Activists ask U.N. to investigate solitary confinement in NY prisons

The HALT Solitary Campaign is turning to the United Nations over what it calls international human rights violations happening in New York state prisons.

The campaign filed a complaint with both the U.N. special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment and special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. In the complaint, the campaign alleges that the state, as well as localities including New York City, have engaged in “egregious practices” that violate local, state and international human rights laws. The complaint specifically cites prison and jail use of solitary confinement, staff abuse, long sentences and deaths while incarcerated. 

This is the first time that criminal justice and prison reform advocates have filed such a complaint with the U.N. “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,” the complaint reads.

The U.N. holds the position that the use of solitary confinement for a period of longer than 15 consecutive days constitutes torture. Rules adopted by the body also disallow the use of solitary as a punishment and for people with diagnosed mental health disorders. The HALT Solitary Confinement Law in New York ostensibly prohibits solitary for longer than 15 days and requires a certain amount of out-of-cell programming. Advocates have long charged that state prisons regularly flout the statute.

The 34-page document kicks off its argument by highlighting the recent beating deaths of Robert Brooks at Marcy Correctional Facility and Messiah Natwi at Mid-State Correctional Facility. Some 17 corrections officers were implicated in the killing of Brooks, which was caught on camera, and several have already pleaded guilty. The deaths garnered significant attention and prompted the Legislature to pass a package of prison reform bills, which still await Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signature. 

The coalition also spoke about the multi-week wildcat strike by corrections officers around the state that caused major disruptions in prisons earlier this year. “This illegal action led to massive lockdowns across the state prison system, leaving tens of thousands of New Yorkers locked in solitary confinement in life threatening conditions,” the complaint reads, noting that a reported 12 people died over the course of the strike. Even after the work stoppage came to an end, corrections staff remained diminished due to firings and the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision continued to enact a partial suspension of the HALT Law. The Legal Aid Society sued over the suspension and won a preliminary injunction meant to require full compliance with the law – an order that the Legal Aid Society claims DOCCS has not followed. 

Though spurred by recent events, the complaint alleges the abuses and violations of law are long-standing. The HALT Solitary Campaign has asked the U.N. special rapporteurs to launch an investigation into “the human rights implications of New York state and local officials’ rampant human rights abuses,” and issue a report on the findings. The coalition also asked for individual probes into every death that occurs in custody.

The complaint urges the U.N. to recommend the passage of a number of parole and sentencing reform measures, including the Second Look Act and Elder Parole. “Governor Hochul and New York lawmakers and officials must finally meet this moment, vastly expand meaningful pathways to release from deadly prisons and jails and fully implement the HALT Solitary Law and Local Law 42 (in New York City) to stop the torture and abuse,” Jerome Wright, co-director of the HALT Solitary Campaign, said in a statement.