NEW YORK (WBEN) – Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday signed legislation that limits the use of solitary confinement in New York state's prison system.
The HALT Solitary Confinement Act restricts the amount of time an incarcerated person can spend in solitary confinement to 15 days. The law takes effect in a year.
The legislation also defines and reduces the number of disciplinary infractions eligible for solitary confinement and exempts certain vulnerable populations, including the young, elderly, pregnant women, people with disabilities, and people with a serious mental illness.
"Generations of incarcerated men and women have been subjected to inhumane punishment in solitary confinement with little to no human interaction for extended periods of time and many experience emotional and physical trauma that can last for years," Cuomo said in a statement Thursday.
"By signing the HALT Solitary Confinement Act into law we are reforming New York's criminal justice system by helping ensure the effective implementation of proven, humane corrections policies," the governor said.
The state Assembly and Senate voted to pass the reform bill last month.
Critics say solitary confinement is cruel and that the punishment is more likely to be used on Black and Latino inmates. Advocates for the practice, including corrections leaders, have said it helps them separate violent offenders from non-violent offenders.
Among the reforms in the legislation are:
· A limitation on the amount of time people can spend in segregated confinement or special housing units to 15 days;
· The creation of Residential Rehabilitations Units that will afford incarcerated individuals out-of-cell programming and trauma informed care, to address the underlying actions that resulted in their discipline;
· The establishment of a minimum amount of out-of-cell time, therapeutic programming and/or recreation;
· A restriction on the placement of youth, pregnant women, elderly and individuals with a serious mental illness into segregated confinement; and
· An increase in the training of all staff that work within special housing units on de-escalation techniques, implicit bias, trauma-informed care, and dispute resolution.
New York City is close to mostly eliminating solitary confinement at its massive Rikers Island jail facility based on long-running complaints the disciplinary practice is outdated and a form of torture.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
