By Black Star News
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
Monday, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) announced that they have filed a contempt motion against the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) for repeatedly, and illegally, subjecting inmates to extended time in solitary confinement.
According to the NYCLU, “Last year, following a lawsuit brought by the NYCLU and Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York (PLS), a court found that the department had violated HALT, the New York law restricting the use of solitary confinement.”
Ify Chikezie, staff attorney at the New York Civil Liberties Union, said solitary confinement is being used as torture against Black and Brown people.
“The drumbeat of evidence the NYCLU and PLS have reviewed is loud and clear: DOCCS continues to subject incarcerated people to solitary confinement for dubious reasons, in plain violation of both a court’s order and the HALT Act,” said Chikezie. “Solitary confinement is torture and it is disproportionately used against Black and Brown people. In the face of these persistent violations, we are asking the court to take action, hold DOCCS in contempt, and force them to follow the law.”
The NYCLU also notes that, “Under the HALT Act and a 2024 court’s order, DOCCS is required to make certain written, individualized, and fact-specific determinations before placing any person in extended disciplinary confinement. Yet, evidence reviewed by the NYCLU and PLS reveals that the department is still breaking the rules by not vacating past illegal punishments and by giving new ones that violate the HALT Act. For example, DOCCS unlawfully placed an incarcerated individual in solitary confinement for allegedly throwing coffee at a correctional officer. DOCCS illegally placed another individual in solitary confinement for having tobacco and a lighter. In both cases, DOCCS failed to meet the HALT requirement that the acts were “so heinous and destructive” that they justified such placements.
“The NYCLU motion requests the court to find DOCCS in contempt of the 2024 court’s order, immediately comply with and remedy all ongoing violations of the court’s order, and produce data to demonstrate its compliance with the court’s order and the HALT Act.”
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