N.Y. Prisons Have Ignored Limits on Solitary Confinement, Judge Finds

New York State prisons have been illegally holding prisoners too long in solitary confinement, despite a law that limited the practice.

The decision this week from Justice Kevin R. Bryant came a year after the New York Civil Liberties Union filed the class-action case against the State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, charging that prison officials had an internal policy to circumvent limits on time that prisoners can be held alone.

State law sets a strict mandate for when extended solitary confinement can be ordered for a prisoner, said Antony Gemmell, director of detention litigation with the New York Civil Liberties Union. And if prison officials impose solitary for more than three days, to a maximum of 15 days that the law allows, “they had to provide a very good reason for doing so,” he said.

The corrections department “is just basically not doing that in any situation that we could find,” Mr. Gemmell said.

In the order, Justice Bryant ordered the state to comply with the law’s requirement to provide findings to justify extended solitary confinement. He also found that solitary confinement rulings made according to the agency’s internal policy rather than the law “are hereby declared as null and void.”

The Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act, known as the HALT law, was signed by former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in 2021, restricting prisons and jails from holding people in solitary confinement for more than 15 consecutive days. The policy, which went into effect in 2022, also bars the use of solitary confinement for several groups, including minors and people with certain disabilities.