NY legislature votes to limit solitary confinement after years of advocacy
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Assemblymember Jeff Aubry sponsored legislation to drastically reduce the use of solitary confinement in New York for several years before the bill passed both chambers of the legislature last week. AP Photo/Mike Groll
By David Brand
After decades of advocacy, both chambers of the state legislature have passed a measure to drastically reduce the use of solitary confinement in New York jails and prisons.
The Humane Alternatives to Long-Term, or HALT, Solitary bill, was sponsored for several years by Queens Assemblymember Jeff Aubry. The measure had previously passed in the Assembly before another successful vote Tuesday. The Senate voted in favor of the legislation 42 to 21 Thursday, sending it to Gov. Andrew Cuomo to sign into law.
The measure would restrict the use of solitary confinement to no more than 15 consecutive days or 20 total days within a two-month period. The legislation also mandates that, after 15 days, individuals be moved to rehabilitative and therapeutic units that provide programs, therapy and support services with at least six hours a day spent outside a cell.
Advocates praised the long-awaited passage of the legislation, which comes less than two weeks after New York City moved to limit solitary confinement on Rikers Island and in other city jails.
“Freedom from torture is the most basic of human rights, and yet every year tens of thousands of New Yorkers are subjected to it in the form of solitary confinement for weeks, months, years, and even decades,” said Jerome Wright, statewide organizer for the #HALTsolitary Campaign. “Today the New York Senate passed the HALT Solitary Confinement Act, bringing our state closer to the goal of protecting the human rights of incarcerated people.”
On March 16, more than 200 civil rights groups, faith leaders and nonprofit organization sent a letter to Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins backing the legislation and citing the detrimental mental health effects of solitary confinement.
“Solitary confinement serves no purpose beyond oppression,” they wrote. “Rather than addressing the root causes of any problematic behaviors, solitary confinement breeds trauma, despair, and serious mental illness.”
“Jurisdictions that have restricted solitary while introducing targeted programming have seen dramatic gains in safety,” they added.
Correction officers say solitary confinement is a standard disciplinary tool for maintaining order in detention facilities and opposed the measure.
The HALT Solitary bill “would directly threaten the future of special housing units in state correctional facilities, which were created to protect both incarcerated individuals and officers,” a spokesperson for the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association told the Eagle last year.
“The backwards goal of the HALT legislation is to further limit the ability of the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to utilize special housing units as a disciplinary measure or deterrent to unauthorized behavior, including crimes within the prison.”
New York City banned the use of solitary confinement for detainees under 22 in city jails in 2015, but began transferring some young people to jails outside the city where solitary confinement is still legal. The city also limited the duration that a detainee or inmate can be held in solitary confinement in 2015. Earlier this month, the city jails oversight board voted to significantly reduce the use of solitary confinement starting Nov. 1.
