A year after a judge found that New York State prisons were holding prisoners in solitary confinement illegally by failing to meet state requirements for doing so, the practice continues, according to a court filing on Monday.
The filing, by the New York Civil Liberties Union, stems from a 2023 lawsuit in which the group accused state corrections officials of adopting an internal policy meant to help them bypass legal limits on how long prisoners can be held in solitary confinement.
Last year, Justice Kevin R. Bryant of State Supreme Court in Albany ordered prison officials to comply with a requirement that they justify any extension to a prisoner’s solitary confinement. He also ruled that decisions about solitary confinement made according to the internal policy rather than to the law were “null and void.”
In its filing on Monday, however, the civil liberties group said the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision had upheld nearly 2,000 extended disciplinary confinement sanctions made before the judge’s order after reviewing them. The department, the filing says, “continues to adhere to the very practices this court rejected.”
The group says in the filing that it tried unsuccessfully to raise its concerns with corrections officials directly.
The Corrections Department declined to comment citing the pending litigation.
The law at issue, the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act, or HALT, was signed by Andrew M. Cuomo in 2021 when he was governor and took effect the next year. It prohibits prisons and jails from keeping people in solitary confinement for more than 15 consecutive days. It also bars the use of solitary confinement for some people, including minors and those with certain disabilities.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
The post New York Prisons Accused of Defying Judge on Solitary Confinement appeared first on New York Times.
