New York, NY – Today, as the NYC Board of Correction jails oversight body held its monthly meeting and following their recent unannounced visit to Rikers Island on May 7, Assembly Members Jessica González-Rojas and Nathalia Fernandez called out the Board’s plan to implement solitary confinement by another name and urged the Board to amend its proposed rules to truly and fully end solitary confinement in New York City jails. Assembly MembersGonzález-Rojas and Fernandez conducted an unannounced visit to Rikers Island last Friday, May 7, including seeing the NIC Structurally Restrictive Housing Units, where people in purported alternatives to solitary under the Board’s proposed rules will be locked alone in a cage 24 hours a day. Their visit follows similar recent visits taken by other state lawmakers. Following these legislators’ visit to these units, Assembly Member González-Rojas and Fernandez issued the following statements:

“No matter what name we give it, solitary confinement is torture and has no place in our city. The Mayor promised to end solitary confinement and he must fulfill his promise. During our unannounced visit to Rikers Island this past Friday, we saw the NIC Structurally Restrictive Housing Units that are meant to be alternatives to solitary confinement under the Board of Correction’s proposed rules. Being locked in these cages alone for 24 hours a day is nothing more than solitary confinement by another name. Since the Board’s proposed rules fail to end solitary confinement, we call on the New York City Council to enact legislation that will finally and fully end solitary in all its forms. This must end now. We owe it to Layleen, Kalief, and so many others,” said Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas.

“Kalief Browder and Layleen Polanco lost their lives because of solitary confinement, as have countless others. We cannot have any more political games. To call something out of cell time when a person is locked alone in a cage is beyond absurd. New York City needs to truly end solitary confinement in all its forms, and it needs to do that immediately,” said Assemblymember Nathalia Fernandez.

BACKGROUND:

While the New York City Board of Corrections and Mayor de Blasio promised to fully end solitary confinement in New York City jails, under the Board’s current proposed rules, the City plans to implement solitary confinement by another name in these units - which are depicted in these recently released photographs obtained through a FOIL request and this rendering publicly released by the Board -rather than actually end solitary as promised. Under the proposed rules, people will be held alone in a cage 24 hours a day in these units and can be held in these units indefinitely. This is solitary confinement by another name.

Specifically, while purporting to end solitary confinement, the Board of Correction’s proposed rules create a new form of solitary confinement by another name, where people can be held alone 24 hours a day, indefinitely, and can be placed in, and kept in, such confinement through Department of Correction proceedings with no opportunity to be represented by counsel. If the Board’s proposed rules were enacted as currently written, they would violate the recently enacted HALT Solitary Confinement Act, which applies to all state prisons and local jails in New York State, including New York City jails, and which prohibits solitary confinement beyond 15 consecutive days in all circumstances, requires all people in solitary up to those 15 days to have four hours of out of cell programming, and generally requires that people in alternatives to solitary have at least seven hours of out of cell congregate activity with other people that is comparable to the general jail population.

Solitary confinement is torture. It causes immense suffering. It’s disproportionately inflicted on Black & Latinx people, and transgender and gender non-conforming people. There is an historic opportunity to finally and fully end solitary confinement to stop suffering, save lives, and increase safety for people incarcerated, staff, and outside communities. To effectively end solitary, there should be no carve outs and no loopholes. Every incarcerated person must have access to a minimum of 14 hours of out-of-cell per day, in line with the current minimum standards for people in jails generally, with meaningful human engagement and congregate programming without restraints. Addressing the root causes of harmful behaviors requires engagement, not isolation. Limiting people’s out-of-cell time does not address safety or violence concerns, but it can cause devastating harm. For any separation from the general jail population, there must be strong procedural safeguards, including true and meaningful access to counsel.

It has been nearly ten months since the Mayor announced New York City would fully end solitary confinement. The City’s jails oversight body, the Board of Correction, promised it would adopt rules to end solitary by October 2020. We are now in April 2021 and the Board of Correction has put forward proposed rules that will create a new form of solitary confinement by another name. Layleen Polanco died in solitary over 22 months ago. Kalief Browder died because of solitary confinement almost six years ago. Bradley Ballard died in solitary over seven years ago. Jason Echeverria died in solitary over eight years ago. Carina Montes died in solitary over 18 years ago.

In October 2019, community members provided detailed rules for ending solitary to go along with a Blueprint for Ending Solitary Confinement, which has been endorsed by the City Council Speaker, Public Advocate, Comptroller, Council Criminal Justice Committee Chair, and numerous City Council members. The Mayor, the Board of Correction, and the City Council all have the power to end solitary confinement. They must do so immediately and fully, including guaranteeing that all people in the City jails have access to at least 14 hours out-of-cell per day, with meaningful human engagement and programming.

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, and dramatically increase the rates of self-mutilation and suicide, including in New York City jails and New York State prisons.

Recent 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. One study published last summer 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. This study was followed by another one last fall which found solitary confinement is associated with increased rates of death after release, particularly by suicide as well as overdose.

In addition to causing devastating harm, and directly related to the impacts of that harm, solitary does nothing to improve safety or reduce violence. Evidence shows that the opposite of solitary – with full days of out-of-cell effective engagement – is what is effective at reducing violence and improving safety. The CAPS program in the NYC jails (alternative to solitary that is based on therapeutic approaches rather than punitive ones or isolation) has shown positive outcomes for reducing violence and self-injury. The Resolve to Stop Violence Project (RSVP) in San Francisco jails – based on engagement and programming rather than punishment and isolation – led to dramatic reductions in violence in jails and violence in outside communities. RSVP was based on engagement and programming and again not on punishment or isolation. The Merle Cooper program was the opposite of solitary - with people who are incarcerated having full days out of a cell, programming, the ability to earn the right to not be locked in at night - and had positive outcomes on violence, and was praised by staff, administrators, and participants. Of note, in Colorado “corrections officers who had initially opposed [limits on solitary] changed their minds after they began to see positive results.”