City Council passes resolution urging state to curtail solitary confinement

The City Council passed a resolution Wednesday urging the state legislature to pass the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term (HALT) Confinement Act, sponsored by Queens Assemblymember Jeffrion Aubry. Photo via the New York Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement

By David Brand

The New York City Council passed a resolution Wednesday urging the state to enact the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term (HALT) Confinement Act, a piece of legislation that would significantly stem the use of solitary confinement in New York state prisons.

The HALT Solitary bill, sponsored by Queens Assemblymember Jeff Aubry, would restrict the use of solitary confinement to no more than 15 consecutive days or 20 total days within a two-month period. The bill also mandates that, after 15 days in solitary confinement, detained individuals be moved to rehabilitative and therapeutic units that provide programs, therapy and support services. They must also spend at least six hours a day outside a cell.

"Today the council voted to stand with the thousands of New Yorkers working to end the horrendous practice of long-term solitary confinement," said Queens Councilmember Daniel Dromm, who cited a United Nations determination that solitary confinement causes “irreparable psychological harm.”

“Its devastating impact can be seen on survivors who are released from incarceration, the families and communities who interact with these individuals, our healthcare and social service providers and our criminal justice system itself,” Dromm continued. “The price is too high for our society to continue its use of solitary confinement.”

City Council Speaker Corey Johnson also championed the council’s resolution.

“Solitary confinement is inhumane and ineffective, and has been vastly overused in our state,” Johnson said. “That is why I am urging the state legislature to pass the HALT act before the end of this legislative session and the governor to sign it.”

The state Senate version of the bill is sponsored by Sen. Luís Sepulveda and achieved a majority of sponsors in the state Senate in March. A similar version of the bill passed the Assembly last year but failed in the state Senate.

Victor Pate, a statewide organizer for the #HALTsolitary Campaign, praised the council resolution and called on the state legislature and governor to make the measure law.

“There are people I left behind who are still suffering in solitary confinement for years at a time,” said Pate, who spent two years in solitary confinement.

Pate thanked the council “for supporting the HALT Solitary Confinement Act, and, really, for recognizing that people in prisons and jails are human and should not be tortured or treated inhumanely.”