NYAPRS Note: Yesterday we ran an article entitled “New York Abolished Long-Term Solitary. Will Guards Get With the Program?” (see https://www.nyaprs.org/e-news-bulletins/2021/5/10/will-correctional-officers-get-with-halt-prison-reforms-dont-miss-tomorrows-webinar).
Today, New York’s union for correctional officers gave their answer, announcing that they are suing New York to overturn the HALT Law and, in turn, the provisions of the SHU Exclusion Law (SHU refers to Special Housing Unit, a euphemism for Solitary Confinement) that was implemented in 2011. The campaigns to win the passage of both laws were heavily supported by NYAPRS members. The union is filing the suit on the grounds that both laws violate the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution “by putting officers in an unnecessary amount of danger at work.”
In response, HALT campaign leader Jerome Wright asserted that “To be clear, any assaults on officers or incarcerated people are unacceptable. The question is how does the state prevent and reduce violence. Simply put, solitary confinement is torture. The reality is that HALT doesn’t take effect for a whole year, and the laws and regulations currently in effect, which allow DOCCS to keep people in solitary for months, years, and even decades, have not prevented the violence NYSCOPBA describes, and most New Yorkers agree we need a new and better way forward.”
Jerome and Natasha White will be featured speakers at this afternoon’s 1:00-2:30 pm NYAPRS Webinar, “Stories from the HALT Campaign. Register Here for 5/11/21 offering
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New York Correctional Officers Union Sues To Stop HALT Solitary Law
Federal Lawsuit Ties Escalating Violence In Prisons To Decreasing Segregation
By Edward McKinley Albany Times Union May 10, 2021
ALBANY — The New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association filed a federal lawsuit Friday that seeks to overturn a new law banning prolonged solitary confinement in state prisons. The civil complaint ties decreasing segregation practices to an increase in violence against both employees and inmates since 2012.
The Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act, or HALT Solitary, was passed by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in March. It was hailed by criminal justice advocates as a much-needed step for the state, bringing New York into compliance with the United Nations standards that define prolonged solitary confinement for more than 15 days as torture.
The correctional officers union, in its lawsuit, contends policies that prohibit isolating violent inmates has endangered their members and those “who are attempting to serve out their sentences peacefully.”
“These policies purport to limit isolation for incarcerated individuals serving sanctions in prison for dangerous and disruptive disciplinary infractions,” states the complaint, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Albany. “However, these policies diminish accountability for those incarcerated individuals who commit violent acts while in prison, and create a dangerous living and working environment by permitting those incarcerated individuals who have shown a propensity to violently assault peaceful incarcerated individuals and/or state employees to be placed in congregate settings where they are easily able to repeat such violent acts.”
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the 18,000-member union and six employees names as plaintiffs, asserts that the law — as well as other restrictions on solitary confinement adopted since 2012 — violate the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by putting officers in an unnecessary amount of danger at work. They say that hampering the prisons’ ability to place incarcerated people into segregated living, or solitary confinement, has led to an increase in violence.
A spokesman for the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, Thomas Mailey, said that while the department declined to comment on pending litigation, the internal disciplinary policies in prisons are proactive about working to stop and prosecute assaults behind prison walls, and when assaults are committed, they may result in addition prison sentences for violent inmates.
“The HALT bill has been signed into law and DOCCS has been working on a plan to safely implement the law, which still provides for segregated housing for acts of violence against officers and other incarcerated persons,” Mailey said.
NYSCOPBA officials held a press conference on Monday morning outside the James T. Foley Federal Courthouse in Albany to discuss their lawsuit.
Behind the podium, they displayed a chart highlighting DOCCS data since 2012, which showed assaults by incarcerated people against corrections officers had nearly doubled, while assaults by incarcerated people other inmates has increased about 85 percent. That increase occurred during a period when the overall prison population has declined by 36 percent. The numbers range from 2012 to present because 2012 marked a landmark lawsuit that reshaped the solitary confinement policies in New York.
Chloe Hayes, a corrections officer, said she was attacked by an incarcerated person in a housing unit of a prison. She said her attacker kneed her, hit her, ripped her shirt and forced her to the ground.
“If it wasn’t for someone hearing my screams I don’t know how the situation would have turned out,” she said. The assault will impact her forever, she said, but under the HALT Solitary law, the person who committed it could only be placed in isolation for 15 days.
The law has not gone into effect, so its effect on overall rates of violence are not yet measurable. But NYSCOPBA argues that further diminishment of the harshness of discipline in prison can only lead to more violence.
Jerome Wright, head of the #HALTSolitary advocacy campaign that pushed for the law, responded to the lawsuit in an emailed statement.
“To be clear, any assaults on officers or incarcerated people are unacceptable. The question is how does the state prevent and reduce violence. Simply put, solitary confinement is torture,” Wright wrote. “The reality is that HALT doesn’t take effect for a whole year, and the laws and regulations currently in effect, which allow DOCCS to keep people in solitary for months, years, and even decades, have not prevented the violence NYSCOPBA describes, and most New Yorkers agree we need a new and better way forward.”