**PRESS RELEASE**
WATCH A RECORDING OF THE PRESS CONFERENCE HERE
For Immediate Release:
January 6, 2020
Contacts:
Jared Chausow, jchausow@gmail.com, 650-814-0565
Jerome Wright, jwright@nycaic.org
ON FIRST DAY OF NYS LEGISLATIVE SESSION WITH HISTORIC SUPERMAJORITIES, ADVOCATES & LEGISLATORS CALL FOR PASSAGE OF H.A.L.T. SOLITARY CONFINEMENT ACT
AFTER DECISIVE ELECTION VICTORY FOR CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM, THE HALT BILL MAINTAINS & GROWS ITS MAJORITY SUPPORT IN NY SENATE & ASSEMBLY
(New York) — Today, the #HALTsolitary Campaign, along with 21 NYS legislators, gathered for a virtual press conference on the first day of the 2021 New York State legislative session to call for a vote on- and passage of the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act (full video here). The bill would limit solitary confinement in prisons and jails to 15 days and eliminate it altogether for especially vulnerable populations in line with United Nations standards. It enters the new session with majority support in both the State Senate and Assembly, including co-sponsors in so-called marginal districts from Long Island to the Hudson Valley and Western New York.
Melania Brown, sister of the late Layleen Polanco who died in solitary confinement, said: “Prisons and jails are using COVID as an excuse to lock people in solitary confinement. My boyfriend is being locked in solitary confinement for more than 23 hours a day. He was let out only 15 minutes a day. These are humans we’re talking about. Not even an animal deserves to be put in these cages. My sister was my person. My boyfriend is my person. Policymakers need to remember that people inside are humans. This is torture. It is a system to mentally abuse people and make sure to land them right back in the system. Solitary confinement needs to come to an end. In my sister’s name I’m going to continue to fight to make sure solitary confinement ends.”
Senator Luis Sepúlveda, lead HALT Solitary bill sponsor and Senate Correction Committee Chair, said: “The practice of using solitary confinement as punishment in the U.S. amounts to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of incarcerated people. HALT will bring rehabilitative alternatives in our correctional system and make prisons and jails more humane and safer for everyone. I urge my Senate and Assembly colleagues to work to pass HALT in both houses in New York State as quickly as possible. We must end this practice once and for all.”
Darlene McDay, nurse practitioner and mother of the late Dante Taylor, who was brutally beaten by correction officers and then died in solitary confinement, said: “I’m a nurse practitioner. I have so many patients right now that are isolated in rooms because they have COVID and I know it’s torture for them. If you could only imagine that it is probably a thousand times worse for someone that’s been incarcerated and then on top of that gets thrown in solitary confinement. My son Dante Taylor was just 22 years old when he was beaten to the point of being unrecognizable and thrown into a solitary cell. He couldn’t eat and they had to order pureed food. I can tell from the notes that he was begging to call his Mom and they wouldn’t let him. These are real people and these are real families..I don’t think anyone – not an animal, nobody – should be treated that way. I just pray that New York passes HALT because no one should be left to suffer like this.”
Sammie Werkheiser, who was held in solitary confinement while pregnant purportedly for her protection, went into premature labor, and lost one of her twin babies just after birth, said: “I’m just a human being. I’m a person just like you. The only thing I can do is tell you my nightmare. When I was five months pregnant, an officer put me in solitary confinement for protective custody. One of my babies did not survive. Instead of having her arms around me this Christmas I have her ashes around my neck. For my twins, I’ll never have a double stroller. I’ll never have her there for Christmas. But if lawmakers can pass the HALT Solitary bill, they can give life back to the state of New York.”
TeAna Taylor, #HALTsolitary Campaign organizer, said: “My uncle, who suffered from mental health issues before he was ever incarcerated, went into prison for six years as a teenager and spent horrendous months-long stints in solitary confinement. When my uncle got out of incarceration, it is like the light had left his eyes. Paranoia, aggression, antisocial behavior all stemmed from his time in solitary. When someone has mental health issues, they don’t need isolation. They need treatment, they need therapy, they need connection with others, they need love. Our family has suffered and continues to suffer. This was over 15 years ago and my uncle’s mental health state is as bad as it’s ever been. Solitary confinement is torture. It deteriorates the mind like nothing else. It causes irreversible damage to the spirit, to the mind, and to families across New York and the country. We need to stop solitary confinement in New York state and across the country and worldwide so that no other families have to be traumatized and deal with decades of pain and suffering. Please 2021 is the time to pass this bill. This is urgent, people are dying, families are being ruined forever.”
Assembly Member Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas said: “I’m a brand-new assemblymember today is literally our first day of session and we are ready to fight to finally passed HALT Solitary Confinement. Solitary is torture and we cannot condone torture in New York any longer. This issue sits at the intersection of racial justice, reproductive justice, gender justice, human rights. So I’m so proud to be here to fight to finally get this passed. There’s no excuse. We have the progressive mission that are ready to put the work, ready to fight and we cannot condone torture in the state of New York any longer.”
NY Senator Jessica Ramos said: “Many see people who are incarcerated as just numbers. People have in the past been trying to make our prison system seem like an economic generator, as a jobs producer and we’re here to say that we’re ready to build a new New York, a better New York that really does put people before profits. We must finally end the dependency on the prison industrial complex and so we begin here by halting solitary confinement because solitary confinement is torture.”
Assembly Member Anna Kelles said: “From a public health perspective, we know that solitary adversely affects individuals, families, and communities, causing long-term mental health struggles and increasing the chances of an early death. Solitary is inhumane. I support the HALT Act, the Elder Parole Act, and the Fair and Timely Parole Act.”
Assembly Member Harry Bronson said: “Last year, after our nation was awakened finally by the repeated murders of people of color at the hands of law enforcement, we passed historic legislation but we can’t stop there. The use of solitary confinement in New York state prisons is a violation of a person’s human rights. The psychological trauma of solitary increases the risk of serious physical harm to individuals who experience it and that harm lasts forever. It’s not who we are as New Yorkers, and I’m so proud to join the growing chorus of individuals, organizations, and policymakers calling for a dramatic, transformative change. We’ve got to reduce the use of solitary confinement. We’ve got to stop this torture and the time for change is now. Now halt solitary confinement.”
Assembly Member Phara Souffrant Forrest said: “The unjust treatment of humans must end. This is the first step. We’re going to stop solitary at 15 days. And the next step is to end it…As a woman living in New York State, to think there’s someone else locked up 23 hours per day and only allowed to shower once or twice per week, that is disgusting, and we should be ashamed of ourselves. This ends today! I am not sad, I am angry. I’m not gonna sit here and pray on my knees, I’m gonna start acting on my feet.”
Assembly Member Catalina Cruz said: “I want to thank you for your courage to have to unfortunately share your stories year after year after year because the Legislature didn’t have the will. Solitary confinement is clearly torture and our society should be judged based on how we treat those with the least amount of power. I am a survivor of crime and I never want anyone using my survival story or anyone’s survival stories an excuse to use solitary confinement. We have a governor who has said he wanted to be supportive of this but has not acted like he wanted to be supportive and so we’re going to hold everybody accountable because it’s time to make sure that we are treating people in a humane way.”
NY Senator Rachel May said: “As Chair of the Committee on Aging, I hear daily from families who have loved ones in nursing homes who are dying from the isolation, since visitation is virtually impossible. They are seeing cognitive decline, health decline, depression. If that is what is happening in nursing homes, it is also true in solitary confinement in prisons. This should be a moment when public opinion can rally against the issue of solitary confinement.”
Assembly Member Zohran Kwame Mamdani said: “This morning we wake up with this renewed sense of hope about what can happen at the federal level because Democrats have control of both chambers and of the executive. That’s been our reality in New York. We’ve already had that, so why do we not have that same sense that we can pass the legislation we know we desperately need right here in New York? Every single New Yorker deserves dignity and it doesn’t matter if they’re behind bars. This has to be the year.”
“Imagine being locked away in a small, dark cell for days, weeks or even years on end, deprived of any human interaction,” said Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal. “Keeping someone in solitary confinement causes physical, mental and psychological health to rapidly deteriorate. Appallingly, this is the reality for thousands of New Yorkers in prison each day, and disproportionately impacts people of color. Serving one’s prison sentence should never include cruel and torturous isolation. 2021 must be the year we finally HALT solitary confinement in New York State.”
NY Senator Robert Jackson said: “I don’t know what it is to be in solitary confinement and I don’t want to ever know but I do know that when we had the replica SHU cell in the state capitol I think last year I went inside for two or three minutes. I cannot imagine 23 hours a day. I looked at the Senators on the bill and I counted each one. I did this about 5 minutes ago and I looked at who were Democrats and who were Republicans. There are 34 for members signed on to the bill. [Note: 32 votes are needed to pass the bill.] That’s on the record right now. People have to vote with their conscience in their obligations as far as human rights are concerned. Restricting solitary confinement as we all know saves lives and a report by the Partnership for the Public Good out of Buffalo shows that ending solitary confinement also saves money — over $132 million. Anytime we can save over $132 million to save lives, that’s a win-win situation.”
NY Senator Brad Hoylman said: “How can we continue to allow these stories of complete disregard for human life to continue in our prison system? This is the year where we say no more. No more losses of life, no more losses of liberty, no more disregard for our sisters and brothers. Our mission is clear. Halt solitary.”
BACKGROUND: In the wake of massive numbers of people rising up to demand that the state stop killing Black people and other People of Color in the streets and behind bars, there is an ongoing and deadly scourge of racial bias in New York State prisons that has never been addressed. While Black people represent only 18% of all New Yorkers, 48% of people in New York State prisons are Black people and 57% of people in solitary confinement are Black people. Likewise, over 80% of the people who have died in prison since the outbreak of COVID-19 are People of Color (59% are Black people). Thanks to efforts led by survivors of solitary and their family members, there are more than enough votes to pass the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act (S1623/A2500) in the New York State Legislature. A recent report by the Partnership for the Public Good shows HALT will save the state and localities $132 million annually.
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Research shows solitary confinement causes immense suffering, devastating physical and mental harm, and far too commonly leads to psychosis, heart disease, self-mutilation, and death.
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Despite the known harms of even the shortest periods of time in solitary, New York State regularly holds people – disproportionately Black people and other People of Color – in solitary for months, years, and decades. New York’s use of solitary confinement actually increased after Governor Cuomo claimed to have implemented reforms in 2015, with more than 38,000 solitary sentences in 2018 and 81% of people in solitary being Black and/or Latinx.
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Previously, the #HALTsolitary Campaign released a devastating new report documenting a surge in suicide and self-harm in New York prisons, driven by solitary confinement. A total of 18 people died by suicide in NY prisons alone in 2019, the highest rate since at least 2000 and a rate 88% higher than the national average.
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Experts agree that the sensory deprivation, lack of normal interaction, and extreme idleness of solitary can lead to severe psychological, physical, and even neurological damage.
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New Cornell research found that even a few days in solitary confinement – and even only one or two days of solitary – led to significantly heightened risk of death by accident, suicide, violence, and other causes.
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One study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine found that solitary confinement is associated with a 31% increase in hypertension. Approximately one-in-three people in solitary who participated in the study were more likely to experience heart attacks, strokes, and – unsurprisingly – higher degrees of loneliness, which also contributes to heart disease.
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Another study found solitary confinement is associated with increased rates of death after release, particularly by suicide or overdose.
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During the current pandemic, the harm and spread of the virus have been exacerbated by the failure to release people from prison and by the state’s medically inappropriate and dangerous use of solitary confinement in lieu of medical care & quarantine in contravention of health experts’ recommendations.
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While Governor Cuomo has put forward proposed regulations on solitary confinement, an analysis shows these regulations will not actually limit solitary confinement, and instead will continue to allow people to be held in solitary for months and years, including for minor infractions. Moreover, DOCCS allowed the proposal to expire before taking effect and then reissued nearly the exact same regulatons with an even later start date.
Learn more at www.nycaic.org.