the HALT Solitary campaign coalition for their tireless advocacy on behalf of incarcerated New Yorkers – I am proud to stand with you,” said State Senator Alessandra Biaggi (D-Bronx/Westchester).

NYS Assembly Member Aravella Simotas said: “Solitary confinement is a brutal practice that causes severe physical and psychological harm to incarcerated people. Our state cannot allow this cruel and inhumane abuse to continue in our prisons. While we have taken strides to reform our criminal justice system, our work is incomplete until we pass the HALT Solitary Confinement Act and put an end to this torture once and for all.”

NYS Senator Neil Breslin said: “This critically important legislation will pave the way for the more humane treatment of incarcerated individuals, while at the same time making the rehabilitation process more effective.”

NYS Assemblymember Dan Quart said: “Our failure to enact the HALT Solitary Confinement Act remains a stain on last year’s legislative session. Solitary confinement is a punitive, torturous practice that carries no public safety benefits and is contrary to rehabilitation. It is long past time we put an end to the use of long-term solitary confinement in our state’s corrections system.”

BACKGROUND: In his autobiography, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., described his experience in solitary: “For more than twenty-four hours, I was held incommunicado, in solitary confinement…Those were the longest, most frustrating and bewildering hours I have lived. Having no contact of any kind, I was besieged with worry. I suffered no physical brutality at the hands of my jailers. Some of the prison personnel were surly and abusive…Solitary confinement, however, was brutal enough…You will never know the meaning of utter darkness until you have lain in such a dungeon.”

Despite the fact that Black people represent only 18% of New York State’s total population, Black people are 48% of people in New York State prisons, and 57% of people in solitary confinement. A 2016 New York Times investigation documented what people who have been most harmed by the prison system have known for decades, namely that there is a “scourge of racial bias” in New York’s imposition of solitary confinement and parole release denials. Yet over three years after that investigation, Governor Cuomo has still done nothing to address this urgent crisis. Use of solitary confinement has actually increased since Governor Cuomo claimed to have implemented reforms in 2015. Advocates are calling for lawmakers to enact HALT – which has majority support in both the Senate and Assembly – to end this racist torture and replace it with more humane and effective alternatives.

Solitary confinement is torture. It causes intense suffering and devastating physical and psychological harm. Contrary to the press statements of the Cuomo Administration, a new landmark report from The New York Civil Liberties Union, revealed that the use of solitary is actually increasing in the Governor’s prisons. While the SHU population has had some decreases, the number of people sentenced to Keeplock – another form of solitary – has increased by so much that it more than offsets the oft-reported progress (with nearly 40,000 sentences to solitary last year).

While Governor Cuomo has put forward new regulations on solitary, an analysis shows these regulations will perpetuate solitary and allow people to be held in solitary for months and years, particularly in light of past practice evidenced by this latest report. The NYCLU’s report analyzed the Governor’s proposed regulations in comparison with the HALT Solitary Confinement Act and strongly endorses HALT as the way forward. Notably, the Governor’s regulations would leave people in Keeplock with no time limits, one of several ways people could be held in endless solitary, along with unlimited cycling back into solitary after purported time limits and no time limits on so-called alternatives that amount to solitary by another name.

By contrast, the HALT Solitary Confinement Act would limit solitary confinement in all its forms in line with international human rights standards (including by having a 15 day limit and preventing cycling after the limit), and replace it with more humane and effective alternatives.

Thanks to efforts led by survivors of solitary and their family members, there are more than enough votes in the Legislature to pass HALT. 34 New York State Senators from Long Island to Upstate New York are officially co-sponsoring the HALT Solitary Confinement Act – a clear majority – and additional Senators have committed to vote for the bill as well. 79 New York State Assembly Members also officially co-sponsor HALT – another clear majority – and the bill passed in that house in 2018.

Thousands of people remain in solitary confinement in New York’s prisons and jails each day, and tens of thousands each year experience this torture: locked in a cell without any meaningful human contact or programs. They are disproportionately Black and Latinx people, young people, gender non-conforming people, and people with mental illness.

People continue to spend months, years, and decades in solitary (including 30+ years) in New York. The sensory deprivation, lack of normal interaction, and extreme idleness of solitary can lead to severe psychological, physical, and even neurological damage. More than 30% of all prison suicides in New York take place in solitary.  States that have reduced the use of solitary have seen a positive impact on safety for both incarcerated people and staff.

Community members are calling for New York State Legislators and Governor Cuomo to pass HALT immediately. Learn more at www.nycaic.org.

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NEWS: Citing Repeated Delays by City, Advocates Release Their Own Rules to End Solitary Confinement in NYC

October 28, 2019 by

(Photo: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY) (New York, NY) – The Jails Action Coalition (JAC) in collaboration with the #HALTsolitary Campaign released today their own proposed rules for ending solitary confinement in all New York City jails. Both groups are made up of directly impacted people, community members, legal and mental health experts, and others. These proposed rule changes come one week after releasing a Blueprint for Ending Solitary Confinement in New York City, and in response to the City’s and the Board of Correction’s failure to release their own draft rules to the public last week following interference by the Mayor, including the removal of one of the Board’s leading proponents for restricting solitary.

Enough is enough; the community can wait no longer. In the wake of Layleen Polanco’s tragic and preventable death, and in recognition of the countless other people who have lost their lives because of solitary in New York City – including Kalief Browder and Bradley Ballard – or suffered devastating psychological and physical harm, community members continue to call on the Mayor, Board of Correction, New York City Council, and Department of Correction to take immediate action to finally and fully end solitary confinement. Today, they have even provided the regulatory language for doing so.

In addition to the ongoing failure of the Board or the Mayor to act to end solitary confinement, this release also was prompted by the city’s expansion of solitary confinement through disturbing variance requests by the Department of Corrections, which has, since, July 2019, been running a new form of solitary, under the name of “Separation Status Housing”. People placed inside these medieval cells have no meaningful human engagement or programs and limited or no access to due process, visits, recreation, religious services, toiletries, paper or pen to communicate with their loved ones, personal support systems or attorneys, or even attending court dates. The BOC reported that two individuals already missed their court dates.

According to JAC and #HALTsolitary, their “proposed rule changes are written to implement the Blueprint’s plan to:

  1. Ensure that the Board of Correction minimum standards for out-of-cell time of at least 14 hours per day apply to all people in city jails, by removing exceptions to those standards for punitive segregation and Enhanced Supervision Housing (ESH) units;
  2. Create minimum standards for emergency individual lock-ins and emergency lockdowns;
  3. End punitive segregation and make ESH and any other alternative units actually about safety, rehabilitation, and prevention of violence;
  4. Adopt specific mechanisms and time limits for getting out of ESH and any other alternatives units; and
  5. Dramatically limit use of restraints with a strong presumption against their use.”

Click here to read all of the proposed rule changes for solitary confinement.

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NEWS: #HALTsolitary Campaign Statement on Layleen Polanco’s Tragic Death in Solitary at Rikers Island

August 4, 2019 by

(New York, NY) — Today, the #HALTsolitary Campaign released the following statement on new evidence about Layleen Polanco’s tragic death and Elizabeth Warren’s call for an end to solitary confinement:

“The #HALTsolitary Campaign continues to mourn for Layeen Polanco and commends Senator Elizabeth Warren for drawing attention to her unconscionable and tragic death and calling for an end to the use of solitary confinement. Layleen’s was a life cut short, a life that mattered, a life taken by criminalization of sex work, the war on drugs, pre-trial jailing, and solitary confinement. This week’s revelations from Layleen’s autopsy that she died of an epileptic seizure in solitary at Rikers Island confirmed how completely preventable this devastating tragedy was. There are no words to convey how heartbroken we are for those who knew and loved Layleen, and how outraged that all of us have to watch our criminal legal system take another life, seemingly with impunity. Her passing follows the deaths of many others who have taken their last breaths in solitary confinement and must serve as a wake-up call to all lawmakers in New York City, New York State and across the country to both end solitary confinement and end the entire racist punishment paradigm, in which trans and gender non-conforming people are particularly targeted for criminalization and state violence.

Governor Cuomo, Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins, and Assembly Speaker Heastie need to heed this call and enact the HALT Solitary Confinement Act on the very next day of the legislative session. A majority of state Senators and Assembly Members support HALT and it is time for the bill to be brought to a vote, passed, and signed into law. In the meantime, there is no excuse for Mayor de Blasio not to end this torture in his jails immediately.”

BACKGROUND:

Senator Warren’s call for an end to solitary confinement (“solitary confinement is cruel and inhumane. We must end this practice”) is part of a growing chorus of voices across the country to stop this torture, including from other presidential candidates. Corey Booker has said: “[s]olitary confinement is torture. It is an archaic, damaging, and inefficient practice that has been proven to have irreversible effects. … [T]his practice is wholly unjust and leaves the incarcerated worse off.” John Hickenlooper: “We also need to end solitary confinement, which is cruel and unusual punishment, and makes it next to impossible for [people] to reenter society when their prison term ends.” Beto O’Rourke: “let’s absolutely end solitary confinement.” Pete Buttigieg will “[r]educe use of solitary confinement, including abolishing its prolonged use” (which is defined internationally as beyond 15 days). Joe Biden also calls for “ending the practice of solitary confinement, with very limited exceptions such as protecting the life of an imprisoned person.”

A groundbreaking report released by advocacy group Black & Pink in October 2015, Coming Out of the Concrete Closet, based on a national survey of LGBTQ people in prison found that fully 85% had spent time in solitary confinement, with Black, Latinx, mixed‐race, and Native American/American Indian as well as people with mental illness having even higher rates of placement in solitary.

34 New York State Senators from Long Island to Upstate New York are officially co-sponsoring the HALT Solitary Confinement Act – a clear majority – and additional Senators have committed to vote for the bill, as well. 79 New York State Assembly Members also officially co-sponsor HALT – another clear majority – and the bill passed in that house in 2018.

Thousands of people remain in solitary confinement in New York’s prisons and jails each day, and tens of thousands each year experience this torture: 22 to 24 hours a day in a cell without any meaningful human contact or programs. They are disproportionately Black and Latinx people, young people, gender non-conforming people, and people with mental illness.

People continue to spend months, years, and decades in solitary (including 30+ years) in NY. The sensory deprivation, lack of normal interaction, and extreme idleness of solitary can lead to intense suffering and severe psychological, physical, and even neurological damage. More than 30% of all prison suicides in New York take place in solitary.

The entire United Nations, including the US, passed rules prohibiting solitary beyond 15 days for any person, because it otherwise would amount to torture. Colorado has implemented a 15-day limit in its prisons and reduced the number of people in solitary from 1,500 to 18. The HALT Solitary Confinement Act (S1623-Sepulveda / A2500-Aubry) similarly includes a 15-day limit on solitary, and would create more humane and effective alternatives. A summary of the bill can be found here. The bill passed the State Assembly  in 2018 by a vote of 99 to 45.

The New York City Council passed a resolution in support of HALT, the second such statement by a local government (in May 2019, the Tompkins County Legislature also passed a resolution supporting HALT). The Progressive Caucus and the Women’s Caucus of the NYC Council have called for a complete end to solitary confinement.

States that have reduced the use of solitary have seen a positive impact on safety for both incarcerated people and staff. Community members are calling for New York State Legislators and Governor Cuomo to pass HALT on the very next day the legislature is in session, and calling on New York City to act before then to end solitary completely in the City jails.

Contact: Scott Paltrowitz at spaltrowitz@hotmail.com

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NEWS: #HALTsolitary Campaign Launches Hunger Strike to Demand an End to Prolonged Solitary Confinement in NY

June 13, 2019 by

By Victoria Law. Excerpted from Gothamist.

(June 13) During her six years in prison, Jovada Senhouse was sent to solitary confinement three times. Twice, she was caught fighting and sentenced to 30 days in solitary. The day she was released from her second solitary stint, Senhouse was caught kissing her girlfriend in the prison gym. For that, she was sentenced to 90 days in solitary.

“You got a jail full of women,” she explained to Gothamist. “I was a pretty girl. I had a lot of girls.”

Today, Senhouse, an organizer with Brooklyn-based advocacy group VOCAL-NY, is going on hunger strike to demand an end to long-term solitary confinement. She’s joined by 17 other advocates, some of whom have also experienced solitary. Together, they’re demanding that state lawmakers bring the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act (S.1623/A.2500) to the floor for a vote. The bill will limit stints in solitary confinement, in which people are confined to their cells for at least 23 hours each day, to 15 consecutive days. It would also create alternatives for those who need to be separated for longer periods of time.

Hunger strikers plan to consume only liquids, a tactic allowing them to extend the length of their protest. This same type of hunger strike was utilized in California’s 60-day mass prison hunger strikes in 2013 which, along with a class-action lawsuit, resulted in sweeping changes to the state’s policies around solitary confinement.

Read the full article at Gothamist.

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NEWS: 15 Jewish Leaders in NY Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins’ District Urge Passage of HALT Bill

April 22, 2019 by

(Westchester, NY) – Today, April 22, a new group of 15 rabbis and other Jewish community leaders released an open letter to Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins urging the New York State Senate to immediately bring the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act (S.1623-Sepúlveda/A.2500-Aubry) to the floor for a vote. The rabbis, cantors, Jewish communal leaders, and rabbinical students who co-signed the letter all live, work, or study in the Majority Leader’s district and are affiliated with T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights. HALT has 33 official co-sponsors in the State Senate, more than the number of votes needed to pass it, and the bill is on the floor calendar.

The letter reads, in part:

“Solitary confinement is both a moral and a religious issue. Genesis reminds us that no human being should be alone. G-d then creates a helpmate to end man’s isolation. Classical rabbinic sources extol the virtue of repentance at the heart of rehabilitation. The false accusation that was the basis of our ancestor Joseph’s imprisonment in the Torah weaves through it a long thread on the danger of shackling people whose freedom is taken at the expense of their dignity.”

The Jewish leaders further call on the Majority Leader to lift up the voices of people behind prison and jail walls, concluding: “You can be a light for what is human, restorative and good.”

One of the co-signers of the letter, Rabbi Lester Bronstein, added: “Our religious laws prohibit the torture of any person, whether it be physical or psychological torture. Solitary confinement drives a person in prison insane. Neither Jewish law nor any other religious system would brook such treatment, especially since it in no way serves the purpose of punishing criminals or keeping society safe from them. As religious Jews, we stand opposed to this form of cruel – but all too usual – punishment.”

BACKGROUND:  

33 New York State Senators from Long Island to Upstate New York are officially co-sponsoring the HALT Solitary Confinement Act. Additional Senators have committed to vote for the bill, as well.

Thousands of people remain in solitary confinement in New York’s prisons and jails each day, and tens of thousands each year experience this torture: 22 to 24 hours a day in a cell without any meaningful human contact or programs. They are disproportionately Black and Latinx people, young people, gender non-conforming people, and people with mental illness.

People continue to spend months, years, and decades in solitary (including 30+ years) in NY. The sensory deprivation, lack of normal interaction, and extreme idleness of solitary can lead to intense suffering and severe psychological, physical, and even neurological damage. More than 30% of all prison suicides in New York take place in solitary.

The entire United Nations, including the US, passed rules prohibiting solitary beyond 15 days for any person, because it otherwise would amount to torture. Colorado has implemented a 15-day limit in its prisons and reduced the number of people in solitary from 1,500 to 18. The HALT Solitary Confinement Act (S1623-Sepulveda/A2500-Aubry) similarly includes a 15-day limit on solitary, and would create more humane and effective alternatives. A summary of the bill can be found here. The bill passed the State Assembly for the first time in 2018 by a vote of 99 to 45.

States that have reduced the use of solitary have seen a positive impact on safety for both incarcerated people and staff. Community members are calling for New York State Legislators and Governor Cuomo to pass HALT immediately.

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NEWS: HALT Solitary Confinement Act Has Enough Support To Pass NY State Senate

March 22, 2019 by

By Denis Slattery. Excerpted from NY Daily News.

(March 22) – A majority of Democratic state Senators are on board with bringing solitary confinement to end in the Empire State.

Advocates applauded lawmakers Friday for rallying behind a bill that would bar jails from punishing prisoners by locking them away on their own for extended periods of time.

The bill, which recently secured its 32nd co-sponsor, essentially ensuring its passage, would limit the time an inmate can spend in segregated confinement and “creates alternative therapeutic and rehabilitative confinement options.”

“Too many of our fellow human beings are being subjected to long-term solitary confinement and treated inhumanely,” said Victor Pate, a statewide organizer for the HALT Solitary campaign, during a rally Friday outside Gov. Cuomo’s Manhattan office.

Read the full article at NY Daily News.

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NEWS: #HALTsolitary Commends Legislature for Rejecting Cuomo’s Flawed Proposal on Solitary Confinement

March 15, 2019 by

(New York, NY) – Today, March 15, the #HALTsolitary Campaign, a coalition of survivors of solitary confinement, family members of people in solitary, mental health and legal experts, people of faith, and others, released the following statement in support of the Legislature’s rejection of Governor Cuomo’s proposal on solitary confinement in their one-house budget resolutions:

“As survivors of solitary confinement, family members of people currently in isolation, and other concerned New Yorkers who have organized, educated, and advocated to pass the Humane Alternatives to Long Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act, we commend the State Senate and Assembly for rejecting Governor Cuomo’s deeply-flawed and ultimately ineffective version of our bill. We also renew our call for New York State to end the torture of prolonged solitary confinement and replace it with more humane and effective alternatives by passing HALT. Every day that passes without real reform risks another suicide, another life destroyed, another son or daughter or cousin lost. Gov. Cuomo’s proposal would leave New Yorkers — including people with mental illness — in solitary indefinitely. There is broad support for HALT in the Legislature and we continue to urge its passage immediately.”

Alicia Barraza and Doug Van Zandt, parents of Ben Van Zandt and members of the #HALTsolitary campaign, issued the following additional statement:

“As parents of a mentally ill son who needlessly suffered in solitary confinement to the point that his only escape was to take his own life, we thank Senator Sepúlveda and Assembly Member Aubry, for their leadership in supporting the HALT Solitary Confinement Act, and the true reforms that the bill represents. The needless suffering of those in solitary and their families must come to an end.”

BACKGROUND: Find the #HALTsolitary Campaign’s analysis of Gov. Cuomo’s proposal on solitary confinement here.

Thousands of people remain in solitary confinement in NY prisons and jails each day, and tens of thousands each year: 22 to 24 hours a day in a cell without any meaningful human contact or programs. They are disproportionately Black and Latinx people, young people, gender non-conforming people, and people with mental illness. 

People continue to spend months, years, and decades in solitary (including 30+ years) in NY. The sensory deprivation, lack of normal interaction, and extreme idleness of solitary can lead to intense suffering and severe psychological, physical, and even neurological damage. More than 30% of all prison suicides in New York take place in solitary. 

The entire United Nations, including the US, passed rules prohibiting solitary beyond 15 days for any person, because it otherwise would amount to torture.Colorado has implemented a 15-day limit in its prisons and reduced the number of people in solitary from 1,500 to 18. The HALT Solitary Confinement Act (S1623-Sepulveda/A2500-Aubry) similarly includes a 15-day limit on solitary, and would create more humane and effective alternatives.  States that have reduced the use of solitary have seen a positive impact on safety for both incarcerated people and staff. Community members are calling for NYS Legislators and Governor Cuomo to pass HALT immediately. 

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NEWS: #HALTsolitary Advocates Push for Mental Health Reform

February 27, 2019 by

Doug van Zandt, replica cellBy Matt Hunter. Excerpted from Spectrum News.

Doug Van Zandt says his son, Benjamin, never displayed signs of mental illness until he was 17 years old and was arrested for starting a fire inside a home in Delmar.

“Our son was a happy 17-year-old kid, he was doing fantastic at school,” Van Zandt said. “He began hearing voices, having auditory hallucinations. He was so scared and he didn’t know what to do about that and it came on rather quickly.”

About four years into his prison sentence, Van Zandt was sent to solitary confinement after allegedly fighting with another inmate. Shortly after, he took his own life.

“When we got the phone call he was dead, it was just so absolutely devastating,” Van Zandt said. “I hope that never happens to another parent again.”

More than four years after the death of his son, Van Zandt is among the hundreds of advocates fighting for mental health and criminal justice reform at the state capitol this week.

Among their goals are passage of the HALT Bill to keep individuals with mental illness out of solitary confinement.

Read the full article at Spectrum News.

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NEWS: “Severe Limitations” Make Cuomo’s Solitary Confinement Proposal Ineffective, Says #HALTsolitary Campaign

January 21, 2019 by

New York Must Pass #HALTsolitary Now!

NYCAIC’s response to the Governor’s proposal re solitary confinement

In response to the Governor’s budget proposal to limit the use of solitary confinement in New York, the NYCAIC #HALTsolitary campaign urges the Governor and the legislature to take a much more humane, effective, and comprehensive approach by finally passing the HALT Solitary Confinement Act, S.1623/A.2500. We also urge the Governor and the legislature to adopt far more fundamental changes to the entire injustice/incarceration system, including related to parole, pre-trial justice, voting rights for people in prison, and more, and support the recommendations of allies such as Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP), Citizen Action, JustLeadershipUSA, VOCAL-NY, Drug Policy Alliance, defenders organizations, and more.

The Governor’s recognition of the need to limit solitary confinement in New York is a positive step. However, the proposal has severe limitations, including that it would 1) continue to allow people to be held in solitary indefinitely, 2) leave behind many of the people who can suffer the most from solitary, 3) continue to allow people to be sent to solitary for minor rule violations, 4) not provide adequate alternatives to solitary, 5) continue to allow anyone to be held in solitary for periods of time that amount to torture, and 6) allow people to be warehoused in alternative units indefinitely. Specifically, some of the key limitations of the Governor’s proposal include:

  1. Indefinite Solitary Continued: People can still be held for months, years, decades, or indefinitely in solitary confinement without limit under this proposal. All of the protections in the proposal only seem to apply to “segregated confinement” which is defined in existing law as “disciplinary confinement” in “special housing units or longterm keeplock units”. There do not seem to be any limitations (related to length of time or conditions) for people in various other forms of solitary confinement, including people held keeplock in their own cells (rather than in SHU or a longterm keeplock unit), administrative segregation, or protective custody. The protections of HALT would apply to all of these types of confinement, which all amount to solitary.
  2. Leaving Behind Some of the People Most Vulnerable to Harm: The proposal leaves behind many groups of people who are most vulnerable to be particularly harmed by solitary confinement, including people with pre-existing mental health conditions, young people aged 18-21, and people with physical disabilities. The only two “special populations” that would be barred from solitary under the proposal are adolescents in a designated Adolescent Facility and pregnant women/new mothers. HALT would also bar people with mental health needs, elderly people, young people aged 21 and younger, and people with physical disabilities since all of these groups face particularly devastating harm in solitary.
  3. Solitary for Minor Rule Violations: There are no restrictions on the criteria of who can be placed in solitary under this proposal, so that people will still be able to be sent to solitary for almost any minor, non-violent rule violation. HALT would restrict the criteria for who can be placed in segregation or alternative units to more serious conduct.
  4. Inadequate Alternatives to Solitary: The alternative Residential Rehabilitation Units in the proposal can still operate as solitary. Under the proposal, the alternative RRUs allow only 5 hours out of cell in a day and only four days a week (rather than 7 hours a day, 7 days a week under HALT). That means people will still be held in full 22-24 hour a day solitary three days a week, and will still be locked down at least 19 hours the other days. Also, there is no requirement for the out-of-cell hours to involve congregate interactions with other people or even a requirement for the out-of-cell time to involve programs. Under the proposal, the out-of-cell time could even, for instance, involve a person being alone in a cage for several hours of recreation. In other words, people could still be alone 24 hours a day in the alternative units.
  5. Continued Routine Practice of Torture. The proposal would codify lengths of time in solitary that amount to torture. The time limit on segregation would be 90 days as of April 2021, 60 days by Oct 2021, and then ultimately 30 days by April 2022. In addition, there does not seem to be any protection against people being returned to solitary very shortly after being removed at the designated limits. HALT would create a limit of 15 days in line with how international standards define torture, and protect against people being quickly returned to solitary through a limit of 20 days out of any 60. Also it is not clear why NY needs over three years to implement the proposed 30-day limit. The number of people who will lose their minds or their lives in that time is not acceptable. Moreover, again these time limits would not apply to people in administrative segregation, keeplock in their own cells, or protective custody. Under HALT the time limits would apply to anyone in solitary.
  6. Warehousing in Alternative Units: There does not appear to be any time limit on being held in an alternative RRU unit, and in fact the proposal allows time in the RRUs to be involuntarily extended beyond a person’s disciplinary sanction, so people could end up being warehoused in what may end up being a very punitive environment for months, years, and even longer. HALT has limits on how long someone can stay in an RRU.

Solitary confinement is torture. Thousands of people, disproportionately Black and Latinx people, suffer in solitary in NY each day, and tens of thousands each year: 22 to 24 hours a day in a cell without any meaningful human contact or programs. People continue to spend months, years, and decades in solitary in NY (including over 30 years). These conditions cause devastating physical, mental, and behavioral harm. The entire United Nations, including the US, passed rules prohibiting solitary beyond 15 days for any person, because it otherwise amounts to torture. Colorado implemented a 15-day limit in its prisons and reduced the number of people in solitary from 1,500 to 18.  HALT would similarly include a 15-day limit on solitary, and would create more humane and effective alternatives. States that have reduced solitary have seen a positive impact on safety for both incarcerated people and correction officers.

The Humane Alternatives to Long Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act, S.1623/A.2500, is the critical bill to remedy the harm of solitary confinement. It would end the torture of solitary confinement for all people in New York prisons and jails, and create more humane and effective alternatives. The Mental Health Association of NYS, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, the NY Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services, Labor-Religion Coalition of NYS, and over 200 organizations across New York State now support HALT. So do over 120 NY legislators, including 99 New York Assembly Members who voted to pass HALT in 2018 and a majority of New York Senators (HALT currently has 32 co-sponsors in the Senate and a number of other Senators who have committed to vote for HALT). HALT is the only bill that will end the torture of solitary for all people in New York prisons and jails. It is urgent that the legislature and the Governor immediately enact HALT. They must also make other urgent and necessary changes related to parole, pre-trial justice, voting rights for people incarcerated, higher education for people incarcerated, and many other changes.

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NEWS: Reform Advocates Pushing Legislation to Limit Solitary Confinement

January 14, 2019 by

By Emilie Ruscoe. Reprinted from Politico.

Prison reform advocates want to lock up the governor. Sort of.

A full-scale replica of a solitary confinement cell will land near the Capitol Tuesday morning as several lawmakers and activists call on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to spend 24 hours in an actual cell so he can fully understand what solitary confinement is like. The head of Colorado’s prison system did just that several years ago, leading to his support for reform measures.

Advocates are pushing legislation that would restrict solitary confinement to 15 days. They are also supporting parole reform, pretrial detention reform, ending cash bail and ensuring the right to speedy trial. The governor has made criminal justice reform, including an end to cash bail, a priority for this year’s legislative session.

“We hope to provide a much, much safer and more rehabilitative environment for everyone involved,” said Doug van Zandt, whose son Benjamin killed himself in solitary confinement at Fishkill Correctional Facility in 2014.

According to data from the New York State Department of Corrections, more than 3,000 people are in solitary confinement on a daily basis in the state’s prisons and jails, some for years on end.

More than 120 state legislators have supported previous versions of solitary restriction legislation. A bill passed the Assembly last year but it stalled in the Senate.

This year’s version of the bill is sponsored by legislators whose districts are adjacent to Rikers Island: Sen. Luis Sepùlveda (D-Bronx) and Assemblymember Jeffrion Aubry (D-Queens).

Solitary confinement restrictions have been opposed by the Correction Officers Benevolent Association of New York City. COBA officials have characterized the use of solitary as a necessary tool for their work. In 2017, it sued the de Blasio administration over a change in policy restricting the use of solitary on people under the age of 21.

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