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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TRIBUTE: On the Devastating Loss of Activist and Friend, Mujahid Farid

November 23, 2018 by

Mujahid FaridWe at the Campaign For Alternatives to Isolated Confinement wish to express our deepest condolences to the family of Mujahid Farid. Our prayers go out to them in their time of loss.

It is such a great loss to us. Farid was a sincere, determined, and dedicated advocate for the rights and human dignity of others and never forgot those who were left behind the walls.

We salute and will forever hold dear his works and contributions to the cause of peace and justice. He has and will always be a part of the work we do and in his memory we will strive to support the legacy he established through the Release Aging People In Prison Campaign and so many other efforts over decades of struggle. “If The Risk Is Low  Let Them Go!”.

Rest In Power

New York Campaign For Alternatives to Isolated Confinement.

Farid’s wake will be held on Saturday, November 24th, 10:30AM at Benta’s Funeral Home: 630 St. Nicholas Avenue, New York, NY (corner of 141st Street) with a service to follow at 11:30AM. There will also be a memorial in the coming weeks (date and time TBD).

For those who wish to support RAPP’s ongoing work and Farid’s legacy, our RAPP colleagues are offering three options:

1. Attend our Upcoming Event: Before Farid transitioned, he and other advocates in New York and Maryland were helping put together an event that showcased the importance of releasing older people and those serving life from prison. That event is just weeks away and we hope you’ll attend. Please join us, the Justice Policy Initiative, Osborne Association, Columbia Center for Justice and others on Thursday, December 6th, 6:00PM at the Riverside Church for: Justice Long Overdue: Lessons Learned from the Successful Release of People Serving Life in Prison in Maryland and New York and Why More People Must Come Home

2. Donate to Farid’s Funeral Services: Contribute to the costs associated with Farid’s funeral and burial services. Donate through PayPal to ddgeorge23@gmail.com.

3. Donate to RAPP: Support RAPP’s ongoing work and Farid’s legacy by contributing to our Online Fall Fundraiser. Your donations will support our community organizing and advocacy work to #FreeOurElders.

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TRIBUTE: Statement on the Passing of Carole Willis, Fierce Advocate and Mother of Son in Solitary

August 6, 2018 by

New York Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement (CAIC) would like to honor and remember one of our dear members Carole Willis, who recently passed away at the age of 79. A lifelong New Yorker, Carole was a wonderful, caring, and giving person who had a beautiful heart and soul. Carole was actively involved with CAIC and the Correctional Association of NY for the last several years, and her son Nicholas Zimmerman spent over a decade in solitary confinement.

Carole was a fierce advocate and committed campaign member. She participated in numerous meetings with legislators, multiple advocacy days in Albany, and various community events, including speaking on behalf of CAIC. Carole’s wholehearted dedication was truly inspiring. From making visits to such far away prisons as Attica and Clinton, often trekking from her home in Queens to Harlem and elsewhere for campaign meetings, to waking up before dawn to catch the buses going to Albany, Carole was amazing in her commitment and her strength. Even this year, Carole woke up at three in the morning in order to be on the buses to come up for our advocacy day for the HALT Solitary Confinement Act.

Apart from her efforts with CAIC and the CA, Carole was a missionary, family matriarch, a decades-long member of multiple helping professions, a lifelong learner, and much more. We are deeply grateful for having known Carole and for all of her efforts in support of the #HALTsolitary campaign. We will deeply miss her and her beautiful spirit, and we are sending much love to her family.

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NEWS: #HALTsolitary Confinement Act PASSED in the NY State Assembly

July 5, 2018 by

On Tuesday, June 12, by a vote of 99 – 45, the New York State Assembly passed the Humane Alternatives to Long Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act (A.3080B-Aubry / S.4784A-Parker). The announcement from the Speaker that the bill had passed was greeted with cheers and applause from CAIC members in attendance in the Assembly gallery.

In comments made from the Assembly floor preceding the vote, lead sponsor Jeffrion Aubry of District 35 in Queens made it clear why the reforms in the bill are so urgently needed: “Solitary confinement has been identified by the United Nations as torture under the Mandela Rules. Inmates in SHUs are locked into their cells 23 hours a day with one hour of recreation time in an outdoor cage. They get no phone calls, no personal property, no programming, no religious services and there are no legal limits to how long they can be kept. Some prisoners have been in SHU for decades.”

“What we are doing with the bill,” Aubry explained to his fellow Assemblymembers, “is saying to the state, saying to our population, saying to the people who are incarcerated that we have heard you. Many of them have been to see you in your offices who have suffered from this. They have asked for relief for those who they have left behind. It is but right and good that we enact this bill.”

The #HALTsolitary campaign, which has long engaged in organizing, education, and advocacy to get the bill enacted into law, issued the following statement:

“The #HALTsolitary campaign applauds Speaker Carl Heastie, lead Assembly sponsor Jeffrion Aubry, and the New York State Assembly for passing legislation to end the torture of solitary confinement and replace it with more humane and effective alternatives. Thousands of people remain in solitary confinement in New York’s prisons and jails each day, isolated 22 to 24 hours a day in a cell without any meaningful human contact or programs, often for months, years, and even decades. They are disproportionately Black and Latinx people, young people, gender non-conforming people, and people with mental illness, often held in isolation for non-violent infractions or even for speaking out about abuse by staff. If the State Senate fails to act to end this racist and destructive practice this session, as appears likely even though HALT has 25 co-sponsors in that house, Governor Cuomo must implement the reforms we seek administratively.”

Referring to the fact that Governor Cuomo could at any time write most of the measures in the HALT Bill into law through executive action, Aubry exhorted his colleagues to take a definitive stand: “The executive [branch] could have ended this immediately. They could have looked at the history of SHUs [Special Housing Unit, aka solitary confinement] and immediately taken the action to stop the process. Looked at what’s going on in the world and stopped the process. But they haven’t. Not just this administration, but administrations in the past. Sometimes we as legislators have to step up to the plate and say what is right is right.”

Despite strong support for HALT in the State Senate, the bill was not brought to the floor for a vote before the end of session in late June.

Meanwhile, Governor Cuomo and NYS Commissioner of Corrections Anthony Annucci have both ignored multiple invitations from CAIC to spend 24 hours in a solitary confinement cell, as the Corrections Commissioner of Colorado did before implementing major reforms.

#HALTsolitary Confinement Act Passes in the NY State Assembly – SEE THE FULL 9-MINUTE VIDEO:

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NEWS: NYCAIC Thanks Speaker Heastie and NY State Assembly for Including #HALTsolitary Act in New Criminal Justice Reform Legislation

February 26, 2018 by

The #HALTsolitary campaign of NYCAIC released the following statement on February 12, 2018, following the Assembly majority’s introduction of a comprehensive criminal justice reform package that includes the HALT Solitary Confinement Act:

The New York Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement (CAIC) applauds Speaker Carl E. Heastie and the New York Assembly for including the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act, A.3080B/S.4784A, as part of its Criminal Justice Reform package announced today.

Solitary confinement is torture. Thousands of people, disproportionately Black and Brown people, remain in solitary in New York each day: 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 (30+ years) in New York. These conditions cause devastating physical, mental, and behavioral impacts. The entire United Nations, including the United States, 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 would similarly include a 15-day limit on solitary, and would create more humane and effective alternatives. While Governor Cuomo has touted reforms to solitary, New York still has a higher percentage of people in solitary (5.8%) than the national average (4.4%) and much higher than states that have reformed solitary (less than 1% to 2%).

The HALT Solitary Confinement Act, A.3080B/S.4784A, is the only bill that will end the torture of solitary for all people and create more humane and effective alternatives. Over 180 organizations across New York State and over 100 New York legislators now support the HALT Act. Without HALT, thousands of New Yorkers will continue to be subjected to the torture of solitary.

We are thus grateful that Speaker Heastie and the New York Assembly have prioritized the HALT Act, and look forward to the Assembly passing HALT, and for the New York State Senate and Governor Andrew Cuomo to follow the Assembly’s lead. We also applaud Speaker Heastie and the Assembly for pushing for other urgent and necessary changes to the criminal justice system, including bills related to bail, speedy trial, discovery, reentry, and more. We look forward to partnering with the Assembly to make these and other priorities, such as parole reform, the law in New York State.

It is finally time for New York to end the torture of solitary confinement, and undertake a fundamental transformation of the state’s criminal justice system as a whole, and we once again applaud the Speaker’s and the Assembly’s leadership toward those ends.

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EVENTS: Photos Requested by People in Solitary Confinement on Exhibit

February 1, 2018 by

Jack Davis, Photo Requests from Solitaryby David M. Schwartz. Excerpted from Newsday.

On Sunday, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock in Manhasset displayed two dozen photos sent to those in solitary confinement through the program, Photo Requests from Solitary.

The exhibit, part of a campaign to change how New York handles solitary confinement, shows the imagination and memories of those locked in solitary confinement for weeks at a time, prison reform advocates said.

“I would like to have a painting of the outdoors, maybe a wooded scene, with maybe a doe and twin fawns,” wrote Hershel on July 20, 2013.

“You can look at that and see someone is more than their worst act,” said Jean Casella, co-director of Solitary Watch, a web-based watchdog group aimed at raising public awareness about the widespread use of solitary confinement. “It’s a reminder that even though they’re surrounded by gray walls, they have a complete inner life going on.”

The exhibit will be open through Feb. 13. Opening times vary; for details call (516) 472-2977 or email cderoche@uucsr.org.

Read the full article at Newsday.

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NEWS: CAIC to Cuomo: Spend 24 Hours in Solitary Confinement

January 5, 2018 by

HALT Solitary Confinement Act, CAIC Protest at Governor Cuomo Officeby Victoria Law. Excerpted from The Nation.

After being accused of cursing at a corrections officer, Jessica Concepcion, seven months pregnant, spent the Christmas of 2006 in solitary confinement at Bedford Hills, New York’s maximum-security prison for women. Confined to her a cell for 23 consecutive hours, she had no opportunity for any human interaction, let alone a chance to wish her family a merry Christmas. “It was torture,” she told me. “All you have is those walls to talk to. You don’t have nothing else but those walls.”

On Friday, December 22, Concepcion and her wife Xena Grandichelli, who has also spent time in solitary, joined over a dozen advocates outside Governor Andrew Cuomo’s midtown office to sing Christmas carols. But they weren’t simply spreading holiday cheer; they were urging him to pass the Humane Alternatives to Long Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act, which would limit time in isolation to 15 consecutive days and create alternatives for those who need longer periods of separation.

The protesters held aloft a 24-by-36 inch holiday card that invited the governor to spend 24 hours in solitary. The invitation may seem outrageous, but it’s not unprecedented.

Read the full article at The Nation.

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NEWS: Report on Solitary Confinement at NY’s Southport Prison Exposes “Torturous Environment”

December 17, 2017 by

by Victoria Law. Excerpted from Solitary Watch.

Southport Correctional Facility, New YorkImagine row after row of cell doors that rarely open and row after row of people trapped behind those doors, in small cells, day after day. Imagine having to hold most of your conversations by shouting through your cell door at voices whose faces you cannot see; imagine trying to sleep as a cacophony of other voices continue shouting around you.

This is the reality inside Southport Correctional Facility, New York’s first supermax prison. Located four hours west of New York City near the Pennsylvania border, Southport holds roughly 350 people in Special Housing Units (SHUs), or specially-designed solitary confinement units, on any given day. These 350 people spend at least 23 hours each day alone in their cells with little to no human interaction or programming to engage their minds.

On Wednesday, the Correctional Association of New York, the state’s oldest prison monitoring organization, released a report entitled Solitary at Southport. Drawing on the organization’s 2015 inspection of the prison, one-on-one interviews with nearly every person held in the SHU, follow-up investigations, and responses from over 190 written surveys and correspondence, Solitary at Southport reveals a prison that “embodies some of the very worst aspects of incarceration in New York.”

Read the full article at Solitary Watch.

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