NEWS: Roundup of National News on Isolated Confinement, July/August 2013

August 15, 2013 by

Compiled by the CAIC Research Committee.

August 13, 2013

An article in a Pakistani newspaper, asks the question of whether force feeding is ‘torture’ or humane treatment. While a senior medical advisor at Guantanamo insists that it is done to save lives, he acknowledges that quite a few of the hunger strikers have been taken to the hospital to be resuscitated. http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/international/13-Aug-2013/force-fed-torture-or-humane-treatment-at-guantanamo

August 12, 2013

In Britain, a former MI6 officer is on hunger strike in support of Guantanamo Bay prisoner Shaker Aamer.  He said he is motivated by shame at his former employer which he said supported policies including torture and detention without trial. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/former-mi6-officer-on-hunger-strike-over-guantanamo-inmate-8758213.html

August 8, 2013

The mediation team working on behalf of the CA hunger strikers was able to speak to representatives of the prisoners at Pelican Bay. They report that, despite increasingly abusive treatment, the prisoners remain steadfast in continuing their protest, and stated clearly that “this peaceful protest is not about them—it is about making real, fundamental changes to an incredibly unjust system.” The representatives also said that they are incredibly inspired by all the support they’ve received. http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/2013/08/08/mediators-talk-with-prisoners-as-hunger-strike-reaches-one-month-mark-situation-remain-critical-negotiations-crucial/

Pat Nolan, the conservative evangelist and former prisoner who is now Vice President of Prison Fellowship, the nation’s largest prison reform group, says, “Putting someone in solitary is a fate worse than death … nothing, other than murdering a guard, can possibly justify putting them in these conditions that drive them mad.” http://solitarywatch.com/2013/08/08/draft-pat-nolans-evangelical-prison-reform/

August 6, 2013

Jeffrey Beard, the head of California’s Dept. of Corrections and Rehabilitation, writes in an Op-Ed, that the hunger strike is a gang power play by convicted murderers who are putting lives at risk to advance their own agenda of violence. He also claims that many of those participating in the hunger strike are under extreme pressure to do so from violent prison gangs. Solitary Watch raises some questions about his statements. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-beard-prison-hunger-strike-20130806,0,636927.story

http://solitarywatch.com/2013/08/06/california-hunger-strike-approaches-one-month/

August 3, 2013

Advocates for prisoners on hunger strike to protest California’s solitary confinement program met with the state prisons chief as they pushed for an end to practices they say are inhumane.  A corrections spokesperson said the agency will review the group’s policy suggestions. http://www.thereporter.com/ci_23789389/california-prisons-chief-meets-inmate-advocates?source=most_viewed&utm_content=buffer32534&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer

August 2, 2013

The California Assembly is considering a bill which would impose strict limits on the solitary confinement of youth.  The bill was already passed the Senate. http://legiscan.com/CA/bill/SB61/2013

July 31, 2013

The group of 9 young, undocumented immigrants originally brought to this country as children have been jailed by Homeland Security after they walked from the Mexican side of the border in Nogales to the U.S. immigration offices, where they sought to re-enter the U.S. legally.  Currently 6 of them are in solitary confinement as punishment for the hunger strike they undertook in protest against the denial of telephone access to their lawyers and family. http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/18675-focus-us-detains-undocumented-aliens-in-solitary-confinement

July 23, 2013

The ACLU of Colorado issues Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Colorado’s continued warehousing of mentally ill prisoners in solitary confinement, a report detailing the findings of a study which showed that the percentage of Colorado prisoners in solitary confinement who are classified as mentally ill has risen. Many of the seriously mentally ill prisoners had been held in isolation for longer than one year, and some for longer than four years.  They recommend: barring mentally ill prisoners from extended periods of isolation; involvement of mental health staff in disciplinary decisions; extended out of cell time; and eliminating the shortage of mental health staff. http://aclu-co.org/sites/default/files/imce/ACLU-CO%20Report%20on%20Solitary%20Confinement.pdf

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NEWS: New York Promised Help for Mentally Ill in Prison – But Still Sticks Many in Solitary

August 15, 2013 by

By Christie Thompson. Excerpted from Pro Publica.

ht_amir_hall_390x260When Amir Hall entered New York state prison for a parole violation in November 2009, he came with a long list of psychological problems. Hall arrived at the prison from a state psychiatric hospital, after he had tried to suffocate himself. Hospital staff diagnosed Hall with serious depression.  

In Mid-State prison, Hall was in and out of solitary confinement for fighting with other inmates and other rule violations. After throwing Kool-Aid at an officer, he was sentenced to seven months in solitary at Great Meadow Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in upstate New York.

Hall did not want to be moved. When his mother and grandmother visited him that spring, Hall warned them: If he didn’t get out of prison soon, he would not be coming home.

A grainy tape of Hall’s transfer on June 18, 2010, shows prison guards spraying chemicals into his cell, forcing him to come out. He barely says a word as he is made to strip, shower, bend over and cough. His head drops, his shoulders slump. His face is blank and expressionless. He stares at his hands, except for a few furtive glances at the silent guards wearing gas masks and riot gear.

“There was somebody who looked defeated, like the life was beat out of him,” said his sister Shaleah Hall. “I don’t know who that person was. The person in that video was not my brother.”

Multiple studies have shown that isolation can damage inmates’ minds, particularly those already struggling with mental illness. In recent years, New York state has led the way in implementing policies to protect troubled inmates from the trauma of solitary confinement.

A 2007 federal court order required New York to provide inmates with “serious” mental illness more treatment while in solitary. And a follow-up law enacted in 2011 all but bans such inmates from being put there altogether.

But something odd has happened: Since protections were first added, the number of inmates diagnosed with severe mental illness has dropped. The number of inmates diagnosed with “serious” mental illness is down 33 percent since 2007, compared to a 13 percent decrease in the state’s prison population.

A larger portion of inmates flagged for mental issues are now being given more modest diagnoses, such as adjustment disorders or minor mood disorders.

It’s unclear what exactly is driving the drop in “serious” diagnoses. But “whenever you draw a magic line, and somebody gets all these rights above it and none below it,” said Jack Beck, director of the Prison Visiting Project for the nonprofit Correctional Association of New York, “you create an incentive to push people below.” The association was one of a coalition of organizations that called for the change in policy.

The New York Office of Mental Health says the decrease reflects improvements to the screening process. Efforts to base diagnoses on firmer evidence “has resulted in somewhat fewer, but better-substantiated diagnoses” of serious mental illness, said a spokesman for the office in an emailed statement.

In Hall’s case, prison mental health staff never labeled his problems as “serious.”

Instead, they repeatedly downgraded his diagnosis. After three months in solitary — during which Hall was put on suicide watch twice — they changed his status to a level for inmates who have experienced “at least six months of psychiatric stability.”

Two weeks after his diagnosis was downgraded, and two days after he was transferred to solitary at Great Meadow, guards found Hall in his cell hanging from a bed sheet…

Read the full article here.

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EVENTS: Today in NYC! Rally in Solidarity with California Prison Hunger Strikers

July 31, 2013 by

As part of an International Day of Action, members of the New York Campaign for Alternatives to Solitary Confinement, New York City Jails Action Coalition, and concerned community members will rally this afternoon to End Torture in the United States. We will voice our support for the hundreds of individuals still on hunger strike against solitary confinement in California prisons, and press for an end to prolonged isolation in New York’s prisons and jails.

When: Wednesday, July 31, 4:30 to 6:30 pm

Where: 163 West 125th Street (at Adam Clayton Powell Blvd.), in front of the New York State Office Building

  • Bring a poster!
  • Bring friends!
  • Print out the following handout and share it with people in your community: flyer CA NY
  •  Read the full 5 Demands at http://prisoner​hungerstrikesol​idarity.wordpre​ss.com/the-pris​oners-demands-2​/.
  • Call California Governor Jerry Brown at (916) 445-2841, (510) 289-0336, or (510) 628-0202 to demand that he negotiate seriously with the strike leaders.
  • Visit this website to learn how you can help: www.prisonerhun​gerstrikesolida​rity.wordpress.​com.
  • Hang a sign out a visible window stating you are in solidarity with the Hunger Strike and the days of the strike. Today, Tuesday 7/30 is Day 23!
  • Join the New York City Jails Action Coalition www.nycjac.org and the Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement www.nycaic.org to fight to end torture in our own state!

flyer CA NY

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NEWS: New York Activists Launch Fast Against Solitary Confinement in Solidarity with California Prison Hunger Strikers

July 13, 2013 by

Press Release from the Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement and Jails Action Coalition.

photo fiveNEW YORK, July 13 — Dozens of activists in New York have pledged to fast to express their solidarity with the thousands who are on hunger strike at Pelican Bay and other California prisons. The “rolling fast,” in which each person fasts for one day, began on July 8, on the same day as the California hunger strike, and organizers say it will go on as long as the prison hunger strike continues.

Those who have pledged to fast include survivors of solitary confinement, family members of people held in solitary, advocates, lawyers, mental health practitioners, clergy, and concerned community members. They belong to two local campaigns that oppose the widespread use of solitary confinement in New York’s prison and jails: the Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement (CAIC) and the New York City Jails Action Coalition (JAC).

“It is important for those of us in New York organizing around solitary confinement in our jails and prisons to support all people who are fighting to end torture in prison,” said Jennifer Parish of New York City’s Urban Justice Center. “I choose to fast because it is a way to say to people who are locked away in horrific conditions that I stand with them. It is a small way to take on some of their suffering…On the day I fast, I hope the pangs of hunger will connect me to the desperation of these other human beings who are driven to deprive themselves of food day after day.”

Five Mualimm’ak, a member of CAIC and JAC who fasted earlier this week, endured three years in solitary confinement in a New York State prison. “While you were in ‘the box,’ it would take a whole tier screaming together to gain attention if you needed help or were injured in your cell,” Mualimm’ak said. “This only proves that we have to stand united to make change…As activists, it is our duty to make a stand with those who are screaming for help.”

By fasting, the New Yorkers are affirming their support for the five core demands of the California hunger strikers, which include an end to group punishment, reform of the current process by which individuals are deemed prison gang members and sent into indefinite isolation, an end to long-term solitary confinement, adequate and nutritious food, and constructive programming.

More than 3,000 people are held in solitary in the Security Housing Units (SHUs) at Pelican Bay, Corcoran, and Tehachapi State Prisons, with thousands more in long-term isolation in the state’s Administrative Segregation Units. They spend 22 to 24 hours a day in small, windowless concrete cells–and some remain there for decades. As of 2011, California held over 500 in the SHU for over five years, and 78 for more than 20 years.

“These are the same kinds of conditions we are trying to change in New York,” said Donna Currao, who has a family member in solitary confinement in a New York prison. “I’m fasting to raise awareness for all our loved ones near or far. We are in this together. We may be thousands of miles apart but we all are fighting for fair and humane treatment.”

In New York State prisons, more than 4,000 men, women, and children are in some form of isolated confinement, while New York City’s jails hold an additional 1,000 in solitary. At least 80 percent of SHU sentences in New York are handed down for nonviolent misbehavior. New York’s prisons and jails, like California’s, isolate individuals at rates well above the national average. These facts gave rise, in the last two years, to the two campaigns dedicated to abolishing long-term solitary, CAIC and JAC.

Pastor James Giles of the Back To Basics Outreach Ministries in Buffalo, one of several clergy joining in the fast, agrees: “Fasting is about placing my needs under subjection to my mind,” said Pastor Giles. “It is a way to prepare one’s body for suffering. To do this corporately suggests that we are willing to share in each other’s suffering, to reflect our solidarity. Standing together, sharing the same affliction for the greater cause.”

Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster, of the rabbinic human rights group T’ruah, said of the California hunger strikers, “As their fellow human beings, and as citizens of a country founded on a promise of justice, we fast because we are appalled that solitary confinement endures…We fast in solidarity with them today to cry out against the injustice of solitary confinement.”

To sign up for the fast, go to https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhYWC9ByjceTdFVuZ3Z1QVFCd3BqbjZXSDZaRm1WWFE&usp=sharing#gid=0

For more information about the fast, contact Megan Crowe-Rothstein at megan@urbanjustice.org or Five Mualimm-ak at endthenewjimcrow@gmail.com. For more information about the New York campaigns involved, visit http://nycaic.org/ and http://www.nycjac.org/. For more information about the California prison hunger strike, visit http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/.

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NEWS: Roundup of National New on Isolated Confinement, June/July 2013

July 8, 2013 by

Compiled by the CAIC Research Committee

July 5, 2013

Amnesty International is urging California to reform its ‘inhumane’ solitary confinement units before the hunger strike which is planned for July 8, in protest against the failure of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to carry out reforms pledged a year ago. The men planning the hunger strike have said that “Rather than improving, conditions have actually significantly deteriorated.”http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/usa-california-urged-reform-inhumane-prison-units-ahead-hunger-strike-2013-07-05

July 3, 2013

On July 8th, prisoners at Pelican Bay Security Housing Unit (SHU) and throughout the California prison system will begin a hunger strike, along with work stoppages to compel the Governor and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to end long-term solitary confinement and meet four other core demands. http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/

July 1, 2013

Following the closure of California’s Valley State Prison for Women (VSPW) for use as a male facility, the women were sent to Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) which is currently at 174.9 percent capacity, housing approximately1,500 more people than it was designed for. Many of the women are extremely distressed by their conditions of confinement including extended placement in Administrative Segregation (Ad Seg) for sometimes just because they are victimized by other inmates. http://solitarywatch.com/

June 27, 2013

The California Correctional Peace Officers Assn. this week asked the judge to include it as a party in the Pelican Bay lawsuit over how long the state may keep people incarcerated locked up in solitary confinement. The guards union contends that decisions on who is put into Pelican Bay’s Security Housing Unit, and how long they are kept there are a matter of security that affects the safety of union members throughout the state prison system. http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jun/27/local/la-me-ff-prison-guards-weigh-in-on-solitary-confinement-20130627

June 26, 2013

Sarah Shourd, who spent more than a year in solitary confinement in an Iranian prison, has joined Solitary Watch. She is beginning work on a play featuring voices from solitary confinement, which she hopes to present across the country.  The presentations will be followed by meetings with local politicians, prison officials, activists, survivors and their families. http://solitarywatch.com/2013/06/26/solitary-survivor-sarah-shourd-joins-sw-to-produce-play-featuring-voices-from-solitary-confinement/

June 24,2013

In a closed meeting last week, the Senate Armed Services Committee approved a bill that would relax legal restrictions on the transfer of detainees out of the military prison atGuantánamo Bay giving President Obama much greater flexibility as he tries to revive his effort to close the facility. If the bill were to become law, detainees could be sent to the United States for necessary medical treatment, for continued detention in a different prison, or for prosecution. It would also ease statutory limits on transferring detainees to other countries. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/25/us/bill-allowing-guantanamo-detainees-to-be-moved-advances.html?_r=0

Herman Wallace, 71, the subject of the film Herman’s House, has been diagnosed with liver cancer and is currently being held in a locked prison hospital room. Mr. Wallace and Albert Woodfox, two members of the Angola 3, who have been in Solitary Confinement in Louisiana, for more than 40 years have have been fighting for justice for much of that time with the assistance of Amnesty International. http://solitarywatch.com/

June 21,2013

Legislators in Massachusetts have proposed bills that would stop corrections officers from disciplining inmates with long periods of isolation. The bills would require that people in prison who are facing disciplinary segregation be given a hearing within 15 days of being confined and every 90 days afterward to evaluate behavior. Solitary confinement sentences would be limited to six months for all but the most extraordinary circumstances. Also included in the bills are better access to mental health examinations and more rehabilitation. http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/06/20/mass-lawmakers-call-for-reform-solitary-confinement-protocol-state-prison/Juxz3x5X7ULVoe9w691YAN/story.html

June 20, 2013

Over 50 human and civil rights groups around the country have asked the U.S. government to invite Juan Méndez, the U.N. special rapporteur on torture, to visit the United States to examine, among other things, the practice of solitary confinement. Despite Mr. Méndez’s multiple requests to investigate the overuse of solitary confinement in the United States, the U.S. has, to date, failed to extend him an invitation. http://www.aclu.org/blog/prisoners-rights-human-rights-national-security/rights-groups-government-allow-un-torture

 

June 18 & 21, 2013

In The Lancet medical journal,152 doctors signed a letter in response to the Guantanamo prisoners’ request for outside medical treatment and counsel, asking to be able to visit the prisoners and provide independent health care noting that since the detainees on hunger strike do not trust their military doctors, they are unlikely to comply with current medical advice. Also Senator Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, wrote aletter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, urging the government to “reevaluate the force-feeding … to put in place the most humane policies possible.” However, the practice of force-feeding has apparently not raised medical concerns from the prison doctors themselves. http://press.thelancet.com/guantanamoletter.pdf  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2013/may/31/guantanamo-detainees-protest-letter   https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/coalition_letter_to_hagel_on_gitmo_force-feeding.pdf   http://dailycaller.com/2013/06/21/guantanamo-doctors-ok-with-force-feeding-prisoners/#ixzz2Wxq3xnpE

June 14, 2013

At the fifth World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Madrid, The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) released summary findings about the US’ use of the death penalty, based on missions to California and Louisiana. They conclude that not only the death penalty itself is a violation of human rights but so too is the way it is implemented, which constitutes torture and discrimination. Among the violations noted, was Louisiana’s use of solitary confinement for people sentenced to death. http://www.ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/human-rights-groups-release-preliminary-death-penalty-findings

June 13, 2013

An article in the New England Journal of Medicine declares the Guantanamo force-feeding unethical and urges physicians to resist orders to participate.  It also urges civilian physicians, professional organizations, and licensing boards to support those who do resist. http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1306065

The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal has agreed to hear the case of a woman, who spent more than 200 days in segregation over the course of a year of custody at the Ottawa Carleton Detention Centre.  The case alleges that she was discriminated against based on both her mental illness and her gender, since a treatment facility has existed for a decade serving male inmates, but there is not any such service for women. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2013/06/13/ottawa-mental-illness-jail-women.html

June 11, 2013

Less than a month before statewide hunger strikes are set to resume, the California Department of Corrections has instituted a new policy at Pelican Bay State Prison which has resulted in  chronic sleep deprivation for prisoners in solitary confinement. The 2011 strike was called off in response to promises of improvements, but the people in prison gave notice that it would be resumed because those promises have been empty, and prison conditions have actually worsened. http://sfbayview.com/2013/sleep-deprivation-intensifies-torture-conditions-for-prisoners-in-advance-of-hunger-strikes-and-work-actions/

June 9, 2013

A Rastafarian man who spent more than 10 years in segregation for refusing to cut his hair said fears for his health and safety led him to give in last month.  Virginia Department of Corrections grooming policy, which they say is for health and safety reasons, requires that the hair of the men in prison be cut short. Rastafarians in the prison had long opposed the policy on the grounds that it is against their religion. Those who refused to comply were placed in segregation cells — several for more than 10 years. http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/state-regional/rastafarian-inmate-relents-on-haircut-after-years/article_f88c5840-eb05-5cce-b65e-482e0e6fabbe.html  http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/rastafarian-inmate-who-spent-more-than-10-years-in-segregation-cuts-hair-to-get-transfer/2013/06/08/cca3bd6e-d072-11e2-9772-6fcf660e8c49_story.html

June 7, 2013

A federal judge has ordered the state of California to provide deaf people in solitary confinement with sign-language interpreters, noting “inmates there are 33 percent more likely to kill themselves.”  The court found that the corrections department has not complied with previous orders issued between 1996 and 2002 and thus is still in violation of the ADA.  However it refused hold the state in contempt, at this time. http://www.courthousenews.com/2013/06/07/58332.htm

Among the topics in the film, Dirty Wars, which opened in NYC today, is a discussion of the US drone killing of Anwar al Awaki, the radical Muslim cleric.  Mention is made of the fact that Mr. al Awaki had been arrested in Yemen at the request of the US and held in solitary confinement for 17 months, which contributed to his increasingly radical opposition to this country.

June 6, 2013

The U.S. Southern Command has requested additional guards for the prison camps at Guantánamo, with the goal of reaching a 2,000-strong staff, because, they say keeping the prisoners in single cell confinement requires the guards to do more work.  They have already gotten medical reinforcements to help deal with the hunger strike — a doctor, nurses, and corpsmen. http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/05/3434821/guantanamo-prison-getting-reinforcements.html#storylink=cpy

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VOICES: The Loneliest Place in the World

June 4, 2013 by

By Shawn Smith. Reprinted from Solitary Watch.

elmira2The following essay is by Shawn Smith, who is serving time for drug sales and assault in New York. He is one of some 4,500 individuals currently being held in isolated confinement in the state’s prison system. In a letter to Solitary Watch, he writes “I’m so lonely that I dream of human contact with the outside world…and I was hoping that you could find it in your heart to embrace me as a friend and help me get my essay up on your website. So that people can become aware of the levels of injustices and sorrow that has been bestowed upon me involving my solitary confinement experience…I feel so hopeless that I’ve spilled out my heart into this essay and I’m sending it to you in hopes that some change can come to me from it.”  Shawn Smith’s mailing address is #07A1605, Elmira Correctional Facility, P.O. Box 500, Elmira, New York 14901-0500. –James Ridgeway

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

Four walls! A ceiling! And a floor eight by ten feet in dimension! In my eyes, this is the worst torture device in the history of the universe! Within this small enclave many men have fallen apart and broken down mentally into a deep stage of sorrow. That has made us (myself included) drop to our knees with lakes of tears under our eyes that cascade down our face. As we ask God “Why me? Why must I suffer this unbearable pain and burden?”

This place has made me feel so hopeless that I’ve dosed on pills two times and was rushed to the hospital where they pumped my stomach clean of the many painkillers and anti-depression pills that I digested in hopes of going to a better place! I’ve hung up with a self-made noose and sliced my wrist, because this place has driven me to the brink of insanity and I felt like I would rather be dead than live like a dog in a cage at the unwanted animal shelter.

In this place, I’ve lost and found my sanity time and time again. What really shook me up and made me find the inner strength to fight for the willpower to want to live my life and fight to survive in this place was when I saw the COs carry a friend I made in the brother in the cell next-door to me away in a black bag!

[Read more…]

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NEWS: NYC Board of Correction Rejects Regulating Use of Solitary Confinement

June 3, 2013 by

Press Release from the Jails Action Coalition.

BOC Meeting

JAC members at the Board of Correction meeting.

June 3 – Today, the Board of Correction denied a petition to adopt rules regulating the use of solitary confinement in jails, also known as “punitive segregation,” and decided to appoint a committee to study the practice- delaying a decision until its September meeting.

On April 9th, the NYC Jails Coalition submitted a petition to the Board of Correction asking the Board to adopt rules regarding the use of solitary confinement. The proposed rules would’ve implemented the following:

§ Prohibit DOC from placing people with mental and physical disabilities, juveniles, and young people in isolated confinement;

§ Limit the reasons for which a person can be placed in isolated confinement so that it is only used as a last resort to prevent violent conduct;

§ And increase the amount of daily out-of-cell time for those placed in isolated confinement.

At its May 13th meeting, the Board, which has oversight authority to adopt rules, postponed voting on the petition and the proposed rules until June 3rd. Today, the Board denied rulemaking.

The DOC routinely places people in solitary confinement in response to a variety of infractions. Contrary to the national trend toward reducing the harmful use of isolation in jails and prisons, the New York City Department of Correction (DOC) expanded its punitive segregation capacity 27% in 2011, and another 44% percent in 2012. This expansion has left NYC with one of the highest rates of solitary confinement in the country. In fact, the DOC has more punitive segregation cells than it did in the 1990s, when it housed many thousands more people than it does today.

“We are extremely disappointed with the Board of Correction’s vote to deny the petition for rulemaking on solitary confinement and further delay a decision on the practice. Isolating a person in a cell for up to 24 hours a day without any mental stimulation or human contact causes serious psychological and developmental harm. Yet the Department of Correction is currently incarcerating at least 1000 people, including teenagers and people with mental and physical disabilities, in these conditions,” said Jennifer Parish, Director of Criminal Justice Advocacy at the Urban Justice Center Mental Health Project, and member of JAC. “It is critical for the Board to adopt rules curtailing the use of solitary confinement. We hope that the Board will initiate rule-making at its September meeting.”

[Read more…]

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NEWS: Roundup of National News on Isolated Confinement, May 2013

May 31, 2013 by

Compiled by the CAIC Research Committee.

May 2013

Numerous advocacy and religious organizations are supporting a sign-on campaign for a letter asking Attorney General Eric Holder to ban the practice of holding youth in federal custody in solitary confinement.  http://activism.thenation.com/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=10781

May 30, 2013

The ACLU, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Law Offices of Elizabeth Alexander filed a federal lawsuit in May 2013 on behalf of individuals imprisoned at the East Mississippi Correctional Facility (EMCF), describing the for-profit prison as hyper-violent, grotesquely filthy and dangerous. http://www.aclu.org/prisoners-rights/dockery-v-epps

May 23, 2013

A Cree woman from Saskatchewan who felt she was losing her mind while being held in solitary confinement in federal prisons has settled a lawsuit that claimed she was being treated illegally and inhumanely. But she said being sent into solitary confinement didn’t help her face up to her past–it only increased her sense of hopelessness. In Canada, 23 per cent of the federal prison population is aboriginal, even though aboriginals account for just four per cent of the population. http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Cree+woman+settles+suit+over+solitary+confinement/8423271/story.html#ixzz2UoFut6jQ

Advocates for the closing of Guantanamo and the transfer of the men who will not be tried responded to Obama’s speech on national security, welcoming his stated reengagement on Guantanamo and his decision to lift the ban on transfers to Yemen. However they expressed disappointment with his comment that cleared men will only be released “to the greatest extent possible.” And, although Obama pledged to review detainees for transfer, in fact reviews have already happened as is evident in the fact that so many of the men have been “cleared.” Statements of disappointment also note his failure to take any concrete action. http://ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/center-constitutional-rights-responds-obama-drone%2C-gitmo-speech; http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/what-obamas-speech-means-for-guantanamo-20130523#ixzz2UoCLfdNG

In Texas, the House tentatively approved Senate Bill 1003, which would require a now-defunct legislative oversight committee to hire an independent party to review solitary confinement conditions in Texas prisons and juvenile lockups. http://www.texastribune.org/2013/05/21/time-fading-bills-aimed-reducing-solitary-confinem/; http://blog.chron.com/texaspolitics/2013/05/solitary-confinement-of-youths-to-be-tracked/

[Read more…]

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NEWS & EVENTS: Board of Correction to Vote on Solitary Reform in New York City Jails

May 28, 2013 by

The following is an open letter from the NYC Jails Action Coalition regarding the upcoming vote by the New York City Board of Correction, the body that oversees city jails, on a proposal from JAC that would bring significant reform to solitary confinement practices. Click here for an earlier story on this subject.

Dear Supporters:

Thank you again for urging the New York City Board of Correction (BOC) to adopt rules regarding the use of solitary confinement in the NYC jails. The BOC discussed the Jails Action Coalition (JAC) petition at their May 13, 2013 meeting but delayed making a decision until a specially scheduled meeting now set for June 3, 2013.

On June 3, the BOC will decide between the following:  1) commence rule-making (including consideration of the proposal provided by JAC and any alternatives); 2) reject the JAC petition as premature and appoint a committee to study the issue of use of solitary confinement in the jails; or 3) reject the petition and take no further action.

Please urge the BOC to commence rule-making:

►Send a letter expressing your support for rule-making. (See the attached model letter, which can be sent directly to the Board and/or returned to us for delivery to the Board Members.)

►Attend the BOC meeting at 9 a.m. on June 3.

► Join JAC’s rally before the meeting at 8:15 a.m. at 1 Centre Street.  (See below for all the details.)

[Read more…]

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NEWS: Solitary Confinement Is Just Criminal

May 20, 2013 by

By Karen Murtagh. Reprinted from the Albany Times-Union.

elmiraThe Times  Union recently published an opinion piece by the president of the prison  guards’ union responding to a published profile of Jeffrey  Rockefeller. Due to a near lifetime of serious mental illness, Rockefeller  landed in prison and spent half of his 40-month incarceration in solitary  confinement — where he ultimately tried to commit suicide.

Contrary to the assertion that solitary confinement (aka “special housing  units”) is used to isolate inmates who are a danger to others and themselves,  less than 16 percent of the 4,500 people in solitary in 2012 were there for  violent behavior.

Brian  Fischer, the recently retired corrections commissioner, has admitted that  “solitary confinement is overused.” The significant reduction or near  elimination of the use of solitary by Mississippi, Colorado, Illinois, Maine,  Ohio and Washington, without any impact on prison safety, belies the statement  that “SHUs are the only mechanism for removing dangerous inmates from the  general population.”

The disconnect here is the failure to differentiate between isolation and  separation. Certain individuals need short-term isolation for their own safety  or the safety of others, but the rationale for such isolation is to prevent  imminent harm, not to impose months, years, or decades of retribution and  mental deterioration.

At least one study has shown that the recidivism rate for those who have been  subjected to solitary confinement is 23 percent higher than those who have not.  More than 95 percent of incarcerated New Yorkers are ultimately released to our  communities. We are all safer when formerly incarcerated individuals lead  productive lives. Spending time in solitary confinement lessens the likelihood  that an individual will be psychologically prepared to do this.

Karen  L. Murtagh is executive director of Prisoners’ Legal  Services of New York.

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