AUBRY: It’s time to ‘HALT’ solitary confinement in New York once and for all

Assemblymember Jeff Aubry represents District 35, which includes the Queens communities of East Elmhurst, Lefrak City and parts of Corona, Woodside and Elmhurst. Photo via State Assembly

By Jeffrion Aubry

Special to the Eagle

Candie Hailey was recently in Albany to show lawmakers the long cuts and scars on her arms. Candie spent over three years in solitary confinement while being detained pretrial — she was later acquitted on all charges. Her experiences are eerily reminiscent of Kalief Browder. These scars are a direct result of her time in solitary. While some were from her time in isolation, others were more recent and a result of the ongoing psychological trauma with which she is forced to contend.  

Candie is not alone. In my nearly three decades in the New York State Assembly, I’ve talked to countless people who have been in solitary or had loved ones in solitary and observed that self-mutilation is a common consequence of this brutal practice. In isolation, people cut their arms, bang their heads against concrete walls, swallow objects and tie sheets around their necks. 

These extreme acts of desperation are so common because solitary destroys people’s minds and crushes their souls. A 2014 study in New York City found that people in solitary were seven times more likely to commit self-harm, and a 2019 study showed that people who spent time in solitary were 78% more likely to die by suicide in their first year out of prison.​

Since isolating a human being, any human being, away from others for extended periods of time causes intense mental and physical suffering and debilitation, the United Nations deemed solitary confinement beyond 15 days as torture. 

Yet in our state, thousands of people each day, and tens of thousands each year, continue to be locked in solitary. People continue to be held for months and years in conditions no human being should endure. Overwhelmingly, people who look like me and the Black and Brown communities I represent are the ones the state abuses in this manner.  

It’s time for all of us in state government to ask ourselves: if not now, when? There is currently a wave of support across this state and country for ending solitary. We currently have, for the first time in history, legislative leaders who come from the communities most directly harmed by solitary and mass incarceration and who understand change is long-overdue. A majority of legislators in both houses support passage of the Humane Alternatives to Long Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act, which passed the Assembly in 2018, and would limit solitary to a maximum of 15 days for any person –in line with international standards – and create more humane and effective alternatives.

If we can’t pass the HALT Solitary Confinement Act now, when can we? 

The current governor and past administrations could have ended solitary, but they have not. While the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision has made some changes following a 2015 lawsuit settlement, a recent report shows that the total number of sentences to solitary has only increased, with over 38,000 sentences to solitary in 2018 alone. The department has changed the name — increasingly replacing “Special Housing Units” (SHU) with “keeplock” in one’s own cell — but the practice is still common. 

The governor has once again proposed regulations purportedly meant to limit solitary. But as with the lawsuit settlement, their glaring loopholes will allow the status quo of endless isolation to continue. Unlike HALT, the proposed regulations fail to provide real time limits on solitary, allowing people to remain in isolation for months and years.

 There are times when we as legislators have to step up to the plate and do what’s right. This is one of those times. Many people who have endured solitary or lost their loved ones to it have been hard at work educating people all across New York State. They’ve built replica solitary cells, held town halls and demonstrations, gone on hunger strikes, contacted legislators and written op-eds to push for change.

 These community members are asking for relief for the people left behind, and justice for those who did not make it out alive. 

We must pass the HALT Solitary Confinement Act as soon as possible to put New York on the right side of history and help ensure no human being is ever locked in these torturous conditions again.