VOICES: Doing “Bing Time”: Memories of a Mental Health Worker in Rikers Island’s Solitary Confinement Unit

February 28, 2014 by
A cell in Rikers Island's Central Punitive Segregation Unit.

A cell in Rikers Island’s Central Punitive Segregation Unit.

Reprinted from Solitary Watch.

The following post is a chapter from an unpublished book by Mary Buser, who worked in various capacities in the mental health system on Rikers Island. In Buser’s own words: “I worked in the Rikers Mental Health Department as a psychiatric social worker for five and a half years, leaving Rikers in 2000. I started off as a student intern in the island’s sole women’s jail…[and] returned to Rikers to work in a maximum security men’s jail…[then] was promoted to assistant chief of Mental Health in another jail, where I supervised treatment to the island’s most severely mentally ill inmates. From there, I was transferred to my fourth and final jail, which was connected to the “Central Punitive Segregation Unit,” aka, the Bing. Here, I supervised a mental health team in treating inmates held in solitary confinement–determining whether or not someone warranted a temporary reprieve based on the likelihood of a completed suicide. Although I had become disillusioned with the criminal justice system, the Bing was my Rikers undoing. The final section of my manuscript is focused on my daily trips to the Bing, the inmates who occupied these cells, and my struggle to justify doing this work.” Names have been changed to protect the privacy of the individuals involved in the episodes Buser describes.

As jails have come to replace psychiatric hospitals as repositories for people with mental illness, Rikers become one of the nation’s largest inpatient mental health centers (second only to the L.A. County Jail). A disproportionate number of these psychiatrically disabled individuals end up in solitary confinement, doing “Bing time” for rule infractions precipitated by their illness. Buser’s account of her time overseeing treatment in “the Bing” is of particular interest now, when years of activism by the Jails Action Coalition and two scathing reports commissioned by the New York City Board of Correction have finally spurred efforts to reduce the use of solitary and improve mental health treatment on Rikers. These efforts have thusfar yielded at best mixed results. –James Ridgeway

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

At the end of a long cinderblock corridor, a guard in an elevated booth passes the time with a paperback book.  Across from the booth, a barred gate cordons off a dim passageway.  Along the passageway wall are the words:  CENTRAL PUNITIVE SEGREGATION UNIT.

The guard looks up as I approach, and nods.  As acting chief of “Mental Health,” I’m a regular over here at the “Bing” – an unlikely nickname for this five-story tower of nothing but solitary cells — 100 of them on each floor.  Designed for Rikers Island’s most recalcitrant inmates, the occupants of these cells have been pulled out of general population for fighting, weapons possession, disobeying orders, assault on staff.  The guards refer to them as “the baddest of the bad” – “the worst of the worst.”  I’m not so sure about that.

The guard throws a switch and the barred gate shudders and starts opening.  Around a bend, I step into an elevator car.  Since the problem inmate is on the third floor, I hold up three fingers to a corner camera, waiting to be spotted on a TV monitor.  This is no ordinary elevator — no buttons to push here, likely engineered for some security purpose.  The sweaty little box starts lifting, and as the muffled wails of the punished echo through, my stomach tightens — the way it does every time I’m called over here, which is often.  Solitary confinement is punishment taken to the extreme, inducing the bleakest of depression, plunging despair, and terrifying hallucinations.  The Mental Health Department looms large in a solitary unit – doling out anti-depressants, anti-psychotics, and mountains of sleeping pills.  If these inmates had no mental health issues before they entered solitary, they do now.  But even the most potent medications reach only so far, and when they can no longer hold a person’s psyche together – when human behavior deteriorates into frantic scenes of self-mutilation and makeshift nooses – we’re called to a cell door.

The elevator rattles open on the third floor.  Ahead, a foreboding window separates two plain doors, each one leading onto a 50-cell wing.  Behind the window, correctional staff hover over paperwork.  A logbook is thrust out, I sign it, and point to the door on the left, ‘3 South.’  When the knob buzzes, I pull the door open and step into what feels like a furnace.  A long cement floor is lined with gray steel doors that face each other – twenty-five on one side, twenty-five on the other.  Each door has a small window at the top, and on the bottom, a flap for food trays.

At the far end, Dr. Diaz and Pete Majors are waiting for me.  I hesitate for a moment, dreading the walk through the gauntlet of misery.  The smell of vomit and feces hangs in the hot, thick air.  Bracing myself, I start past the doors, trying to stay focused on my colleagues.  Still, I can see their faces – dark-skinned, young – pressed up against the cell windows, eyes wild with panic.  “Miss! Help!  Please, Miss!!”  They bang and slap the doors, sweaty palms sliding down the windows.  “We’re dying in here, Miss – we’re dying!”  Resisting my natural instinct to rush to their aid, I keep going, reminding myself that there’s a reason they’re in here – that they’ve done something to warrant this punishment.  The guards, themselves sweat-soaked and agitated, amble from cell to cell, pounding the doors with their fists, spinning around and kicking them with boot heels — “SHUT—THE  FUCK– UPPP!!”

[Read more…]

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NEWS: Lawsuit Secures New Limits on Solitary Confinement in New York’s Prisons

February 21, 2014 by
A cell in a New York State "Special Housing Unit."

A cell in a New York State “Special Housing Unit.”

By Jean Casella. Reprinted from Solitary Watch.

Under pressure from a lawsuit brought by the New York Civil Liberties Union on behalf of three people held in long-term solitary confinement, New York has agreed to a set of changes to its use of solitary and other forms of extreme isolation in state prisons. The agreement, announced on Wednesday, would bar certain vulnerable populations from isolated confinement, while for the first time setting firm guidelines and maximum durations for isolating others.

New York currently holds some 3,800 men, women, and children in 23-hour-a-day isolation in small, sometime windowless cells, either alone or with one other person. “The conditions inside New York’s isolation cells are deplorable and result in severe physical and psychological harm,” stated the original complaint in Peoples v. Fischer, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan in December 2012. The complaint, which charges the state with violating the plaintiffs’ Constitutional rights under the 8th and 14th Amendments, continues:

Individuals are confined idle and isolated for months and years on end in tiny cells. They are allowed only one hour of exercise a day in barren cages smaller than their cell. As additional punishment, prison staff may issue orders depriving individuals of what little remains—access to nourishing and edible food, exercise, bedding, and showers may all be denied. At some prisons, two men are forced to share a single isolation cell for weeks and months on end, often leading to violence. Requests for mental health care must be discussed through the food slot in the cell door.

People are placed in isolation on the word of corrections staff, who issue tens of thousands of disciplinary “tickets” each year that result in time in the state’s numerous Special Housing Units (SHUs) or its two supermax prisons. Five out of six tickets are for nonviolent misbehavior, according to a 2012 report by the NYCLU, and disciplinary hearings are at best pro forma. The average SHU sentence is five months, but many extend for years and a few have stretched to decades. UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Méndez has stated that solitary confinement beyond two weeks is cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, and often qualifies as torture.

The most dramatic reform brought about by the agreement between the state and the NYCLU is a ban on using solitary to discipline youth under the age of 18, which makes New York the largest state in the nation to prohibit the practice for juveniles in state prisons. In New York, 16 and 17 year olds accused of a felony are automatically tried and incarcerated as adults, and large numbers have ended up in the SHUs, sometimes for “their own protection.” Under the new deal, juveniles with serious disciplinary violations would be would be placed in special units with more out-of-cell time and special programming.

The agreement also bans placing pregnant women in solitary, and sets a 30-day limit on isolating people with developmental disabilities. A 2007 court settlement and a law enacted in 2011 already prohibit the use of isolated confinement for people with serious mental illness. Since the passage of the SHU Exclusion Act, several hundred people have been moved from solitary into special Residential Mental Health Units (though evidence suggests that hundreds of others remain isolated in spite of mental illness, largely due to issues around diagnosis).

“It made sense to immediately remove these vulnerable populations from extreme isolation,” Taylor Pendergrass, the NYCLU’s lead attorney in the suit, told Solitary Watch. “But in the longer term, we believe this process will bring about more comprehensive reforms that will affect many more people.” Those reforms will come, in large part, in the form of “sentencing guidelines” that designate punishments for different disciplinary infractions, and for the first time set maximum sentences in the SHU. The negotiated guidelines are covered by a confidentiality agreement until staff can be trained and the new rules put in place–a process that should take no more than nine months, Pendergrass said.

The deal also calls for New York State and the NYCLU to each choose an expert who will assess the use of isolated confinement throughout the prison system over the next two years and make further recommendations for change. The state has selected James Austin, a widely known expert on “prisoner classification” whose report to the Colorado Department of Corrections led to a reduction in the numbers of individuals held in long-term solitary in that state.

The NYCLU has chosen as its expert Eldon Vail, former head of the Washington State Department of Corrections. Vail has said publicly that solitary confinement produces “disastrous results.” He is known for conducting studies and programs in Washington’s state prisons aimed at not only reducing the use of solitary, but also tempering its effects by providing programming, therapy, and group activities for those separated from the general prison population. “He knows that treatment works better than torture,” Pendergrass said of Vail. “He is a pioneer in evidence-based approaches to prison safety and security, which do not include extreme isolation and sensory deprivation.”

The choices suggest that while the state is on board for some modest reductions in the numbers of people it holds in solitary and the length of time they spend there, the NYCLU envisions more sweeping change, which would eliminate the total isolation of solitary confinement in favor of a more rehabilitative model. In this, it is aligned with other reform efforts in the New York, including a bill introduced last month in the state legislature that aims to “fundamental transform” how prisons respond to people’s “needs and behaviors” by replacing SHUs with “Residential Rehabilitation Units.”

These more comprehensive reforms could help one group that is not affected by the current rounds of changes–those held in “administrative segregation” rather than “disciplinary segregation.” These include individuals who are classified as safety risks and sometimes spend decades in solitary confinement. Among these is William Blake, who has spent more than 26 years in isolation and whose essay on life in the SHU, “A Sentence Worse Than Death,” was published by Solitary Watch last year.

In the meantime, Pendergrass expects there will be some who feel the current deal goes too far, just as others believe it does not go far enough. He did not specify where the “pushback” is likely to come from. But in the past, correctional officers unions have generally been strong opponent of any restrictions on the use of solitary confinement.

In a statement to the New York Times, the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association said of the new agreement: “Today’s disciplinary confinement policies have evolved over decades of experience, and it is simply wrong to unilaterally take the tools away from law enforcement officers who face dangerous situations on a daily basis. Any policy changes must prioritize the safety and security of everyone who works or lives in these institutions.”

The NYCLU’s lawsuit is on hold while Austin and Vail complete their work. If the group–and its incarcerated clients–are not satisfied with the results, the litigation may resume. Meanwhile, the three named plaintiffs in the suit–Leroy Peoples, Dwayne Richardson, and Tonja Fenton–have all been released to the general population from the SHUs. “Life in the box stripped me of my dignity, and made me feel like a chained dog,” Peoples said in 2012. The lawsuit that bears his name promises to spare many others the same suffering.

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NEWS: New York Lawmakers Introduce Bill to End Long-Term Solitary Confinement

February 4, 2014 by
NY State Assembly Member Jeffrion Aubry speaks at a press conference announcing the HALT Solitary Confinement Act. Photo: Bernadette Evangelista

NY State Assembly Member Jeffrion Aubry speaks at a press conference announcing the HALT Solitary Confinement Act. Photo: Bernadette Evangelista

By Jean Casella. Reprinted from Solitary Watch.

“I’m here in a steel coffin,” Jessica Casanova’s nephew wrote to her from an isolation cell. “I’m breathing, but I’m dead.” Her nephew, she said, “has never been the same” after spending time in solitary confinement, and his experience compelled her to speak out for the thousands held in extreme isolation in New York’s prison and jails.

Casanova was one of half a dozen speakers at a press conference held on Friday to announce the introduction of a bill in the New York State legislature that would virtually end the use of solitary and other forms of isolated confinement beyond 15 days. The bill, called the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act, aims to bring sweeping reform to a state where nearly 4,000 people are held in 22-to 24-hour isolation on any given day in more than 50 prisons, with at least a thousand more in solitary in local jails.

Activists from the New York Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement (CAIC), which hosted the press conference and worked with the sponsors to draft the bill, encouraged those arriving for the mid-morning event at Greenwich Village’s Judson Memorial Church to try samples of “the Loaf.” The dense, bread-like substance, made from flour, milk, yeast, grated potatoes and carrots, is served with a side of raw cabbage as an additional form of punishment for those held in solitary confinement in New York’s prisons.

Introducing the speakers, Claire Deroche of CAIC and the National Religious Campaign Against Torture called the bill “the most comprehensive and progressive legislative response to date to the nationwide problem of solitary confinement in our prisons and jails.” In addition to placing a 15-day limit on solitary, the bill would create new alternatives for those deemed a longer-term safety risk to others, replacing the punishment and deprivation of New York’s “Special Housing Units” (SHUs) with a more rehabilitation-minded approach.

The bill is being sponsored in the Assembly by Jeffrion Aubry (D, Queens), called solitary confinement “an issue whose time has come.” Aubry, who also sponsored the 2008 SHU Exclusion Law, which limited the use of solitary on individuals with serious mental illness, said it was time to set standards for treatment of all people in prison, regardless of their offenses. “I don’t believe that having committed a crime suspends your human rights” said Aubry. “That’s not the America I want to live in. That’s not the New York State I want to live in.”

The legislation’s Senate sponsor, Bill Perkins (D, Harlem) pointed out that solitary is increasingly being seen as a “moral issue” and a “crime against humanity.” The 15-day limit set by the bill conforms to recommendations made by UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Méndez, but far surpasses restrictions currently placed on solitary in any American prison system. Perkins expressed his hope that the bill would find supporters in both bodies of the legislature, and that “the governor will work with us.”

New York City Council Member Daniel Dromm, who has supported measures to limit solitary confinement in city jails, described seeing a friend deteriorate after being placed in isolation on Rikers Island. The friend, whom Dromm described as “the gentlest person in the world,” was also “bipolar and drug addicted,” and was placed in solitary for five months for “cigarettes and talking back.” The HALT Solitary Confinement Act would ban the use of isolation altogether on vulnerable populations, including youth, the elderly, and people with mental or physical disabilities.

Five Mualimm-ak began his statement by telling listeners: “I lived five years of my life in a space the size of your bathroom.” Mualimm-ak, who said he never committed a violent act in prison, was given stints in solitary for offenses as minor as “wasting food” by “refusing to eat an apple.” The Department of Corrections “uses the rules for the purposes of abuse,” he said. “New York State should be a leader” when it comes to prison conditions, said Mualimm-ak, who has been out of prison for two years and is working against what he calls “solitary torture.” Instead, New York state prisons and city jails practice isolated confinement at levels well above the national average.

Wrapping up the event, Scott Paltrowitz of the Correctional Association of New York and CAIC outlined the major provisions of the HALT Solitary Confinement Act. In addition to banning special populations from solitary and setting a 15-day limit for all others, Paltrowitz said, the bill would eliminate the use of isolation to punish minor offenses, such as “having too many postage stamps or talking back to a guard.”

The bill would also create secure “residential rehabilitation units (RRUs) for those who need to be separated because they pose a genuine danger to the general population. RRUs would be “aimed at providing additional programs, therapy, and support to address underlying needs and causes of behavior, with 6 hours per day of out-of-cell programming plus one hour of out-of-cell recreation.” The legislation, said Paltrowitz, “recognizes that we need a fundamental transformation of how our public institutions address people’s needs and behaviors, both in our prisons and in our communities.”

CAIC describes itself as joining together “advocates, formerly incarcerated persons, family members of currently incarcerated people, concerned community members, lawyers, and individuals in the human rights, health, and faith communities throughout New York State.” According to its website, the group considers solitary and all forms of prison isolation to be “ineffective, counterproductive, unsafe, and inhumane,” and cites evidence showing that solitary confinement increases recidivism while failing to reduce prison violence.

The legislation, drafted over the past year, is more ambitious and far-reaching than bills on solitary that have been introduced in other states. As a result, it is unlikely to pass in anything resembling its current form–but supporters are determined to push forward. “The HALT Solitary Confinement Act implements rational humane alternatives to the costly, ineffective, and abusive use of long-term solitary confinement in New York prisons and jails,” said Sarah Kerr of the Legal Aid Society’s Prisoners’ Rights Project, who helped draft the legislation. “The need for reform is well-documented and the time for change is now.”

The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) did not respond to a request for comment on the legislation.

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NEWS: New York Lawmakers Introduce Sweeping Reforms to Use of Solitary Confinement in Prisons and Jails

January 31, 2014 by

Press release from the New York Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement. January 31, 10:30 am

New York — At a mid-morning press conference at Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village, New York legislators will join advocates, survivors of solitary confinement, and their families to announce the introduction of the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act (A08588 / S06466).

Introduced in both the Assembly and the Senate, the pioneering bill is being hailed by supporters as the most comprehensive and progressive legislative response to date to the nationwide problem of solitary confinement in prisons and jails. As written, it would virtually eliminate a practice that has been increasingly denounced as both dangerous and torturous, while protecting the safety of incarcerated individuals and corrections officers.

According to Assembly Member Jeffrion Aubry, who is sponsoring the bill in the Assembly, “New York State was a leader for the country in passing the 2008 SHU Exclusion Law, which keeps people with the most severe mental health needs out of solitary confinement. Now we must show the way forward again, ensuring that we provide safe, humane and effective alternatives to solitary for all people.”

“Solitary confinement makes people suffer without making our prisons safer. It is counter-productive as well as cruel,” said Senator Bill Perkins, the bill’s Senate sponsor. “Solitary harms not only those who endure it, but families, communities, and corrections staff as well.”

Currently, about 3,800 people are in Special Housing Units, or SHUs, with many more in other forms of isolated confinement in New York’s State prisons on any given day, held for 23 to 24 hours a day in cells smaller than the average parking space, alone or with one other person. More than 800 are in solitary confinement in New York City jails, along with hundreds more in local jails across the state.

New York isolates imprisoned people at levels well above the national average, and uses solitary to punish minor disciplinary violations. Five out of six sentences that result in placement in New York State’s SHUs are for non-violent conduct. Individuals are sent to the SHU on the word of prison staff, and may remain there for months, years, or even decades.

The HALT Solitary Confinement Act bans extreme isolation beyond 15 days–the limit advocated by UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan E. Méndez, among others. It also bars vulnerable populations from being placed in solitary at all–including youth, the elderly, pregnant women, LGBTI individuals, and those with physical or mental disabilities.

“No person should be put in solitary confinement except when they are a risk to  someone else,” said New York City Council Member Daniel Dromm. “As a major opponent of the practice, I have introduced three pieces of legislation into the City Council. I applaud the proposed state legislation that sets parameters on who can and who cannot be placed in solitary confinement and limits the amount of time they are forced to stay there.”

For those who present a serious threat to prison safety and need to be separated from the general population for longer periods of time, the legislation creates new Residential Rehabilitation Units (RRUs)–high-security units with substantial out-of-cell time, and programs aimed at addressing the underlying causes of behavioral problems.

“Isolation does not promote positive change in people; it only damages them,” said Jennifer J. Parish of the Urban Justice Center’s Mental Health Project. “By requiring treatment and programs for people who are separated from the prison population for serious misconduct, the legislation requires Corrections to emphasize rehabilitation over punishment and degradation.”

“The HALT Solitary Confinement Act recognizes that we need a fundamental transformation of how our public institutions address people’s needs and behaviors, both in our prisons and in our communities,” said Scott Paltrowitz of the Correctional Association of New York. “Rather than inhumane and ineffective punishment, deprivation, and isolation, HALT would provide people with greater support, programs, and treatment to help them thrive, and in turn make our prisons and our communities safer.”

Many of those represented at the press conference are members of the New York Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement (CAIC), which was instrumental in drafting the bill. CAIC unites advocates, concerned community members, lawyers, and individuals in the human rights, health, and faith communities throughout New York State with formerly incarcerated people and family members of currently incarcerated people.

“Solitary is torture on both sides of the prison walls,” said family member Donna Sorge-Ruiz, whose fiancé is currently in solitary. “Loved ones on the outside suffer right along with those in prison, every day that they endure this pain. It must stop!”

The widespread use of long-term solitary confinement has been under fire in recent years, in the face of increasing evidence that sensory deprivation, lack of normal human interaction, and extreme idleness can lead to severe psychological damage. Supporters of the bill also say that isolated confinement fails to address the underlying causes of problematic behavior, and often exacerbates that behavior as people deteriorate psychologically, physically, and socially.

In New York each year, nearly 2,000 people are released directly from extreme isolation to the streets, a practice that has been shown to increase recidivism rates.

“The damage done by solitary confinement is deep and permanent,” said solitary survivor Five Mualimm-ak. An activist with CAIC and the Campaign to End the New Jim Crow, Mualimm-ak spent five years in isolated confinement despite never having committed a violent act in prison. “Having humane alternatives will spare thousands of people the pain and suffering that extreme isolation causes–and the scars that they carry with them back into our communities.”

Several state prisons systems, including Maine, Mississippi, and Colorado, have significantly reduced the number of people they hold in solitary confinement, and have seen prison violence decrease as well. HALT takes reform a step further by also providing alternatives for the relatively small number of individuals who need to be separated from the general population for more than a few weeks. Advocates see the bill not only as a major step toward humane and evidence-based prison policies, but also as a model for change across the country.

“Article 5 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, states that ‘No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment,’” said Laura Markle Downton of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. “As people of faith, we recognize the use of solitary confinement in a prisons, jails and detention centers fundamentally violates this prohibition against torture. Now is the time for New York to lead the way in bringing an end to this human rights abuse plaguing our justice system nationally.”

“The HALT Solitary Confinement Act implements rational humane alternatives to the costly, ineffective, and abusive use of long-term solitary confinement in New York prisons and jails,” said Sarah Kerr of the Legal Aid Society’s Prisoners’ Rights Project. “The need for reform is well-documented and the time for change is now.”

PRESS CONFERENCE DETAILS:

 

Date/Time/ Location: Friday, January 31, 10:30 am

Judson Memorial Church, Meeting Room Balcony

55 Washington Square South (between Thompson and Sullivan Streets)

Speakers:

Assembly Member Jeffrion L. Aubry (D, 35th District, Queens), Assembly sponsor

Senator Bill Perkins (D, 30th District, Harlem), Senate sponsor

City Council Member Daniel Dromm (D, 25th District, Queens)

Five Mualimm-ak, survivor of solitary confinement in New York prisons and Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement

Jessica Casanova, aunt of individual currently in solitary and Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement

Scott Paltrowitz, Correctional Association of New York and Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement

Claire Deroche, National Religious Campaign Against Torture and Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement

 

PRESS KIT INCLUDES:

Press Release

Fact Sheet on Solitary Confinement in New York State

Summary of the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act

Full Text of HALT Act (A08588 / S06466)

New York Voices from Solitary Confinement

“Solitary Confinement’s Invisible Scars,” op-ed by Five Mualimm-ak

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Scott Paltrowitz, 212-254-5700, spaltrowitz@correctionalassociation.org

Sarah Kerr, 212-577-3530, SKerr@legal-aid.org

Five Mualimm-ak, 646-294-8331, endthenewjimcrow@gmail.com

www.nycaic.org

#  #  #

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EVENTS: Lawmakers, Advocates, and Solitary Survivors Join to Announce Legislation to Limit Solitary Confinement in New York’s Prisons and Jails

January 30, 2014 by

MEDIA ADVISORY: PRESS CONFERENCE

 WHEN: Friday, January 31, 10:30 am

WHERE: Judson Memorial Church, Meeting Room Balcony

55 Washington Square South (between Thompson and Sullivan Streets)

 WHO:

Assembly Member Jeffrion L. Aubry (D, 35th District, Queens), Assembly sponsor

Senator Bill Perkins (D, 30th District, Harlem), Senate sponsor

City Council Member Daniel Dromm (D, 25th District, Queens)

Five Mualimm-ak, survivor of solitary confinement in New York prisons

Jessica Casanova, aunt of man in solitary confinement

Scott Paltrowitz, Correctional Association of New York and Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement

Claire Deroche, National Religious Campaign Against Torture and Campaign for Alternatives to Solitary Confinement

WHAT:

The Humane Alternatives to Long-Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act.

Just introduced in the New York State Assembly (A08588) and Senate (S06466), this pioneering bill is being hailed by supporters as the most comprehensive and progressive legislative response to date to the nationwide problem of solitary confinement in prisons and jails. As written, it would virtually eliminate a practice that has been increasingly denounced as both dangerous and torturous, while protecting the safety of incarcerated individuals and corrections staff. More than 5,000 people are currently being held in solitary and other forms of isolated confinement in New York’s state prisons and local jails.

 On hand and available for interview will be the bill’s Assembly and Senate sponsors and other legislators, along with individuals who have personally experienced solitary confinement, family members of those currently in solitary, and advocates from the New York Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement, which was instrumental in drafting the bill.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Scott Paltrowitz, 212-254-5700, spaltrowitz@correctionalassociation.org

Sarah Kerr, 212-577-3530, SKerr@legal-aid.org

Five Mualimm-ak, 646-294-8331, endthenewjimcrow@gmail.com

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NEWS: As New York City Jails Amend Their Solitary Confinement Practices, Abuses on Rikers Island Continue

January 16, 2014 by

rikers demo 1By Aviva Stahl. Reprinted from Solitary Watch.

In early January the Wall Street Journal reported that the New York City Department of Correction (DOC) had ceased using solitary confinement as a form of punishment for people with mental illness. The last of the Mental Health Assessment Unit for Infracted Inmates (MHAUII) units was shuttered on December 31, replaced by a two-tiered system said to improve treatment. The step was hailed a significant achievement for outgoing DOC City Commissioner Dora Schriro, whose department came under fire this past fall after two reports lambasted the DOC for violating its own standards in its treatment of the mentally ill.

However, a meeting on Tuesday morning of the Board of Correction (BOC), an independent body that monitors the City’s jail system, presented a far different picture of conditions for individuals with mental illness on Rikers Island – as well as a different version of how changes in the DOC’s solitary confinement policies have come about.

Just after 8 am on Tuesday, in the chilly morning rain, activists from the advocacy group Jails Action Coalition (JAC) stood on the sidewalk outside the municipal office building on Worth Street where the BOC was scheduled to meet. They were holding a vigil for the four individuals who have died in City jails in the past three months, carrying tombstone-shaped posters reading “RIKERS=DEATH” beside a makeshift alter with four candles, and singing and chanting to the people passing by.

Leah, a longtime JAC activist, explained that she had braved the weather for the sake of her godson, who has a psychiatric disability and is currently incarcerated on Rikers Island. She was waiting to see whether the recent changes made by the DOC would actually have an impact on the people inside. As she explained, sometimes the DOC enacts new policies to appease the citizenry “but really, it’s the same old thing.”

At just past nine o’clock the vigil participants passed through security and joined the BOC meeting on the third floor. The bulk of time was dedicated to discussing the quality of care at the recently developed Restrictive Housing Units (RHU) and Clinical Alternative to Punitive Segregation (CAPS) program, the facilities meant to replace MHAUII. According to DOC protocol, individuals who violate prison rules will now be sent to one of the two units: the RHU for those who are deemed less severely ill, who will still spend time in solitary but have access to therapeutic services; and the CAPS unit, modeled after a psychiatric hospital, for those with more serious illnesses.

According to the WSJ article, prison advocates were somewhat critical of the proposed changes after they were announced, calling the RHU model “far too punitive” and expressing concerns that individuals with mental illness might be placed in CAPS regardless of whether they broke the rules. The Board’s initial discussion seemed to support many of their concerns.

BOC members shared the details of their first site visit, on December 5, to the newly opened RHU at Rose M Singer Center (RMSC), the main women’s jail on Rikers. According to the Honorable Bryanne Hamill, a former New York Family Court judge,  Board staff asked for assistance from a nearby corrections officer when one woman – who had smeared feces on the window of her cell – failed to respond to their knocks. The CO opened the food slot in the cell’s solid steel door and shined light inside, but was still unable to ascertain if the occupant was conscious.

At the prodding of BOC members, the CO summoned four captains – but it was not until the Board notified Commissioner Schriro that the door was eventually unlocked. The woman was found unresponsive on the floor under the bed with a ligature wrapped around her neck. By the time the woman was taken out of her cell by medical staff, nearly an hour had passed since the visitors had first arrived at her door. Judge Hamill added that she spoke to another prisoner who told her that the unresponsive woman had been threatening suicide; Hamill reassured her that the woman had been found alive.

BOC member Dr Robert L. Cohen, a key player in efforts to reform solitary on Rikers, also participated in site visits. Cohen stressed that neither the COs nor the leadership in NYC’s prisons seemed prepared for the task at hand.  Although the RHU program at Otis Bantum Correctional Center (OBCC) technically opened on December 19th, Cohen reported that the jail’s warden was “not aware that there was an RHU at OBCC” when Cohen spoke to her on January 3. Cohen also emphasized his concern that the DOC has no plan to identify and train officers and captain staff who are willing to work in the units on a regular basis.

Both Dr. Cohen and Judge Hamill expressed disappointment that access to therapeutic programming in the RHU had so far been almost non-existent. They did, however, have some praise for the new mental health programs established at the DOC, noting that they were greatly impressed with the ongoing quality of care in the CAPS units.

At the end of the meeting, Jennifer Parish, the director of criminal justice advocacy at the Urban Justice Center’s Mental Health Project and a member of JAC, spoke about her own visit to the RHU at RMSC, which occurred just days after the BOC’s.  One woman held in the unit relayed to Parish what had happened after she told the BOC member (presumably Judge Hamill) that the woman found unconscious had been threatening suicide. After the Board members left the prison, she said, a CO approached her cell to tell her, “there won’t be any food for you.” Parish expressed frustration that this kind of retaliation of could go on even when BOC was involved.

Commissioner Schriro’s voice cracked with emotion as the meeting came to a close. Schriro, who is leaving the DOC to take a job in Connecticut, has been broadly praised for the recent changes in DOC policy, and commented to the press that her department was “proud to have met this significant milestone.”  In truth, however, solitary confinement increased significantly under Schriro’s tenure. In 2011 alone the number of punitive segregation cells at Rikers grew by 45 percent,  and by the time the  BOC-commissioned reports were released this past fall, New York City had one of the highest rates of solitary confinement in the country.

The Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association (COBA) pressed particularly hard for the increase in punitive bed space, attributing a spike in attacks on COs to the backlog of prisoners waiting to serve time in “the Bing,” as solitary confinement on Rikers is called. At a November 2011 City Council meeting, Schriro was grilled by City Council member Elizabeth Crowley about the problem.  Schriro reassured her that capacity was being expanded as quickly as possible: ” Every bed that can be converted is being converted.”

Community groups maintain that the DOC only considered adopting new policies as a result of the press fall-out from the BOC-commissioned reports – and that the reports were, in turn, ordered as a result of the campaigning of JAC and other advocates. Those same factors, along with pressure from a few BOC members, led the Board in September to vote to commence “rule-making” to eventually set new policies limiting the use of solitary in City jails.

Tuesday’s meeting was the last for Commissioner Schriro, but her legacy is not the only thing in flux. Mayor Bill DeBlasio has yet announce to his appointment to the post of DOC commissioner, and there are mixed signals as to whether he will live up to the progressive image he cultivated during his campaign.

Last Friday at Brooklyn College, DeBlasio emceed the graduation for the DOC’s newest recruits, telling them: “You’re protecting all of us….You’re protecting each other. You have each other’s backs. And you’re also protecting some people who have made mistakes.” He continued, “We’re not happy with some of the choices those individuals made, but they’re still our fellow citizens, and we’re hopefully in the process of helping them back to a better path.”

Yet there are some red flags to suggest substantial prison reform isn’t on DeBlasio’s agenda. Bill Bratton, the mayor’s appointment for police commissioner, has pursued racially discriminatory policing policies in the past.  Moreover, during his campaign DeBlasio was endorsed by COBA – a worrying sign for advocates, given that the role the union played in increasing the use of solitary and their resistance to adopting alternative solutions.

For Sarah Kerr, a staff attorney in the Prisoners’ Rights Project of The Legal Aid Society, the BOC’s experiences on the tour reveal the deeply protracted nature of the problems within the DOC.  She wondered aloud what it means that it took an hour for the woman’s cell door to be opened, even when BOC members were present.  She added that challenging this institutional culture will be an “incredibly hard” task for the DOC, but that doing so is absolutely necessary if things are to change.

For Daisy Rodriguez, another member of JAC, these changes cannot come quickly enough. Her 21-year-old son has been in solitary confinement in New York’s jails for the past 18 months.  She told the audience at the meeting, “We want our families to obtain the services they need rather than be treated like animals.”

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NEWS: Roundup of National News on Isolated Confinement, November/December 2013

January 14, 2014 by

Compiled by Fran Geteles-Shapiro

December 31, 2013
A teenager accused of masterminding a series of firebombs that went off in four New Jersey synagogues has spent the past two years in solitary confinement, holed up in a tiny, windowless cell waiting for trial, which is scheduled to begin in January. The boy and his family say he is not guilty.
http://www.indoamerican-news.com/?p=22472

December 30, 2013
An investigative team has found that more than three dozen men and women who were mentally ill and drug and alcohol-impaired have died in restraint chairs in county jails from Washington state to Florida.  They attribute this to the shift from hospital and clinic settings to county jails.
http://ht.ly/sabAa

December 29
The new Executive Director of Colorado’s Dept. of Corrections promises changes and transparency, including: dramatic reduction in the numbers of people in AdSeg; reducing number of people released directly from AdSeg into the community; revised criteria for sending individuals to segregation; new approached to how staff respond to disruptive behavior; improved staff accountability; etc.
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/call7-investigators/department-of-corrections/new-department-of-corrections-executive-director-rick-raemisch-pledges-changes-transparency

December 24
A 2012 U.S. District Court decision had ruled that the Colorado State Penitentiary violates the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment by not providing outdoor recreation. Now, a second lawsuit has been filed, seeking class-action status to assure that that decision applies to all the imprisoned people not just the one original plaintiff.  Authorities say several options are under consideration to solve the recreation problem.
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_24789587/colorado-prisons-could-be-running-out-room-most

December 23
Democracy Now hosted a discussion about the growing number of aging people in prison in the United States who were convicted in the 1960s and 1970s because of their political actions.  Many are seeking compassionate release, clemency or a pardon, due to suffering from illness and/or decades in Solitary Confinement.
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/12/23/time_for_compassion_aging_political_prisoners

December 19
A federal judge will hear closing arguments over whether prolonged solitary confinement violates the rights of the mentally ill.  The same judge had previously decided that mentally ill individuals on death row lack proper care and that the Department of State Hospitals provides them with substandard treatment.
http://www.capradio.org/articles/2013/12/19/judge-considers-solitary-confinement-for-mentally-ill-prisoners/-allows-torture-abuse/

A judge has ruled that people on death row who are being incarcerated in unventilated cells and without access to cool water at Angola Prison are being subjected to “cruel and unusual punishment” and that this violates their 8th Amendment Rights. He ordered prison officials to draw up an action plan to “reduce and maintain the heat index in the Angola death row teirs at or below 88 degrees.” Defendants have argued that this will be a financial hardship, but the judge responded that there “can never be an adequate justification for depriving any person of his constitutional rights.”
http://www.nola.com/crime/baton-rouge/index.ssf/2013/12/angola_prison_heat_death_row_r.html

Organizers announced the launch of a new campaign that “aims to shed light on and end a pattern of human rights and civil liberties abuses in ‘War on Terror’ cases in the criminal justice system” including the extensive use of pre-trial and post-conviction solitary confinement. The campaign, called No Separate Justice, will be marked by an event on January 7 in New York City.
http://solitarywatch.com/2013/12/22/seven-days-solitary-122213/

December 14
The U.S. Justice Department’s Inspector General (OIG) has issued its year-end report which for the first time includes the issue of prisons, and describes a “Growing Crisis in the Federal Prison System.” Among the issues raised are: failure to effectively address the “increasing number of elderly inmates” within the system; mismanagement of the “compassionate release” program; the need to address the mental health of the people it incarcerates and the impact of solitary confinement on those people.  Although the report does not give policy recommendations, the OIG does plan to monitor the effects of a GAO assessment of the use of solitary confinement.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/12/government-watchdog-we-have-a-growing-federal-prison-crisis/282341/
http://www.justice.gov/oig/challenges/2013.htm

December 13
Colorado Department of Corrections is now instructing staff that incarcerated people who are determined to have a major mental illness must be sent to a residential treatment program not to administrative segregation.  While praising this effort the ACLU points out that the definition of major mental illness adopted by CDOC is too narrow, with the result that “prisoners with moderate to severe psychiatric needs now constitute a majority of those in administrative segregation.”
http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2013/12/mentally_ill_prisoners_solitary.php

December 12
The ACLU released a memo from the Colorado DOC announcing a new policy of excluding seriously mentally ill individuals from ad seg. Reforms had begun in January and had included the opening of a residential treatment program at Centennial Correctional Facility in Cañon City and the shut down of a prior program that treated mentally ill incarcerated people while they were held in solitary confinement. While praising this latest step, the ACLU continues to express concern about definitions of mental illness that are too narrow and the understaffing of the treatment program.
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_24712664/colorado-wont-put-mentally-ill-prisoners-solitary-confinement#ixzz2naHHe3z3

December 11-12
Prison policy prohibits sexual contact between staff and the people whom they guard, yet  in many women’s prisons, those who report rape and other forms of sexual assault by prison personnel are often sent to solitary confinement, as well as being harassed and physically abused or tortured, or being threatened with additional prison time.  The sexual predators are almost never punished.  Solitary Watch also reports increased numbers of women in solitary in some states and that it is a particular issue for women with mental who perform acts of self mutilation.
http://solitarywatch.com/2013/12/12/women-solitary-confinement-sent-solitary-reporting-sexual-assault/
http://solitarywatch.com/2013/12/11/women-solitary-confinement-isolation-degenerates-us-madness/

December 11
Federal judges considering California’s request for more time to reduce prison crowding asked the state in turn to limit how long some mentally ill incarcerated people spend in solitary confinement.  The state offered to limit the time severely mentally ill individuals who have committed no rules violations can be held in isolation to 30 days. When that offer was accepted by the judge in the lawsuit on crowding, the extension was granted.
http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-ff-judge-solitary-confinement-prison-crowding-negotiations-20131211,0,3111292.story#ixzz2nZjJB7km

In a sign-on letter, the Ohio ACLU notes that Ohio’s Juvenile Detention facilities haveone of the highest rates of sexual assault in the nation and  that the children inside are also being kept in solitary confinement for extended periods of time. They are asking the Department of Youth Services (DYS) to: formally declare that juveniles have a right to be free from sexual victimization while inside their detention facilities; and to ban the extended seclusion/isolation of juveniles beyond 24 consecutive hours.
http://www.acluohio.org/issue-information/protect-children-from-sexual-abuse-and-extended-solitary-confinement-in-ohio-detention-facilities

December 10
Federal prison officials have begun transferring mentally ill individuals from the Supermax prison in Florence to a prison in Atlanta following a lawsuit that accuses guards of ignoring severe symptoms, denying their existence, or simply making fun of self-destructive symptomatic behaviors.  The attorney handling the lawsuit says the transfer improves the situation, but points out that there are prisons in Missouri and Arizona that are better equipped to handle the needs of the mentally ill.
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_24688123/feds-moving-mentally-ill-inmates-#ixzz2nZdfQdzs

December 9
A group of men from Pennsylvania, who were held at the State Correctional Institution (SCI) at Dallas are due in court on charges that they sparked a riot in their unit in 2010 after they barricaded their cell doors and windows with bedding, forcing guards to forcibly remove them.  The men and their advocates claim they were simply staging a peaceful protest designed to draw attention to rampant abuses and deplorable conditions in the security housing unit — from food deprivation to medical neglect – and that the prison guards responded to the protest with horrific violence.  Advocates say the trial could become a crucible in the wider debate over solitary confinement.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/09/21793945-pennsylvania-solitary-confinement-inmates-charged-with-rioting-due-in-court

A judge has awarded $1,200 to an imprisoned man for the excessive time he spent in solitary confinement at Marcy Correctional Facility. In his statement, the judge said that the state is “absolutely immune” from liability over prison disciplinary actions, but only if all rules and procedures are followed. In this case the hearing officer had improperly denied the man’s request to call a witness.  http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/12/judge_awards_prisoner_nearly_1200_for_excessive_time_in_solitary_confinement.html

December 2013
Two British nationals pled guilty to supporting terrorists in Afghanistan through websites that sought to raise cash, recruit fighters and solicit items such as gas masks. The men had fought extradition to the US because of the treatment they would likely receive in prisons here — treatment which is illegal in Britain and the European Union.  But they lost that fight. Since extradition, they have been held in extreme isolation in a supermax prison in Connecticut, and after the guilty plea, will likely face more solitary confinement in the future.  One of the men has Asperger Syndrome; the other reported symptoms of PTSD after he had spent six years in high security prisons in the UK.
http://news.msn.com/crime-justice/2-uk-men-plead-guilty-in-conn-to-supporting-terror
http://www.newstatesman.com/2013/02/impossible-injustice-talha-ahsans-extradition-and-detention

December 5
A 73-year-old grandmother suffering from thyroid cancer, heart problems and bi-polar disorder, who was kept in solitary confinement for 34 days in a New Mexico prison run by the for-profit Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), is suing both the private prison company and Corizon, Inc, the privately run prison healthcare provider. Thelawsuit alleges that prison officials deliberately put her in solitary confinement because she complained that she and other women in the CCA facility were being denied necessary medical care.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/05/grandmother-cancer-prison-solitary-confinement
http://www.abqjournal.com/316506/opinion/putting-grandma-in-the-hole-doesnt-fit-crime.html

December 4
An article in The Nation magazine reports that “hunger strikes are erupting around the world” especially among imprisoned people who fast to protest abuse, unjust imprisonment and inhumane conditions.  It notes that solitary confinement is often a critical issue, referring to hunger strikes in Israel, California and Guantanamo.  One horrible reaction to such strikes has been force feeding – implemented in Guantanamo and approved by judges in California.  On the other hand, some small gains are noted: release of some Palestinian hunger strikers in Israel; legislators promise to investigate conditions in CA prisons; and President Obama being forced to re-open the question of closing Guantanamo.
http://www.thenation.com/article/177464/starving-justice?page=0,1

An article in The Nation magazine reports that “hunger strikes are erupting around the world” especially among imprisoned people who fast to protest abuse, unjust imprisonment and inhumane conditions.  It notes that solitary confinement is often a critical issue, referring to hunger strikes in Israel, California and Guantanamo.  One horrible reaction to such strikes has been force feeding – implemented in Guantanamo and approved by judges in California.  On the other hand, some small gains are noted: release of some Palestinian hunger strikers in Israel; legislators promise to investigate conditions in CA prisons; and President Obama being forced to re-open the question of closing Guantanamo.
http://www.thenation.com/article/177464/starving-justice?page=0,1

November 20
The ACLU is offering a new tool produced by the Stop Solitary campaign, “Alone & Afraid” which is a briefer on the use of solitary confinement in youth facilities. It covers the law, standards, and science that you can use to argue against the practice. Also noted is their toolkit that covers solitary for kids in the adult system.
https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/Alone%20and%20Afraid%20COMPLETE%20FINAL.pdf
https://www.aclu.org/criminal-law-reform-prisoners-rights/no-child-left-alone-resources
https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/toolkit_juvenile_solitary_briefing_paper_final.pdf

November 19
A powerful new report from Detention Watch Network, “Expose and Close One Year Later: The Absence of Accountability in Immigration Detention” reports that in 2012, 300 people on average were held in solitary confinement per day, 11 percent of whom had mental health issues.  New ICE guidelines are not in line with UN guidance or the standards in the proposed Senate immigration bill: they do not prohibit the use of solitary for individuals with mental illnesses; they do not set specific time limits for solitary; they continue to permit the use of solitary as a kind of “protective custody”; and do not provide for effective action against facilities that violate them.http://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/sites/detentionwatchnetwork.org/files/expose_and_close_one_year_later.pdf

In 1995, after a trial which exposed the appalling conditions at Pelican Bay, a federal court ordered all mentally ill individuals out of that prison’s security housing unit (SHU). But the decision did not apply to CA’s other prisons. Hearings have begun in a new case, Coleman v. Brown, aimed at getting all mentally ill people in California out of solitary confinement.
https://www.aclu.org/blog/prisoners-rights/confronting-californias-abuse-solitary

November 15
In many if not most states, individuals who have been sentenced to death are automatically placed in solitary confinement. However, a recent Virginia federal court decision holds that automatic and indefinite placement of a death-sentenced person in solitary is a deprivation of liberty without due process of law, and such individuals are entitled to a classification process similar to that used for non-capital incarcerated people.
https://www.aclu.org/blog/prisoners-rights-capital-punishment/death-row-not-constitution-free-zone

November 6
Moazzam Begg, who spent 20 months in solitary confinement in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and was released without charge in Jan. 2005, describes his time in solitary: “I think I am a very sane, strong person but twice I lost control of my senses … I screamed and shouted and punched and kicked the walls and swore and cried.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/10261853/What-its-like-to-be-detained-in-Guantanamo-Bay.html

November 5
A report, entitled Ethics Abandoned: Medical Professionalism and Detainee Abuse in the “War on Terror,” written for The Institute on Medicine as a Profession (IMAP) and the Open Society Foundations (OSF), by a task force of medical professionals, ethicists and legal experts, calls on President Obama to issue an executive order outlawing torture and other abusive techniques currently in use in the military’s Army Field Manual on interrogations and calls on the Department of Defense to rewrite the Army Field Manual in accordance with such an executive order.  Although the 2006 manual was touted as reforming “extreme interrogation” techniques and eliminating torture, it continues to permit the use of extreme isolation or “segregation,” for interrogation purposes, as part of its Fear Up and Ego Down techniques, aimed at producing both debility and dependency.
http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/11/05/blue-ribbon-task-force-says-army-field-manual-on-interrogation-allows-torture-abuse/

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EVENTS: Human Rights Day Vigils Will Challenge the Torture of Solitary Confinement in New York

December 6, 2013 by

Press release from the Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement, December 6, 2013.

jac demo big 1NEW YORK — Representatives of human rights, civil liberties, and religious organizations will join formerly incarcerated people and family members of those in solitary confinement at several vigils across the state, to protest the routine use of extreme and prolonged isolation in New York’s state prisons and city jails.

The largest vigil, which is part of a longer event highlighting current human rights issues in New York, will take place on Human Rights Day, Tuesday, December 10, from 4 – 5 pm in Lower Manhattan’s Foley Square, within sight of several courthouses and detention centers.

Billed as a “Teach-in and Speak-out,” the vigil will feature advocates from the Campaign for Alternatives to Solitary Confinement (CAIC), including individuals who have been directly affected by the use of solitary confinement. The vigil will conclude with the words of people currently in solitary, read by representatives of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture.

“We want New Yorkers to recognize that there are serious human rights violations going on in their own backyards,” said Five Omar Mualimm-ak of the American Friends Service Committee, a survivor of five years in solitary confinement in New York state prisons and an organizer of the vigil.  “By depriving people of all human contact, solitary confinement causes extreme anguish and permanent psychological damage,” Mualimm-ak continued. “That’s why it has been widely denounced as torture.”

On Long Island, a Human Rights Day vigil will be held on Saturday, December 14, at 12 noon at the Nassau County Jail in East Meadow, also featuring religious leaders, activists, survivors, and family members.  “We know that our children or spouses can be sent to these houses of torture for the slightest infraction,” said Barbara Allan of Long Island’s Prison Families Anonymous. “We know the consequences, and we worry about how this will affect them upon release.”

In Upstate New York, the site of most of the state’s 62 prisons, opponents of solitary will gather for a vigil in Ithaca on Sunday, December 8, at 2 pm in front of Tompkins County Library. The vigil will be followed by a write-a-thon to incarcerated individuals at Tompkins County Workers’ Center, with Amnesty International. The Ithaca Prisoner Justice Network is also holding a letter writing campaign in three local Episcopal churches to urge policy-makers to take action to end isolated confinement.

A vigil will also be held on December 10 at St Lawrence University in Canton. A group of students will spend the day inside chalk outlines of 7 x10-foot cells to call attention to the use of solitary in New York.

According to CAIC, New York’s prison and jails use solitary and other forms of isolated confinement far too broadly and routinely, and for periods of time, namely months and years, that far exceed the 15 day-limit recommended by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. New York holds people in 23-hour-a-day isolation at rates significantly above the national average. On any given day, there are at least 4,000 people, disproportionately people of color, in New York State prisons who are in special housing units (SHU) and thousands more locked down in their own cells. In addition, approximately 1,000 people in New York City jails are held in isolation.

Solitary confinement often causes deep and permanent psychological, physical, and social harm for those who endure it, and can have even more dire consequences for the many incarcerated individuals with pre-existing mental health needs or disabilities, and for youth. Prolonged isolation has been shown to be counterproductive as well as inhumane, since it can increase both prison violence and recidivism levels.

“We need a fundamental transformation of how corrections officials understand and respond to problematic behavior,” says Jennifer Parish of the Urban Justice Center, a CAIC member group that helped to spearhead the rallies around the state. “We no longer can allow ineffective, inhumane responses that exacerbate the problems; we want safe, humane, and effective responses that fit in line with our fundamental human values and make things safer for our prisons and our communities.”

Solitary confinement in New York’s state prisons has been challenged not only by advocates, but by UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan E. Méndez. In March of 2013, Méndez wrote to the U.S. government, seeking information about the practice of extreme isolation and solitary confinement in New York State prisons and the welfare of three individuals subjected to this treatment.

This week, CAIC sent letters to both U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, urging them to provide the requested information, and to facilitate Mr. Méndez’s access to conduct fact-finding visits to New York prisons and jails. “With Human Rights Day approaching,” the letter reads, “we join in calling on you to take these steps to honor the humanity and dignity of New Yorkers suffering the torture of solitary confinement.”

Survivors of solitary confinement and families of those currently in isolation are available for interview in New York City and on Long Island.

For more information, please contact:

Megan Crowe-Rothstein, 646-602-5665 megan@urbanjustice.org

Five Mualimm-ak, 646-294-8331, endthenewjimcrow@gmail.com.

Scott Paltrowitz, 212-254-5700 spaltrowitz@correctionalassociation.org

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NEWS: Roundup of National News on Isolated Confinement, October/November 2013

November 15, 2013 by

By Fran Geteles-Shapiro

November 9, 2013

A new report by the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty (NMCLP) and the ACLU of New Mexico (ACLU-NM) reports on the systems abuses of solitary confinement, including: overuse; isolation of people suffering from serious mental illness; use of prolonged segregation for the mentally ill; and, the lack of transparency and oversight.  Reforms are recommended. http://nmpovertylaw.org/WP-nmclp/wordpress/WP-nmclp/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Solitary_Confinement_Report_FINALsmallpdf.com_.pdf

November 8, 2013

A reporter discusses his visit to the Ad Seg cellblock of a prison in Maine where the typical number of prisoners in isolation has been reduced by more than 50%.  He points out that those who remain in solitary are still in grim ugly, super harsh conditions from which there are constant reports of cruelty, inadequate medical care, understaffing, and deliberate mixing of predators and the vulnerable. http://portland.thephoenix.com/news/156318-rare-look-inside-the-maine-state-prisons-‘super/#ixzz2kejcZjsZ

November 6, 2013

A report on Solitary Watch summarizes the findings of the two psychiatrists who were asked by the NYC Board of Corrections to assess whether the city is in compliance with their Mental Health Minimum Standards.  Their highly critical report found that the standards are being violated. After the report was published the BOC voted to begin rulemaking to limit the use of solitary confinement in NYC. http://solitarywatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Gilligan-Report.-Final.pdf  http://solitarywatch.com/2013/11/06/reports-condemn-abuse-solitary-confinement-new-york-citys-jails-officials-weigh-future/

The American Public Health Association (APHA) issued a statement against solitary confinement recommending: people with serious mental illnesses and juveniles be excluded from solitary; people in solitary confinement be closely monitored and removed if their physical or mental health deteriorates or necessary health services cannot be provided; alternative means of discipline should be created; isolation for clinical or therapeutic purposes should be permitted only upon the order of a credentialed health care provider; and, individuals isolated for their personal safety must have access to programs, treatment, education, recreation, visitation, and social interactions comparable to that afforded prisoners in the general population. http://www.apha.org/NR/rdonlyres/AEF53EE6-7E3E-4E87-8731- 4D2C5BB2CF2D/0/C2SolitaryConfinement.pdf

November 3, 2013

A new report from the Taskforce on Preserving Medical Professionalism in National Security Detention Centres says that doctors and psychologists working for the US military violated the ethical codes of their profession under instruction from the defense department and the CIA to become involved in the torture and degrading treatment of suspected terrorists.  They were in effect told that their ethical mantra “first, do no harm” did not apply, because they were not treating people who were ill. The taskforce wants rules to ensure doctors and psychiatrists working for the military are prohibited from taking part in interrogation, sharing information from detainees’ medical records with interrogators, or participating in force-feeding, and they should be required to report abuse of detainees. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/04/cia-doctors-torture-suspected-terrorists-9-11

November 2, 2013

A summary of quantitative data available about who is held in segregated confinement in our nation’s prisons and jails suggests that in many states the harsh conditions of solitary confinement are probably disproportionately affecting people of color. http://solitarywatch.com/2013/11/02/prison-segregation-racial-disparities/

October 31, 2013

The ACLU of Montana won an agreement regarding access to outdoor exercise for prisoners in a jail.  The jail in this case had outdoor recreation for two of its housing units holding adult males, but not for the housing units holding ad seg, female populations and juveniles.  The jail has agreed to build recreation areas onto these housing units and provide daily access. http://aclumontana.org/images/stories/documents/litigation/chiefgoesoutsettlement102013.pdf

October 29, 2013

A former prison official and an advocate for the rights of incarcerated people together suggest reforms in the use of solitary confinement in CA and NY:  no more applying it to minors or for nonviolent offenses or using it for crowd control; allowing opportunity to read, receive visits, make phone calls, and have other forms of human contact and stimulation; shorter periods of isolation; periodic review; alternative sanctions; and, the use of “conditional discharges” for first-time nonviolent offenders who “clean up their records.” http://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/Reform-prison-isolation-4933317.php

October 27, 2013

North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services has filed a lawsuit on behalf of a man diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia who has a history of childhood sexual abuse alleging that he was abused at North Carolina’s Central Prison by guards who repeatedly doused him with excessively high doses of pepper spray, causing him great pain. The suit raises questions about the treatment of individuals in solitary confinement.  The plaintiff in the case spent years cycling between cells in the prison mental ward and solitary confinement – often in response to behaviors that are primary symptoms of his illness. http://charlotte.cbslocal.com/2013/10/27/suit-mentally-ill-nc-inmate-often-pepper-sprayed/

October 23, 2013

At the urging of Colorado’s ACLU’s chapter, a senator is sponsoring a bill to find alternatives to the use of so-called administrative segregation for prisoners who have been diagnosed with serious psychological disorders. Citing the recent killing of a state corrections official by a man released directly from solitary confinement, he says, “We are doing the least safe thing.”
http://www.coloradoindependent.com/144572/lawmaker-will-seek-to-abolish-solitary-confinement-for-mentally-ill-prisoners

October 22, 2013

An article for the ACLU discusses the importance of the UN’s efforts to update their Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (SMRs) with particular focus on the need for sufficient protections against lengthy solitary confinement. https://www.aclu.org/blog/prisoners-rights/historic-opportunity-advance-international-norms-prisoners-rights

October 19, 2013

Russell Shoatz’s lawyers submitted a communication to Juan E. Mendez, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on torture urging him to inquire into why a “father, grandfather and great grandfather” is being held in extreme isolation despite having a near-perfect disciplinary record for over 20 years.  One of the attorneys expressed the hope that an investigation by the office of the special rapporteur will bring an end to indefinite isolation. http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/10/the-u-s-s-64-square-foot-torture-chambers/?utm_content=bufferbdf02&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer

October 18, 2013

A man in prison in Illinois, who was arrested in the lead up to Occupy Chicago, has been in solitary confinement since July for possessing anarchist literature. He isn’t accused of plotting to harm guards or other incarcerated people, but his political beliefs alone are described as a threat to the safety and security of persons or the facility. http://www.vice.com/read/prisoner-sent-to-solitary-for-copious-amounts-of-anarchist-publications

Juan Méndez, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture, has requested access to California prisons to investigate the use of solitary confinement and ensure that the rights of prisoners’ are being protected. He said he wants access to any part of any prison he chooses and the freedom to speak with any incarcerated individuals of his choosing.” http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-ff-un-torture-investigator-seeks-access-to-california-prisons-20131018,0,15846.story

Amidst growing criticism of its abundant use of solitary confinement, the federal Bureau of Prisons has initiated an audit to review its “restricted housing operations.”  But, since the audit has been contracted out to a nonprofit best known as a military think tank and will be conducted largely by former corrections officials, it seems unlikely to bring any dramatic change to the lives of the people held in isolation in the federal prison system. Meanwhile, the federal government has completed purchase of a prison meant to house still more isolation cells. http://solitarywatch.com/2013/10/18/fire-federal-bureau-prisons-audits-use-solitary-confinement-buys-new-supermax-prison/

October 17, 2013

Questions are being raised about whether the extensive use of Secure Housing Units in CA have reduced gang membership or violence in the prisons.  Meanwhile prison officials have begun to provide a new “step-down” program which might reintroduce individuals into the general population gradually, over four years. http://kvpr.org/post/do-californias-security-housing-units-reduce-prison-violence

October 16, 2013

Lawyers for individuals who have been condemned to death in CA are asking a U.S. District Judge to require psychiatric hospitalization for the most mentally ill people on death row and to ban the use of pepper spray as a means of controlling them.  They showed videos of individuals being drenched with burning pepper spray and dragged from their cells for refusing medication or psychiatric evaluation.  Prison officials argue their care is adequate and no one was hurt in the incidents depicted in the videos. http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-ff-prison-lawyers-challenge-care-for-californias-condemned-20131016,0,5753340.story#axzz2iwsid0gN

Anthony Graves, who spent 18 years in prison, 12 of them in solitary confinement on death row in Texas, used funds he received from the state for his wrongful conviction to set up a law school scholarship in the name of Nicole Cásarez, the Houston attorney and journalism professor who fought for eight years to secure his freedom.  He also used some of the money to start a foundation to help at-risk children with incarcerated parents. http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/anthony-graves-establishes-scholarship#.Ul7ygaqS5uQ.twitter

October 14, 2013

The US military has announced the end of the six-month mass hunger strike among detainees at Guantánamo Bay, but human rights groups argue that such proclamations are disingenuous as at least 16 inmates are still force-fed daily, and two are in hospital. Also, several of the men and their lawyers have reported that hunger strike participants were coerced into ending their participation in the strike by harsh treatment including isolated confinement, extreme humiliation including forced nudity, temperature manipulation cell searches timed to disrupt their sleep, and denial of their belongings including necessities like eyeglasses.  A particular victim of this harsh treatment was Shaker Aamer, though Britain’s Prime Minister is actively trying to have him released and returned to the UK. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/12/us-military-stormed-hunger-striker-cell

September 30, 2013

An attorney with the ACLU of VA criticizes recent efforts of the corrections department for failing to include the needs of individuals with serious mental disabilities. She notes the lack of treatment programs. She also discusses the difficulty mentally ill individuals would have adhering to the new step-down program designed to enable people in solitary to earn a return to the general population, pointing out that they are thus likely to remain in solitary indefinitely. http://www.roanoke.com/opinion/commentary/2252289-12/mentally-ill-prisoners-in-solitary-confinement-left-behind.html

September 26, 2013

CCR attorneys for 10 men in solitary confinement at Pelican Bay State Prison in Ashker v. Brown, have asked the courts to make the lawsuit a class-action-suit because hundreds more are suffering in the same appalling conditions and any remedies should apply to everyone affected. The lawsuit alleges that prolonged solitary confinement violates Eighth Amendment prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment, and that the absence of meaningful review for SHU placement violates the prisoners’ right to due process. http://ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/hundreds-of-california-prisoners-isolation-should-be-covered-class-action%2C-attorneys-argue-court

Speaking of the recent ending to the hunger strike at Pelican Bay Prison, one of the self described “principal prisoner representatives” said the strike may resume if deemed necessary.  One factor in the suspension of the hunger strike was the promise of hearings at the CA state assembly in Sacramento. The representative said he does not share the optimism of outside supporters who hailed a public relations victory when the strike ended, but believes “we have to wait and see what the politicians come up with.” http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/27/california-prison-hunger-strike-todd-ashker

A strong statement about children in solitary confinement, including the critically relevant issue of children tried as adults. http://www.exposingthetruth.co/children-in-solitary-confinement/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_campaign=Feed:+ExposingTheTruthco+%28Exposing+The+Truth.co%29&utm_content=bufferefd8b&utm_medium=twitter#axzz2gCliceb0

As part of a federal class-action lawsuit brought last year by the ACLU of Illinois, three court-appointed experts found that Illinois’ youth prison system is violating the constitutional rights of young people in their custody by failing to provide adequate mental health care and education and by unnecessarily keeping youths in solitary confinement of “harsh and of substandard quality.” They pointed out the inadequate staffing, including the fact that there is not a single psychiatrist specializing in children and adolescents.  Negotiations to fix the problems are currently in progress. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-illinois-youth-prison-20130926,0,4795774.story

September 23, 2013

A 61-year-old man with a history of violence and murder which occurred many years ago while he was in prison, who has since been in solitary confinement for 30 years under a “no human contact” order, has challenged this “cruel and unusual treatment.” Although mental health experts have diagnosed severe emotional and cognitive effects, a U.S. District Court supported the Bureau of Prison’s assertions that he has been unharmed by this extreme isolation because it has not deprived him of life’s basic necessities. The case is now before the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. http://www.coloradoindependent.com/144083/denver-judge-to-weigh-how-much-is-too-much-solitary-confinement

September 21, 2013

The Texas Tribune analyzed data from violent-incident reports from 99 state prisons filed from 2006 to 2012, and found: far more reports of violence at facilities housing high numbers of mentally ill and violent incarcerated people than at other prisons; reports of violent episodes are more prevalent at smaller institutions that house only psychiatric patients; and, there are more incidents of officers using force at these facilities. Advocates the numbers show that the state’s approach to incarcerating the mentally ill is not working, but criminal justice department officials argue that the state facilities are safe, and programs aimed at helping mentally ill individuals are working. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/22/health/a-tie-to-mental-illness-in-the-violence-behind-bars.html?utm_content=buffer92df3&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer&_r=0

September 16, 2013

Albert Woodfox of the Angola 3, who has been in solitary confinement for over 40 years, has gone to court requesting a restraining order against the state of LA to stop strip and cavity searches, which he says occur whenever he leaves his cell – i.e. “as often as six times a day.”  After the Angola 3 sued against such searches in the late 70s, a consent decree was agreed to by the parties which held that they violated the rights of these men and must be curtailed or ceased.  However, when the judge responsible for the decree died recently, the searches were re-instated, thus requiring the return to court. http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/09/a-handwritten-letter-the-prison-system-doesnt-want-you-to-see/279751/

 

 

Filed Under: All Posts, News Tagged With: ,

VOICES: Solitary Confinement’s Invisible Scars

November 15, 2013 by

By Five Omar Mualimm-ak. Reprinted from The Guardian.

nys doccsAs kids, many of us imagine having superpowers. An avid comic book reader, I often imagined being invisible. I never thought I would actually experience it, but I did.

It wasn’t in a parallel universe – although it often felt that way – but right here in the Empire State, my home. While serving time in New York’s prisons, I spent 2,054 days in solitary and other forms of isolated confinement, out of sight and invisible to other human beings – and eventually, even to myself.

After only a short time in solitary, I felt all of my senses begin to diminish. There was nothing to see but gray walls. In New York’s so-called special housing units, or SHUs, most cells have solid steel doors, and many do not have windows. You cannot even tape up pictures or photographs; they must be kept in an envelope. To fight the blankness, I counted bricks and measured the walls. I stared obsessively at the bolts on the door to my cell.

There was nothing to hear except empty, echoing voices from other parts of the prison. I was so lonely that I hallucinated words coming out of the wind. They sounded like whispers. Sometimes, I smelled the paint on the wall, but more often, I just smelled myself, revolted by my own scent.

There was no touch. My food was pushed through a slot. Doors were activated by buzzers, even the one that led to a literal cage directly outside of my cell for one hour per day of “recreation”.

Even time had no meaning in the SHU. The lights were kept on for 24 hours. I often found myself wondering if an event I was recollecting had happened that morning or days before. I talked to myself. I began to get scared that the guards would come in and kill me and leave me hanging in the cell. Who would know if something happened to me? Just as I was invisible, so was the space I inhabited.

The very essence of life, I came to learn during those seemingly endless days, is human contact, and the affirmation of existence that comes with it. Losing that contact, you lose your sense of identity. You become nothing.

Everyone knows that prison is supposed to take away your freedom. But solitary doesn’t just confine your body; it kills your soul.

Yet neither a judge nor a jury of my peers handed down this sentence to me. Each of the tormented 23 hours per day that I spent in a bathroom-sized room, without any contact with the outside world, was determined by prison staff.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: All Posts, Voices Tagged With: , ,
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