NYAPRS Note: The Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement and RAPP (Release Aging People in Prison) just completed a very powerful virtual news conference today in conjunction with the release of a powerful and heartbreaking new report, “THE WALLS ARE CLOSING IN ON ME: Suicide and Self-Harm in New York State’s Solitary Confinement Units, 2015-2019 that detailed the unacceptable link between high rates of suicide, suicide attempts, and self-harm in New York prisons and the use of solitary confinement.
See details from the report below and in todays’ Daily News:
In a report filled with heart wrenching findings about torture and death in NYS prisons, especially as effects people of color, there is a special urgency in the wake of the COVID crisis: “in the midst of COVID-19, there is increased risk of self-harm and other negative health consequences for people in solitary. Being in solitary during the pandemic, without the possibility of seeing family and with the fear of contracting or dying from the virus alone in a solitary cell, can increase levels of anxiety and depression. Moreover, health experts have been warning that solitary worsens the spread and harm of COVID by
(1) weakening people’s overall condition and immunity,
(2) forcing contact between officers and the people in solitary they have to escort to showers or recreation, and
(3) discouraging people from reporting symptoms because they know they will likely end up in a solitary cell rather than receiving quality medical treatment and care.
Here are some excerpts from the report:
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In 2019, 18 people died by suicide in New York state prisons. This was the highest rate of suicide in New York prisons since 2000, and was 88% higher than the average rate of suicide in prisons across the country. From January through April 2020, five people already have died by suicide in New York prisons.
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At least one third of the suicides in 2019 took place in solitary confinement. The rate of suicides in solitary in NY prisons was ten times the overall national prison suicide rate, and is likely even higher because of a lack of data on suicides in keeplock and other forms of solitary.
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The rate of suicides from 2015 to 2019 is over five times higher in solitary confinement than in the rest of the prison system, and is likely much higher because of a lack of data on suicides in keeplock and other forms of solitary.
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Half of the people who died by suicide in solitary were young people in their twenties and 65% were People of Color, rates dramatically higher than the rates of suicide by these groups in the rest of the prison population, indicating how much of a direct role solitary played in many people’s deaths.
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Suicide attempts in NY prisons occur nearly every other day. From January 2015 through April 2019, there were 688 suicide attempts in the state prisons, representing an average of one suicide attempt every 2.27 days.
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From January 2015 through April 2019, 43% of suicide attempts occurred in Special Housing Units (just one form of solitary confinement), at a rate 12 times the rest of the prison system. As with suicides, the rate would likely be much higher if all forms of solitary confinement were included. The rate of suicides in purported alternatives to solitary for people with the most serious mental health needs (but too often amount to solitary by another name) were 26 times the rate in the rest of the prison system.
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Suicide Rate in New York Prisons Last Year Rose to Highest Level In Decade, Data Shows
By Noah Goldberg NY Daily News May 25, 2020
The suicide rate in New York State’s prison system last year rose to its highest level in nearly a decade, with 18 inmates taking their own lives, the Daily News has learned.
It was the most suicides since 2010, when 20 people killed themselves behind bars. The number of incarcerated New Yorkers has dropped by more than 10,000 since 2010, meaning the rate of suicide last year was actually higher than it was in 2010.
The rate was about 39 per 100,000 last year compared with 34.5 in 2010, the data showed.
The suicide rate was even higher among inmates in solitary confinement. Out of the 70 people who died by their own hand in the state prison system between 2015 and 2019, at least 20, or 29%, were in solitary, according to the data obtained by the #HALTsolitary campaign in a Freedom of Information Law request.
In 2019 alone, six of the 18 suicides, 33%, occurred in solitary confinement. The rate was 201 per 100,000 inmates.
“The data demonstrates that suicides occur in solitary confinement at an unacceptably high rate, much higher than the rate in the rest of the prison population,” wrote advocates for the #HALTsolitary campaign.
Another 688 suicide attempts were documented between 2015 and 2019, according to the data. That number represents a suicide attempt on average every two days.
The Department of Corrections did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“These numbers demand immediate and drastic change in [Corrections] policies and practices in relation to solitary confinement,” the #HALTsolitary campaign wrote.
The group called on the state Legislature to enact the Halt Solitary act. The bill would limit the time incarcerated New Yorkers can spend in solitary confinement and would create alternative therapeutic and rehabilitative confinement options.