Disability rights groups and legal organizations have filed a class action lawsuit against the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) and the New York State Department of Mental Health for unlawfully placing people with disabilities in solitary confinement. Disability rights groups, the Legal Aid Society, and the law firm Winston & Strawn LLP filed the lawsuit on behalf of people with disabilities incarcerated in facilities across New York State. The groups charge that prisons across the state continue to violate the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement (HALT) Act.
HALT, which went into effect on March 31, 2022, was designed by advocates to significantly reduce solitary confinement in New York State prisons and jails. It aims to limit isolation periods to a maximum of 15 days and completely eliminate solitary confinement for the most vulnerable, disabled and other “special populations.” Before HALT, prisons used unlimited powers to lock up thousands of people in solitary confinement, sometimes for decades. Many of those locked up were disabled.
Solitary confinement means being confined alone in an extremely small space for an extended period of time without any meaningful rehabilitation programs or treatment. People in solitary confinement are denied visitation rights and cannot make phone calls, receive mail, or speak to others. The inhumane conditions of solitary confinement have been proven to have serious physical, mental, and emotional effects on incarcerated people.
Solitary confinement also increases the chances that prison life will be fatal. People held in solitary confinement have significantly higher suicide rates after release. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 26 states and the District of Columbia currently have laws that restrict or ban solitary confinement in writing. With HALT, New York’s large prison system has an opportunity to set a precedent that will make the overall treatment of incarcerated people more humane.
A recent study found that roughly two-thirds of people in prisons are disabled, a shockingly high percentage. The impact of solitary confinement on people with disabilities is even more severe because isolated people are almost always denied medical care and resources. In addition to the mental health effects, solitary confinement can cause chronic headaches, vision loss, digestive issues, sensitivity to smells and noise, and sleep disorders.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit include Maurice Anthony, a 42-year-old Black man who has been incarcerated since 2014 and is legally blind, and Andy Gunneco, a 39-year-old Black and Latino man who is hearing and mentally impaired and has been incarcerated since 2019.
Anthony was supposed to receive accommodations based on his disability, but DOCCS kept him in solitary confinement for almost two years, often for as long as 23 hours a day. HALT defines solitary confinement as “any form of solitary confinement that exceeds 17 hours per day.” But Joshua Rosenthal, supervising attorney for Disability Rights Advocates, said prisons have been skirting the law for years by using other language to justify isolating people with disabilities. Or, they let them out for the minimum amount of time necessary to comply with the law, still isolating them and depriving them of recreation, resources, and programs.
According to the lawsuit, Anthony described his solitary confinement as being “locked in a trunk” or “locked in a coffin” with “no way out.” In these conditions, he experienced claustrophobia, extreme frustration, hopelessness, and even blackouts. Guneko has had similar experiences, with his depression and anxiety exacerbated by the forced isolation.
Some inmates enter prison already with disabilities, but many become disabled while in prison due to solitary confinement, prison fights, physical abuse by staff, malnutrition, denial of toilet access, and other torturous conditions and experiences. Since 2020, prisons have been able to barely contain the spread of COVID-19 within their facilities, exacerbating these poor conditions.
Another plaintiff, Stephanie Peña, a 23-year-old Black and Latina woman, has been incarcerated by DOCCS since 2022 and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and other disorders. She said solitary confinement has “destroyed” her and significantly increased her mental and emotional distress. The lawsuit details how she lives in constant fear that a misstep or perceived disobedience could lead to even more severe isolation.
Solitary confinement is often used as a punishment, as retaliation against inmates who try to assert their rights. Jose Vega, a disabled former inmate from New York who uses a wheelchair, said corrections officials often abuse their power by issuing tickets for solitary confinement to disabled people who simply ask for accommodations.
Vega said that when he first entered prison, his special wheelchair was taken away and he was given a regular one, and when he was placed in solitary confinement, he was denied necessary medical resources, such as a catheter.
“They target the most vulnerable and make an example of them so others think, ‘this could happen to me,'” Vega said.
After suing DOCCS in 1997, Vega avoided being jailed again during his more than 23 years in prison because of public support and DOCCS’s fear of public scrutiny, he said.
DOCCS has been sued multiple times in recent years for discrimination against people with disabilities. Those lawsuits include refusing to give painkillers to people with more severe chronic illnesses, refusing to give paraplegic people like Vega access to catheters, and excluding people with disabilities from rehabilitation programs.
The new class action lawsuit will likely represent hundreds of people with disabilities who are in solitary confinement but are not reported, Rosenthal said. According to the motion seeking class action certification, DOCCS’s own data shows the facility holds dozens of people with disabilities in its Special Housing Units (SHUs) each month. But because the data does not reflect people with disabilities who have specific mental health needs or low-level medical needs as defined by HALT, the actual number of people with disabilities held in torturous conditions at DOCCS is unknown and almost certainly higher than the number reported.
Victor Pate, co-chair of the HALT No Solitary Confinement Campaign, was one of the driving forces behind the passage of HALT and continues to use his own experiences with prisons and solitary confinement to push for reform. He now serves on the front lines advocating for proper implementation of HALT, educating lawmakers and the public, and running public pressure campaigns with the HALT No Solitary Confinement Campaign.
“They have violated every element of the bill… We are seeking full compliance with the law to the letter,” Pate said. “DOCCS must be held accountable.”
Pate, who has been out of prison for 25 years, says that despite consistent reforms, inmates’ treatment has only gotten worse. In the two years since HALT was passed, Pate has heard from many inmates that DOCCS is not giving them the out-of-cell time they legally require, and that officers are now tying people to chairs and imposing more severe punishments. Meanwhile, residential rehabilitation units that were meant to be alternative spaces for people with disabilities to receive care have become just another form of solitary confinement, further isolating them from the general population and depriving them of socialization, programs, and resources.
“We’re leaving people in a worse state than when we came in,” Pate said. [is DOCCS] Should they be allowed to harm the very people they are supposed to be responsible for recovering, supporting and preparing for reintegration into their communities?”
Pate fears prison conditions are as bad now as they were before the Attica prison riots, and that if conditions continue like this, further riots are inevitable.
“We live in an unbalanced society where you and I are held to the standards of accountability that people in these positions are held to. [running prisons] “That’s not the case,” Pate said. He said the justice center, which is supposed to be responsible for monitoring prisons’ compliance with HALT, has largely failed to do its job. “I’ve spoken to people who have been incarcerated and are still experiencing solitary confinement, and their experience is that DOCCS is free to do what it wants, as if HALT never even passed.”