NYC Activists Say Solitary Confinement Continues Under a Different Name
While Mayor Bill de Blasio has touted the success of its alternative disciplinary model and the banning of solitary confinement in New York City, activists insist the practice continues.
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Though the mayor claimed to end solitary confinement in New York City jails by passing the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act, hundreds of members of civil rights and racial justice groups have signed a letter to City Council Speaker Corey Johnson requesting that the city’s legislature take up new action targeting solitary confinement offenses, claiming that the Department of Corrections and Board of Corrections have figured out a way around the bill, reports AM New York. While Mayor De Blasio boasted that through the new alternative disciplinary model, Risk Management Accountability System (RMAS), “New York City is going further than any jail system in America to ban solitary confinement once and for all,” it is reported that people are still being indefinitely sealed away, alone, in a cell for 23 hours a day thanks to a loophole that violates the HALT Solitary Confinement Act requiring inmates to be provided with access to at least 7 hours of congregate programming and activities.
Advocates say that individuals are being held within a pen-like cell consisting of two cages. Inmates can be shut away in a small cage for the vast majority of the day before being shifted into a small, adjacent extension for an hour, which constitutes as recreational time but violates the promised 10 hours a day for out-of-cell time and constitutes a human rights issue. Civil rights activists say that these deficiencies must be addressed, ensuring a true compliance with the state law and ending solitary confinement, stressing that individuals must have full days outside of their cell. Additionally, this time must include at least 7 hours of meaningful interactions with others to socialize in a shared space. A spokesperson for Speaker Johnson said he is reviewing the letter. A Corrections Department spokesperson indicated that the agency and the Board of Corrections “worked to craft” the new rule that “provides fewer hours out of cell for people adjudicated to restrictive housing.” They denied that any such prisoner is locked in for 23 hours.
