Debating the HALT Solitary Confinement Law in New York

Photo by John McCarten/City Council

Lawmakers, Survivors of Solitary, Family Members, and Allies Rallied to Demand Immediate and Full Implementation of the HALT Solitary Confinement Law

After the State Prisons have Systemically Violated the HALT Solitary Law for Years and Have Now Announced their Intention to Violate the Law, Participants Demanded that Prisons Follow the Law Enacted by a Supermajority of the Legislature and Signed by the Governor in order to Stop Torture, Save Lives, and Improve Safety for Everyone

New York State lawmakers, people who have survived solitary confinement, family members, and allies in the #HALTsolitary Campaign rallied in the War Room of the State Capitol calling for immediate and full implementation of the HALT Solitary Confinement Law in order to stop torture, save lives, and improve safety for everyone. State prisons and jails have been systemically violating the HALT Solitary Confinement Law since it went into effect three years ago. Now, DOCCS has announced it will double down on its violations of the HALT Solitary Law, with its illegal so-called “suspension.” This is not a “suspension”; it is an announced plan to violate the law and violate the separation of powers. An agency head has no authority to suspend HALT or any other duly enacted law. DOCCS must fully implement the HALT Solitary Law – enacted by a supermajority of the legislature and the Governor – and utilize true alternative forms of separation proven to reduce violence. At the same time, as highlighted in a newly released report by the Justice Policy Institute, New York’s legislature must meet this moment to enact legislation to create meaningful opportunities for case-by-case consideration of release for people who have spent years and decades incarcerated and to transform the environment for all people incarcerated.

Jerome Wright, Co-Director of the HALT Solitary Campaign, said: “Solitary confinement is torture. It causes psychosis,, hallucinations, depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and suicide itself. We are not going to back to 23 hours a day locked in a cell. We are not going back to a paradigm of punishment that allows people to be held in torture for months, years, and decades. We are not going back to the level of brutality, racism, and lack of human dignity that this department has continued to show.”

State Senator Julia Salazar, Chair of the Committee on Crime Victims, Crime, and Correction, said: “Let’s be clear: HALT seeks to make prisons safer for incarcerated people and staff alike, and it has succeeded on both counts even though it hasn’t been fully implemented. The full implementation of HALT is necessary not only to comply with the rule of law and honor the legislative process, but also to minimize the torture known as solitary confinement. We know that individuals who shouldn’t be in segregated housing because of disabilities are nonetheless subjected to this mistreatment, and we’ve received reports that incarcerated people have been placed there despite not having committed violations that would warrant this confinement. Fully implementing HALT will put an end to these harmful, unlawful practices–and that can’t happen soon enough.”

Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes commented, “Solitary confinement is inhumane and has not proven to be an effective deterrent to violence, rather it often leads to permanent detrimental health outcomes for the isolated individual and reduces safety across the entire system. I call on the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to immediately and fully implement the HALT Solitary Confinement Law.”

Assembly Member Eddie Gibbs said: “After guards lynched Robert Brooks, we in this building were finally moving to make real changes to protect incarcerated people from abuse. Now the prison officers have tried to distract us, but we will not be distracted. They’re illegal actions led to the death of at least nine people and left tens of thousands of people in life threatening conditions, in solitary confinement without access to food, medical care, and other essential services. It has only strengthened our resolve. The first thing we need to do is ensure the HALT Solitary Law is fully implemented as this legislature intended. Solitary Confinement is torture. It worsens safety for everyone. Solitary has been used as a form of repression to retaliate against people who raise complaints or to cover-up abuse after officers brutalize a person and then give a false “assault on staff” charge. We must also pass other laws that all of us support, including Elder Parole and Fair and Timely Parole.”

Assembly Member Sarahana Shrestha said: “Solitary confinement is torture—it doesn’t repair people, it breaks them, and just because someone is in prison, alreadying paying the price of whatever action might have led them there, doesn’t mean they are exempt from basic human rights and humane treatment. Torture can never be a condition of running prisons smoothly. We must uphold the HALT law and change our culture of painting a group of people at the lowest points of their lives as subhuman. And we must commit seriously towards a system that makes everyone safer through treatment, a basic level of dignity afforded to all, and a pathway to getting people out of cycles of violence.”

Kezilar Cornish, VOCAL-NY Leader, said: “This is something really personal to me. Over 14  people killed Robert Brooks. They lynched him. They tortured him. I was Robert Brooks. I gave 15 years in the box. I got strangled many times. I was swollen all over my body. I am  still socially disabled. Can you imagine being inside of that small box? Stop what you are doing. Stop the torture. I still need help right now. We tried to keep our minds sharp so we didn’t fall into the depths of despair. I woke up many times at three in the morning to try to push my nose out of the bars as far as I could. I saw someone who hung themself.  I would scream. I  would hurt myself. I went crazy a few times and came back. Coming back was the victory. We need the HALT Solitary Law implemented so we can uphold human dignity. Everyone deserves to be treated as a human being.”

Roni Minter, The Freedom Unshackled Coalition, said: “I have seen many women come out of solitary confinement after spending two or three years in SHU. When I looked in their eyes, they had changed. They became different people. In addition to prisons, jails are also circumventing the HALT Solitary Law on the county level, including right here in Albany County.  HALT is the law. Prisons and jails have to stop circumventing the law and stop playing with people’s lives. Let’s not lose another life because the culture of corrections think they can beat, rape, and murder our people.”

Assembly Member Valdez said: “It is outrageous that DOCCS continues to systematically put the lives of incarcerated New Yorkers at risk. Solitary confinement doesn’t work. We have safer evidence-based alternatives that do. It is time to stop the torture, fully implement HALT, and create meaningful pathways for release to lower the number of people held in these abusive conditions.”

Assembly Member Otis said: “It is now 2025. This country understood that solitary was wrong in the 1800s. We passed the HALT Solitary Law four years ago, and we had to fight for many years before. We knew this was wrong in the 1800s. It took us years to pass it. We want the HALT Solitary Law implemented now.”

Assembly Member Mitaynes said, “The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision’s unlawful suspension of the HALT Solitary Confinement Law is unacceptable. We do not have to argue about the use of solitary confinement; it is ineffective, causes permanent negative health impacts, and further endangers the lives of staff and incarcerated people. It is time we stop reverting to archaic forms of punishment and begin implementing evidence-based strategies of reform and violence prevention.”

Assemblymember Emily Gallagher said, “New York legislators passed the HALT Act four years ago because of the overwhelming evidence and expert testimony that prolonged use of solitary confinement is torture. Here in New York, we do not believe in torturing people, incarcerated or otherwise. Furthermore, we have decades of data to show us that prolonged solitary confinement leads to rapid and severe mental health deterioration. This does not lead to greater safety for anyone — not incarcerated people, not prison and jail staff, and not those who live in the communities incarcerated people return to once released. HALT is New York law.”

BACKGROUND

On False Claims about HALT and Violence

1. This illegal work stoppage, including complaints about HALT, are nothing but an attempt to distract from the increased scrutiny of officer brutality, sexual violence, and abuse following the lynching and murder of Robert Brooks
2. HALT is not causing violence. That is just a lie. As documented above, all evidence shows that solitary increases violence, while replacing solitary with real alternatives like the MAN program, RSVP, and Merle Cooper actually dramatically reduce violence.
   1. Guards fully control the data and they have been reporting violence is increasing each year for the past 15 years- to use for their political ends, including opposing prison closures, opposing restrictions on solitary, getting pay increases, etc. For example, when they beat up incarcerated people like they did to Robert Brooks, they routinely write the person up for an assault on staff.
   2. Indeed, approximately 98% of so-called assaults on staff in the last three months of available data (Nov. 2024 through Jan. 2025) resulted in no injury (73%) or minor injury (25%) to staff, where minor injury is defined as “injuries that require either no treatment, minimal treatment (scratch, bruise, aches/pain) or precautionary treatment”. Similarly, 99.7% of assaults between incarcerated people resulted in no injury (97%) or minor injury (2.7%) to staff. This data is consistent with data over many years.
   3. A district court judge in the Northern District of New York dismissed a lawsuit NYSCOPBA brought to block implementation of the HALT Solitary Law, finding these same arguments unpersuasive. A couple passages to highlight:
      1. In speaking about the data NYSCOPBA put forward alleging an increase in violence by incarcerated people, the judge found that an “upward trend beginning in 2012, when changes to solitary confinement practices did not begin until 2016, offers little persuasive value.”
      2. The judge also said: “it is difficult for the Court to assume that the increase in violence in New York prisons is attributable to any one factor. … It is particularly difficult for the Court to attribute the increase in violence solely to solitary confinement reform.”
   4. It is false to say that because of HALT there are no consequences for violent actions. People can still be subjected to disciplinary confinement  in RRUs and RMHTUs and DOCCS continues to send people to these punitive units for months and years. Also of course if actual violence can also be charged in criminal court. Moreover, what actually reduces violence is not isolation and torture, but proven alternative interventions (see below)
   5. Officers often brutalize people and then falsely charge them with assaults on staff and throw them in solitary as a cover-up. If Robert Brooks had survived, they would have charged him with assaulting staff and thrown him in solitary.
3. The union has been complaining about HALT for years before it was enacted, as well as any other restrictions on solitary and any other limitations on their power. The legislature heard all of their views for years and years, and after 8 legislative sessions of hearing information from all stakeholders supermajorities of both houses of the legislature passed HALT and the governor (Cuomo) signed it into law.
   1. In other words, the union attempted to stop HALT in the legislature through the democratic political process and were not able to. Then they attempted to stop HALT through the courts and were not able to. They attempted to stop HALT by not implementing it. Because they haven’t been able to stop HALT through any legitimate pathways, they have instead carried out an illegal work stoppage endangering the lives of tens of thousands of people. They still will not succeed.
4. Officers and DOCCS have been systematically violating HALT since it was enacted. The government’s own Justice Center and state Inspector General, as well as the Correctional Association and numerous reporters have documented rampant violations of HALT
   1. Operating legally mandated alternatives as solitary by another name, e.g. without real out of cell time
   2. Sending people to solitary and alternatives for reasons prohibited under the law and issuing extreme sentences. Here is the 2024 court decision finding NY prisons are violating the HALT Solitary Law by sending people to solitary and alternatives without following the law’s strict criteria for what conduct can result in such placements. (Lawsuit by people in prison represented by PLS/NYCLU)
      1. Brief in the case here
      2. Other materials here
      3. NY Times article here
   3. Locking people with disabilities in solitary: Here is information on the pending litigation regarding DOCCS locking people with mental health needs and disabilities in solitary confinement (both in SHU and in purported alternatives that amount to solitary by another name) (lawsuit filed by people in prison represented by Legal Aid Society, Disability Rights Advocates, and a law firm)
      1. Complaint here
      2. NY Times article here
5. The HALT Law itself has forced positive changes that have saved lives and reduced torture
   1. Closure of southport, an abusive all-solitary confinement prison
   2. People who spent twenty and 30 years in solitary have gotten out of solitary and are in general population, alternative units, and out in the community
   3. End of keeplock and SHU reduced to 15 days
   4. Operation of some out-of-cell time and programming
6. DOCCS knows what works to reduce violence. DOCCS has refused to do it. All evidence shows that solitary increases violence, while replacing solitary with real alternatives like MAN program, RSVP, Merle Cooper actually dramatically reduce violence. Yet DOCCS has refused to implement real alternatives and continues to operate solitary by another name

On the Harms of Solitary and the Urgent Need to Implement the HALT Solitary Law

1. Solitary confinement is government torture that inflicts devastating and deadly harm. Solitary causes people to engage in self-mutilation. It causes heart disease. It causes anxiety, depression, and psychosis.
2. Even after release from incarceration, a study of hundreds of thousands of people released from prison in North Carolina over a 15 year period found that people who had spent time in solitary were significantly more likely to die by suicide and other causes. Research shows that even only one or two days in solitary leads to significantly heightened risk of death by accident, suicide, violence, overdose, and other causes.
3. Solitary confinement killed Benjamin Van Zandt, Cachin Anderson, Kalief Browder, Layleen Polanco, and countless others.
4. Contrary to NYSCOPBA claims (see more below), solitary also makes jails and outside communities less safe for everyone by causing people to deteriorate and in turn increasing the risk of harmful acts. Numerous studies, such as here and here show that people who have spent time in solitary or restrictive housing are more likely to be re-arrested after release from incarceration.
5. On the other hand, the evidence is clear: if a system is trying to reduce violence what works much better than solitary is the exact opposite of solitary: pro-social program-based interventions that involve full days of out-of-cell group programming and engagement, like the CAPS program in NYC jails, the Merle Cooper Program in NYS, the RSVP program in San Francisco jails, and the M.A.N. program and other peer-led programs developed by people incarcerated in New York prisons.
   1. For example, the RSVP program included people who had carried out acts of assault, sexual assault, other violent acts, and repeated “heinous” acts. It led to a precipitous drop in violence among participants to the point of having zero incidents over a one year period. People who participated in the program also had dramatically lower rates of re-arrest for violent charges after release from jail.
   2. Best practices in youth and mental health facilities limit isolation to minutes or hours at most, with positive impacts on safety and people’s health and well-being.
6. Based on all of this evidence and more about how solitary causes devastating harm and worsens safety for everyone, a supermajority of both houses of the legislature passed, and the Governor signed, the HALT Solitary Confinement Act into law. The HALT Law places reasonable evidence-based limits on the use of solitary confinement in line with international standards while allowing for alternative forms of separation proven to reduce violence and better protect people’s health.
7. This law was passed after an extensive, years-long deliberative process over the course of eight legislative sessions, with repeated input from all stakeholders, legislative hearings, and careful deliberation by the public and the legislature. Hundreds of civil rights, human rights, mental health, medical, faith, and other organizations endorsed this legislation – from Archbishop Cardinal Dolan and the New York State Catholic Conference to the Mental Health Association of New York State to Rev. Sharpton and the National Action Network. The Editorial Boards at The New York Times, The Albany Times Union, The Altamont Enterprise, The Daily Gazette, and The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle all endorsed this law and urged its enactment.

On the Harms Caused by the Illegal Work Stoppage

1. The illegal work stoppage was intentionally orchestrated to distract from increased scrutiny of prison abuses, led to the deaths of at least nine people, and has put tens of thousands of people in life threatening conditions – locked down in solitary without restricted access to food, medicine, medical care, mental health services, family visits, and other basic services.
2. At least nine people were reported to have died during the illegal work stoppage, and likely other people died and were not reported.
3. As reported by Jan Ransom at the New York Times:
   1. At least one individual, Anthony Douglas, reportedly died by suicide, an all too common result of solitary confinement, like the lockdown conditions endured by people across the system during the illegal work stoppage. Anthony was 67 years old and had already spent nearly 50 years in prison.
   2. At least two individuals died after reportedly not receiving timely medical care, including Jonathan Grant, 61, who had a history of strokes and, despite his medical condition, was left in his cell after being denied requested medical care.
   3. At least two individuals, Franklin Dominguez, 35, and Jeffery Bair, 40, were reportedly found unresponsive in their cells during these lockdowns.
   4. At least two individuals had previously been admitted to a prison regional medical unit, meaning they had significant medical needs, Robert St. Ives, 71 and Zion Gregory, 25.
   5. Several officers reportedly brutally beat Messiah Nantwi, 22, to death in a manner Governor Hochul referred to as “extremely disturbing conduct” and that has resulted in 15 staff being placed on leave.
4. People continue to remain in life threatening conditions.

On What State Officials and Lawmakers Must Do Now to Meet this Moment

1. This must be a moment of reckoning for New York’s prisons after officers brutally beat Robert Brooks and Messiah Nantwi to death. The illegal work stoppage was intentionally orchestrated to distract from increased scrutiny of prison abuses, led to the deaths of at least nine people, and has put tens of thousands of people in life threatening conditions – locked down in solitary without restricted access to food, medicine, medical care, mental health services, family visits, and other basic services.
2. DOCCS must immediately and fully implement the HALT Solitary Confinement Law in order to stop torture, save lives, and improve safety for everyone. 
3. At the same time, as highlighted in a newly released report by the Justice Policy Institute, the legislature must meet this moment to enact legislation to create meaningful opportunities for case-by-case consideration of release and to transform the environment for people inside, including by enacting: Elder Parole (S454/A514), Fair & Timely Parole (S159/A127), Rights Behind Bars (S3763/A1261A), Second Look Act (S.158/A.1283), Earned Time Act (S.342/A.1085), and Marvin Mayfield Act (S.1209/A.1297), Ending Qualified Immunity (S176/A1402), and Challenging Wrongful Convictions (S6319).
4. Also, in this moment with the devastating wrought by the federal administration, the legislature must immediately pass New York for All, S.2235/A3506, Dignity Not Detention, S316/A4181, Access to Representation Act, S141/A270, and the Clemency Justice Act, S394/A403 to help protect our immigrant communities.