A state judge in Albany granted a temporary injunction forcing New York State to fully implement a law sharply limiting solitary confinement in the prisons after elements of the law were suspended following the 22-day prison guards strike earlier this year, court records show.
Judge Daniel Lynch ruled the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision could not invoke emergency provisions to suspend the so-called HALT Solitary Confinement Act and keep inmates in their cells more than 17 hours a days or suspend programming and recreation in the prisons.
“The court understands the defendants’ concerns regarding DOCCS staffing and the resulting safety risks,” Lynch wrote. “However HALT is a duly enacted law and the people have a strong interest in seeing the implementation of laws enacted by their elected representatives.”
Lynch set July 11 as the date the order would become effective, in order to give prison officials time to adjust, he wrote.
“The department is reviewing the decision,” DOCCS spokesman Thomas Mailey said.
The initial class action lawsuit, Alfonso Smalls vs. DOCCS Commissioner Daniel Martuscello, was filed by the Legal Aid Society on April 17 after Martuscello ordered elements of HALT suspended Feb. 20 due to the strike.
When the prison guards strike ended on March 10, Gov. Kathy Hochul fired roughly 2,000 officers who had refused to return to work — increasing an already existing staffing gap.
But the law’s suspension meant that inmates were being kept in their cells longer than the law allows, isolated and deprived of basic services, the lawsuit alleged.
Smalls, the lawsuit alleges, was isolated in his cell for 22 to 24 hours a day from Feb. 20 through at least April 17, when the suit was filed. During the prison guards’ strike, he was locked in 24 hours a day, allowed to leave only for three 8-minute showers, the society said. After the strike ended, Smalls was allowed to leave his cell for just 90 minutes to one hour and 45 minutes a day.
“We are grateful that the court recognized the grave harm caused by DOCCS’s unlawful suspension of the HALT Solitary Law and acted to stop it,” said Antony Gemmell, supervising attorney with the Prisoners’ Rights Project at The Legal Aid Society.
“This decision reaffirms that no agency — regardless of political pressure — can unilaterally disregard laws enacted to protect human rights,” he said. “HALT was passed to end the torture of prolonged solitary confinement, and this injunction is a critical step toward ensuring the state honors that commitment and upholds the dignity of those in its custody.”