PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Harvey Rosenthal, (518) 527-0564

Legislators and Leading Mental Health Advocates from Across New York State Rally to Urge Legislature and Governor Cuomo to Enact the #HALTsolitary Confinement Act

Senate Mental Health Chair, Other Legislators Join New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services, National Alliance on Mental Illness, Mental Health Association of NYS, and Other Mental Health Advocates to Call for End to Torture

(Albany, NY) -- As part of a Mental Health Day of Action for the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term (HALT) Confinement Act (S.1623-Sepúlveda/A.2500-Aubry), Senate Mental Health Chair Carlucci, lead Senate HALT Sponsor Sepúlveda, leading mental health organizations, along with survivors of solitary, their family members, and other mental health advocates held a speak-out and press conference calling for passage of the bill. Solitary confinement has long been known to cause devastating mental health harm to all people subjected to the practice, and New York continues to hold hundreds of people with pre-existing mental health conditions, and thousands of other people, in solitary confinement each day.

People with diagnosed mental health needs are sent to solitary over 13,000 times a year, and roughly a third of all people in solitary have a diagnosed mental health need. A recent study found that people who spend time in solitary are much more likely to die upon release from prison, including because of increased rates of suicide. The New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services, National Alliance on Mental Illness, Mental Health Association in New York State and other top mental health advocacy groups have long endorsed and advocated for HALT, and are calling on New York’s leaders to enact HALT immediately. Throughout the day, mental health advocates from across New York, convened in the State Capitol to meet with legislators, and advocate for passage of HALT.

Candie, who survived more than three years in solitary confinement in pre-trial detention on Rikers Island before being acquitted, said: “All I needed was a simple 'Hello!’ I needed someone to talk to. Jail staff, mental health staff, everyone ran past me. Yet a simple ‘Hello’ could prevent suicide or mental crisis. As everyone ran past me, I'd started to believe that I was already deceased. God was all I had. My only companion, He never left my side! He is still all I have. Humans are social beings. I'm here physically, but emotionally, I’m dead. They had taken my body, but they could not take my voice. SOLITARY IS TORTURE!!!"

NYS Senator and lead Senate HALT Sponsor Luis Sepúlveda said: “We must stop criminalizing mental health. Incarceration and solitary confinement are dangerous, destructive, but far too common ways used to address the mental health crisis across across our state & country. We must instead invest in community-based resources to ensure individuals & families have the support they need, and to prevent anyone from slipping through the cracks into the criminal justice system, which has tragically become a harmful catch all for too many struggling with mental illness.”

Senator David Carlucci, Chair of the Senate Mental Health Committee said: "Extreme isolation is inhumane. A person with mental illness or who has a cognitive or physical disability should not be in solitary confinement. It does not rehabilitate, but it can cause physical and psychological illness, potentially leading to suicide. The HALT Solitary Confinement Act will end the torture of people with mental health issues in our jails and help ensure people can get rehabilitative treatment."

Harvey Rosenthal, CEO of the New York State Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services, Inc., said: “There is perhaps no greater pain than that of experiencing mental illness in solitary confinement. With ample support for real reform in the Legislature, there can be no excuse for inaction. State legislators and the Governor must pass HALT. They must not continue to deny our most vulnerable New Yorkers humane alternatives to this soul-crushing and life-taking trauma and torture.”

Glenn Liebman, CEO of MHANYS, said: “The Mental Health Association in New York State (MHANYS) strongly supports the HALT campaign. Solitary Confinement for someone with a mental health issue exacerbates existing issues of trauma, depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. The repercussions of solitary confinement can have long term traumatic effects well after someone is released from a correctional setting.”

Jennifer J. Parish, Director of Criminal Justice Advocacy at the Urban Justice Center’s Mental Health Project, said: “We know that solitary confinement damages mental health. It is a breeding ground for anxiety, depression, and psychosis, and a place in prisons and jails where people are far more likely to attempt – and succeed at – suicide. Yet, the use of solitary is increasing, not decreasing, in New York prisons. It is time for the Speaker and Majority Leader to do what they can to stop the torture – namely, pass the HALT Solitary Confinement Act.”

Assembly Member Catalina Cruz said: "I fully support the immediate passage of the HALT Solitary Confinement Act. This is a bill that should have been brought to the floor and passed last session, and it must be made a priority this session. We must stop the cruel and inhumane treatment of incarcerated people and improve the way we treat individuals who interface with our criminal justice system."

Assembly Member Taylor Darling said: “I fully support #HALTsolitary. I represent District 18 in Nassau County, where this is an issue that hits close to home. Thousands are isolated in confinement in New York State prisons and hundreds more in local jails each day. African Americans make up 50% of those incarcerated and 60% of people held in long term solitary. The lack of human interaction confinement can lead to intense suffering and severe psychological damage, further adding to the adversities these men and women will face upon release. We must consider humanity, justice and equity in everything we do.”

Senator Alessandra Biaggi (D-Bronx/Westchester) said: “Putting people in solitary confinement to the point of psychological torture is a direct attack on the mental health of incarcerated New Yorkers. Solitary confinement can have life-long consequences for a person’s mental health and emotional resilience, making it much harder to thrive in their communities after incarceration. If we care about addressing the mental health crisis that plagues our society, we must meaningfully limit the cruel practice of solitary confinement and pass the HALT Act.”

Senator Robert Jackson said: “All of the evidence on solitary confinement is clear: it is a form of torture. Its effects are that much more catastrophic for people with pre-existing mental health concerns. I have seen these effects first-hand and it is inhumane. We must HALT solitary confinement in New York State. I'm grateful for the perseverance of the advocates and hopeful that we will get it done this year.”

Senator Brian Benjamin said: “We must build on the success of the criminal justice reforms we passed last year by doing away with the inhumane and ineffective practice of solitary confinement. I am proud to support this bill, which will give our state clear guidelines about the limited and legitimate uses of separation, and help achieve transparency, fairness, and accountability in our prisons and jails.”

Assemblymember David I. Weprin, Assembly Correction Chair, said: "Ensuring public safety does not require the disregard of justice and basic fairness. By passing the HALT Solitary Confinement Act, we can put an end to the devastating effects that come from extended isolated confinement while taking a significant step towards reforming our criminal justice system. I am glad to join the New York Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement as well as the assembled mental health advocates in Albany today as we call for the passage of this important bill."

Assistant Assembly Speaker Félix W. Ortiz said: “The use of long term isolated confinement should be reformed for general population and must be banned altogether for special populations. For those struggling with a mental illness, the practice can be tortuous or even deadly.”

Senator Kevin Thomas said, "The Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act would end long-term solitary and replace it with more humane and effective alternatives. It would not end all solitary confinement, but rather limit it, in line with human rights standards, and instead give staff the tools to more meaningfully address problematic behavior by incarcerated people. Passing the HALT Solitary Confinement Act will not only make our facilities and our communities safer—it’s the right thing to do."

BACKGROUND: According to the New York Civil Liberties Union, people with diagnosed mental health needs recognized by the prison system were sent to solitary confinement over 13,000 times a year. On any given day, over 700 people with diagnosed mental health needs are in Special Housing Units (SHU) alone, and countless others are in keeplock in their own cell, another form of solitary. Roughly a third of all people in solitary on a given day and roughly a third of all people sent to solitary in a given year are people who have diagnosed mental health needs. 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.

A recent study published this fall found that solitary led to dramatically increased rates of death after a person was released from prison, particularly by suicide as well as overdose, with the risks increasing the more time the person had spent in solitary. Another study published this summer in the Journal of General Internal Medicine found that solitary harms people’s cardiovascular health, including a 31% increase in hypertension. Roughly one third of the people in solitary who participated in the study were more likely to experience heart attacks, strokes, and loneliness, which also contributes to heart disease.

Despite the fact that Black people represent only 18% of New York State’s total population, Black people are 48% of people in New York State prisons, and 57% of people in solitary confinement. A 2016 New York Times investigation documented what people who have been most harmed by the prison system have known for decades, that there is a “scourge of racial bias” in New York’s imposition of solitary and parole release denials. Yet over three years after that investigation, Governor Cuomo has still done nothing to address this urgent crisis. Use of solitary has actually increased since Governor Cuomo claimed to have implemented reforms in 2015. Advocates are calling for lawmakers to enact HALT – which has majority support in both the Senate and Assembly – to end this racist torture and replace it with more humane and effective alternatives.

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 progress (with nearly 40,000 sentences to solitary last year).

While Governor Cuomo has put forward new regulations on solitary, an analysis shows these regulations will perpetuate solitary and allow people to be held in solitary for months and years, particularly in light of past practice evidenced by NYCLU’s report. The 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 HALT – 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. People continue to spend months, years, and decades in solitary in New York. 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.

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