Advocates continue pressure to reform prison conditions, seek action from Gov. Hochul

Decarceration advocates are continuing to seek solutions toward the state's prison conditions in lieu of legislation and Gov. Kathy Hochul's reluctance to use her clemency powers toward currently incarcerated individuals this year.

- By TANDY LAU Amsterdam News staff reporter

Sept. 30 protest outside Gov. Kathy Hochul's Manhattan Office. (Courtesy of Release Aging People in Prison Campaign)

(Courtesy of Release Aging People in Prison Campaign)

Earlier this month, the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement (HALT) Solitary campaign petitioned the United Nations to investigate the state's prison system for failing to fully implement the HALT laws, which significantly restrict solitary confinement practices.

"New York State, New York City, and other localities across New York State are engaging in egregious practices that violate their own domestic laws, as well as international human rights law, including through their use of solitary confinement, staff brutality against incarcerated people, extreme lengths of incarceration, and death by incarceration," they wrote. "While New York's prisons and jails have always been sites of racism, brutality, and torture, the current moment presents a particularly acute crisis where state and local officials are directly flouting their own laws to continue, cover up, and distract from their regimes of torture and abuse."

In 2021, New York State passed the HALT laws banning prolonged solitary confinement, quantified by more than 15 consecutive days in isolation, which is regarded as torture under the U.N.'s Nelson Mandela Rules. The legislation also stops corrections officers from retaining someone in a cell for more than 17 hours for three consecutive days in most cases and prevents the practice entirely against people with disabilities or pregnancies.