For Immediate Release...

Contact: Victor Pate, vpate@nycaic.org, 646.229.9869

ADVOCATES & LEGISLATORS URGE NEW YORK TO COMPLETE UNFINISHED BUSINESS BY PASSING HALT SOLITARY

Survivors of Solitary, Other Advocates Call for Urgent Enactment of the HALT Solitary Confinement Act

Survivors of solitary confinement, family members of people in solitary, and other advocates held a press conference to demand that New York complete their unfinished business from last session, follow the will of a majority of state legislators, and vote to pass the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act (S.1623/A.2500). While human rights standards adopted by the United Nations state that solitary beyond 15 days is torture for all people in all circumstances, New York State regularly holds people in solitary for months, years, and decades. They are disproportionately Black and Latinx people, young people, gender non-conforming people, and people with mental health needs. Use of solitary confinement has actually increased since Governor Cuomo claimed to have implemented reforms in 2015. Advocates are supporting HALT to end this torture and replace it with more humane and effective alternatives.

Victor Pate, statewide organizer of the HALT Solitary Campaign and a survivor of solitary confinement, said: “New York still has to complete the unfinished business from last year. Thousands of people are suffering in solitary confinement, even more than there was before the Governor claimed to reform this torture. They were sweltering through the heat of summer and they’re freezing today. Pass the HALT Solitary Confinement Act to end this torture and replace it more humane and effective alternatives.”

NYS Senator Luis Sepúlveda, lead Senate sponsor of HALT, said: "I have visited many prisons. I have spoken with individuals who are in solitary confinement. I've looked at the data and information and there's nothing there that convices me that solitary confinement changes behavior, or that solitary confinement improves safety for incarcerated people or the people who work within these facilities. It has to change. We have to develop more resources and treatment that would actually change behavior for the better. We pledge to continue to fight and pass the HALT Act."

Jack Davis, a member of the HALT Solitary Campaign and survivor of solitary confinement, said: “Visiting the African American History Museum in Washington D.C. this summer, I was deeply moved by the casket of Emmet Till and the long line of people of all backgrounds waiting to see it. I was thinking about his mother having an open-casket funeral so people could see what they did to her boy, the gruesome violence of racism. The same violence and racism exists today in solitary confinement, where people are mentally and physically tortured. When people die in solitary, they cover up the cause of death and sometimes don’t even tell their mothers. Other incarcerated people have to get the word to them.”

Background:

Solitary confinement is torture. It causes intense suffering and devastating physical and psychological harm. Contrary to the press statements of the Cuomo Administration, a new landmark report from The New York Civil Liberties Union, revealed that the use of solitary is actually increasing in the Governor’s prisons. While the SHU population has had some decreases, the number of people sentenced to Keeplock -- another form of solitary -- has increased by so much that it offsets the oft-reported so-called progress (with nearly 40,000 sentences to solitary last year).

While Governor Cuomo has put forward new regulations on solitary, particularly in light of past practice evidenced by this latest report, these regulations will perpetuate solitary and allow people to be held in solitary for months and years. The NYCLU’s report analyzed the Governor’s proposed regulations in comparison with the HALT Solitary Confinement Act and strongly endorses HALT as the way forward. Notably, the Governor’s regulations would leave people in Keeplock with no time limits, one of several ways people could be held in endless solitary, along with unlimited cycling back into solitary after purported time limits and no time limits on so-called alternatives that amount to solitary by another name.

By contrast, the HALT Solitary Confinement Act would limit solitary confinement in all its forms in line with international human rights standards (including by having a 15 day limit and preventing cycling after the limit), and replace it with more humane and effective alternatives.

Thanks to efforts led by survivors of solitary and their family members, there are more than enough votes in the Legislature to pass HALT. 34 New York State Senators from Long Island to Upstate New York are officially co-sponsoring the HALT Solitary Confinement Act – a clear majority – and additional Senators have committed to vote for the bill as well. 79 New York State Assembly Members also officially co-sponsor HALT – another clear majority – and the bill passed in that house last year.

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: locked 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 severe psychological, physical, and even neurological damage. More than 30% of all prison suicides in New York take place in solitary. 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. Learn more at www.nycaic.org.