A committee formed to appease an illegal prison guard strike earlier this year recommended rollbacks to the state’s solitary confinement ban in prisons last Friday (Sept. 19).
The ban, known as the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement (HALT) act severely limits the practice of isolating people in a cell and was passed in 2021, signed into law by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, after supermajority support in both the State Senate and State Assembly. Despite the law’s near-unanimous vote, opponents continue efforts — some later deemed unlawful — to overturn and undermine it.
Jerome Wright, co-founder of the #HALTSolitary campaign, lambasted the attempts to suspend or weaken the solitary ban as an affront to the democratic process. He also pointed to the irony of law enforcement refusing to comply with the law.
“[If] I’m elected [and] my community asks for this, I deliver it and you’re not going to give it to me, what do I have this job for?” said Wright. “Am I just window dressing for this fascist system? If I’m an elected official and I get a law passed and nobody follows it, what am I doing as an elected official? Why do we have politics? Why do we have laws?”
Under HALT, the state cannot practice prolonged solitary confinement, which is defined by more than 15 days and is considered torture under the United Nations’ Mandela Rules. Prisons are limited to keeping someone in a cell for no more than 17 hours over three consecutive days for all but the most serious cases. The law also mandates out-of-cell time and prevents prison staff from confining incarcerated individuals who are pregnant or disabled.
Solitary confinement’s impacts are well-documented and tied to lasting psychological and physical health conditions. In fact, research also points to the practice increasing prison violence risks against both incarcerated individuals and staff.
This past February and March, correctional staff working for the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) held a wildcat strike. The walkout was not supported by their union, NYSCOPBA, and violated New York State’s Public Employees’ Fair Employment Act, better known as the Taylor Law, which prohibits public employees from striking.
The prison guards’ chief demand called for suspending HALT — a law DOCCS never actually fully implemented — which they blamed for increased assaults on staff. Yet the strike bemoaning safety conditions for corrections officers coincided with prison staff beating two incarcerated Black men to death.
Before the walkout, shocking body camera footage showed more than a dozen officers involved in killing Robert Brooks at Marcy Correctional Facility in December 2024. A few months later, statements by Gov. Kathy Hochul and DOCCS officials, along with testimony from his cellmate, indicated Harlemite Messiah Nantwi died in a similar fashion in March while held at Mid-State Correctional Facility.
Last year, 143 people reportedly died in state prison, a 33% rise from 2023. Since 1861, a total of 43 DOCCS employees have died in the line of duty — nearly a fourth were killed by other law enforcement during the Attica Riots in 1971.
At least seven incarcerated people died during the strikes, according to the New York Times. The walkout also cost the state tens of millions of dollars as the National Guard stepped in during their absence. Some staff were fired for refusing to return to work. Still, the state listened to their demands and established a HALT committee to look at revisions.
Through litigation and tips from people inside prison, the Legal Aid Society learned that DOCCS actually suspended the solitary ban entirely for at least 90 days following the strikes. In July, the courts granted a preliminary injunction stopping the attempt to halt HALT. A month later, Legal Aid filed a contempt motion against DOCCS, accusing the agency of failing to disclose whether the law’s “core protections” were reinstated.
The opponents of HALT now hope the state legislature, which no longer boasts a democratic supermajority, will take on recommendations from the committee formed by the strikes. Their 10 recommendations include expanding which offenses qualify for solitary confinement and allowing for protective custody, which often leads to isolating LGBTQ+ people in prison for their own safety.
However, the recommendations also include lifting barriers set by HALT for more participation in programming. The law’s proponents see pro-social activities as the key solution to reducing prison violence and preparing incarcerated individuals for reentry. Wright credits his marriage for helping turn his life around while serving time.
“The goal of the HALT Committee is to provide the legislature with recommendations to enhance safety for both our staff and the incarcerated, while maintaining the core principles and intent of the HALT Act,” said DOCCS Commissioner Daniel F. Martuscello III. “We believe we have achieved this goal in a way that will ultimately lead to better outcomes and safer facilities. It is my hope that the legislature considers these changes as an important evolution of the HALT Act that reflects all we have learned since its inception in March 2022.”
The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) condemned the proposals, accusing the HALT committee of being stacked “entirely” with the law’s opponents. The state’s ACLU affiliate is also embroiled in litigation with DOCCS over HALT and recently filed its own contempt motion after courts ruled the department violated the solitary ban.
“DOCCS is not a lawmaker, and the agency cannot just defy a law it doesn’t like and has steadfastly refused to implement,” said NYCLU policy counsel Bernadette Rabuy in a statement. “These rollbacks are especially egregious considering the humanitarian crisis that is New York’s state prison system. They are a brazen effort to subvert the will of New Yorkers, who voted for legislators that rightly removed the torture of long-term solitary confinement from our laws.”