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Cuomo Signs Bill Banning Long-Term Solitary Confinement In NY
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Apr 1, 2021
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Bebeto Matthews/AP/Shutterstock
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Apr 1, 2021
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On Wednesday night, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation that will limit the use of solitary confinement for people locked up in New York's prisons.
The law's passage is a significant victory for criminal justice reform advocates, who have pointed to the deaths of New Yorkers like Kalief Browder and Layleen Polanco as evidence that solitary confinement is cruel and immoral.
Currently, there are more than 1,600 people being held in solitary across the state, some of them for decades. The Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act, which passed the State Senate and the Assembly last month, prohibits officials from placing someone in solitary confinement for more than 15 days, which is the United Nations' threshold for torture.
HALT also exempts certain people from solitary altogether—the young, the elderly, pregnant women, people with disabilities, and those with serious mental illness—and decreases the number of infractions that can land someone in a solitary cell. The law will also create Residential Rehabilitation Units for people to be transferred to after the two weeks in solitary, for "therapeutic and trauma-informed programming in a congregate setting."
The law will go into effect on April 1st, 2022.
Cuomo signed the HALT bill after opposing it in previous sessions, claiming that the creation of the rehab units would be too costly; criminal justice advocates argued that HALT would actually save the state money by drastically cutting back on the expense of keeping thousands of people in solitary.
The governor's signature came with an "approval memo," which directs the legislature to come up with "amendments...necessary to ensure that processes are in place to address all possible circumstances where an individual may need to be separated from other incarcerated individuals, including when an incarcerated individual commits multiple violent acts."
Brooklyn State Senator Julia Salazar, the main HALT sponsor in the Senate, told Gothamist she was not concerned about the approval memo.
"The HALT Solitary Confinement Act will put an end to the use of long-term solitary confinement in our state, a practice that has perpetuated violence and caused irreparable harm," Salazar said in a statement.
Jerome Wright, the head of the statewide #HALTsolitary Campaign, which has advocated for the law for years, called the bill's passage "a giant leap forward."
"Solitary confinement is torture. It causes immense suffering and destroys people’s minds, bodies, and souls. It should have no place in New York State or the rest of this country or world. I know because I survived it. I know because so many others did not survive it," Wright said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association, which has traditionally opposed HALT, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The governor's signature of both HALT and the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act—another criminal justice reform bill he resisted for years—may be a sign of Cuomo's limited political capital, as he continues to fight allegations of sexual misconduct, claims he mishandled nursing home patients during the pandemic, and now potential ethics violations surrounding his pandemic memoir that he reportedly received more than $4 million to write.
The HALT bill is one of many of criminal justice reforms that advocates are hoping to get passed this year. There is the Less is More Act, which is aimed at curbing the number of people on parole who are sent back to prison for "technical" violations, such as being late to an appointment, or testing positive for alcohol or marijuana. The Fair & Timely Parole Act would grant parole to New Yorkers unless they pose a documented, "unreasonable risk" to society; while the Elder Parole bill would force the parole board to regularly consider all prisoners who are 55 and older and who have served at least 15 years of their sentence.
"Ultimately, we will continue to struggle for the freedom of our people," Wright said. "Today, incarcerated lives mattered and tomorrow and the next day that must be affirmed as we move toward justice and equality for all.”
Tagged
HALT
solitary confinement
julia salazar
criminal justice reform
prison reform
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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