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Contact: Mark Mahoney
Associate
Director, Media Services and Public Affairs
Mmahoney@nysba.org
518-487-5532
January 25, 2013
STATE BAR ASSOCIATION CALLS FOR RESTRICTIONS
ON USE OF LONG-TERM SOLITARY CONFINEMENT
Citing strong evidence that demonstrates long-term negative impacts
of housing inmates in solitary confinement, the New York State Bar
Association today called for significant cutbacks in the use of
long-term inmate isolation and new protocols for separating violent and
nonviolent prisoners.
The Association’s House of Delegates approved the report on
solitary confinement, prepared by the Committee on Civil Rights, at its
January 25 meeting in New York City.
Of the approximately 56,000 inmates being held in New York’s 60
state prisons, about 4,500—or 8 percent— are in solitary
confinement at any time, according to the report. Nearly 2,800 New York
inmates are serving more than a year in solitary confinement, the report
states. A disproportionate number of inmates in isolation are
African-Americans and Latinos.
“Inmates in long-term solitary confinement often suffer serious
psychological problems, including depression, hallucinations, emotional
breakdowns and suicidal behavior,” said State Bar Association
President Seymour W. James (The Legal Aid Society in New York City.)
“New York needs to adopt other means of separating prisoners who
violate institutional rules from the general prison population without
resorting to such harmful and outdated measures.”
Civil Rights Committee Chair Diana Sagorika Sen of New York City said,
“The practice is applied at a significantly higher rate to blacks
and Latinos, and unduly targets those with mental health and substance
abuse problems.”
The report cites numerous experts and studies on solitary
confinement’s detrimental effects on mental health in reaching its
conclusions. “Courts of law, legal scholars, medical commentators
and independent observers have documented the wide range of deleterious
effects that solitary confinement can have on the confined
individual,” the report states.
In support of its recommendations, the committee cited a report by the
New York Civil Liberties Union issued in October 2012 that found that
New York’s use of solitary confinement is “arbitrary and
unjustified, harms prison and corrections staff, and negatively impacts
prison and community safety.”
Solitary confinement, according to several studies, has been shown to
have an impact on inmate suicide rates, particularly among those
suffering from mental illness. A 1996 U.S. Department of Justice study
concluded that “based chiefly on overwhelming consistent research,
isolation should be avoided whenever possible.”
One inmate who was subjected to long-term solitary confinement,
quoted in a report by Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York,
compared being released into the general population after years in
isolation to “leaving a hungry dog in a cage and then releasing
it. … There is nothing beneficial or therapeutic regarding this
confinement.”
During a forum on solitary confinement held during the State Bar’s
Annual Meeting in January 2012, David Fathi, director of the American
Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project in New York,
agreed that there are times when certain inmates need to be separated
from others. But he questioned the methods and extent of the confinement
and whether long-term solitary confinement actually improves prison
safety.
In addition to the extreme psychological effects that long-term
isolation has on inmates, particularly the mentally ill, substance
abusers and young inmates, the practice also promotes racial tensions in
prison and contributes to additional violent behavior within the prison
after isolated inmates are returned to the general population, the
report states.
Among the recommendations in the report approved by the House of
Delegates for addressing problems associated with solitary confinement
in New York’s prisons are:
• Solitary confinement should be profoundly
restricted in state prisons and locally operated jails by adopting
strict standards to ensure it is used in very limited and legitimate
circumstances.
• Prison and jail officials should adopt stringent criteria
for separating violent and nonviolent prisoners; set standards for
ensuring separation under the “least restrictive conditions
practicable;” identify inmates who should not be in solitary
confinement; and reduce the number of Special Housing Unit beds.
• Solitary confinement sentences should be limited to no more
than 15 days. Craig Haney, a renowned solitary confinement expert, is
quoted in the report as saying that negative psychological effects take
effect within 10 days
• The state Legislature should enact measures needed to
restrict the use of solitary confinement in state and local facilities
across the state. In addition, it should conduct public
hearings to
to examine the harmful effects of long-term solitary confinement.
The report is available at www.nysba.org/solitaryconfinement.
The New York State Bar Association, with 76,000 members, is the largest
voluntary state bar association in the country. It was founded in
1876.
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