Advocates urge City Council Speaker Corey Johnson to help end solitary confinement

Advocacy groups have called on New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson to help pass legislation that would halt solitary confinement completely.

The legislation, Intro 2173,  has 34 co-sponsors in support of ending solitary confinement in the city’s jails and now requires Johnson to bring the bill to the floor for a vote. Advocates from the coalition #HALTsolitary held a rally outside City Hall Monday in support of the legislation.

Several of the groups, along with 11 members of Congress, also have sent a letter to Johnson pressing him to call for the vote.

“We have a supermajority. The will of the people is that solitary is officially ended in New York City and we are demanding that the speaker bring a vote to the floor,” Jerome Wright a survivor of solitary confinement said at the rally, as reported by The Villager.

While the state Senate passed the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act (HALT) Act this year, which limits solitary confinement to 15 days, advocacy groups are calling for a complete stop to it. 

In New York state, Black people make up 18% of the population but account for 48% of the population in state prisons. Additionally, Black and Latino populations make up 70% of those in state prison and make up four-fifths of those in solitary confinement.

“Solitary confinement is torture, and it is long past time for us to fix the institutional problems that have plagued our criminal legal system since its inception of our nation,” said the advocates and elected officials in their letter to Johnson. The letter goes on to mention names of people who have died because of solitary confinement, including Layleen Polanco and Kalief Browder.

“It was absolute torture, there is no other name for it. Imagine being a woman and you are menstruating and they (the guards) don’t give you sanitary napkins or a shower. One time, I had to take my jumper and rip it up and use it to catch the blood, and they gave me extra days for destroying DOC (Department of Correction) property.” said Candie Hailey-Means, a member of the Jails Action Coalition.

With support coming from New York’s Democratic elected officials, advocates are hoping that Johnson will bring the legislation to the floor to vote and end solitary confinement once and for all.