By Victoria Law. Excerpted from Gothamist.

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

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

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

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

Read the full article at Gothamist.

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

The letter reads, in part:

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

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

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

BACKGROUND:  

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

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

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

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

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

By Denis Slattery. Excerpted from NY Daily News.

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

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

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

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

Read the full article at NY Daily News.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By 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.