Require Programs for Confined Teens

Section 2 adds a new paragraph g to correction law 137 (6) providing that inmates under the age of 21 must be given out-of-cell programming and physical exercise when in segregated confinement and may not be held in punitive isolation or placed in adult solitary confinement units. There is an emergency exception which would allow the placement of such an inmate in an adult solitary confinement unit for no more than 15 days if there is an unacceptable risk to other inmates or staff

Section 3 provides for an effective date.

Justification

New York has about 1600 young offenders under the age of 21 in our state prison system. Research has shown that people of that age do not have fully mature brains and use different neurological pathways for deci- sion-making than older people. Isolation, restricted movement and lack of stimulation affect young people more severely than adults in that both their bodies and minds are still developing. In spite of this, young offenders in our correctional facilities are subject to the same kinds of prolonged disciplinary sanctions as adults in the system.

At any given moment there are approximately 3,500 New York state prison- ers, or 7% of the prison population, being housed in segregated disci- plinary units, known as Special Housing Units (SHU). Inmates in those units are locked into their cells up to 23 hours a day, with one hour of recreation time. Out-of-cell recreation is usually spent alone in a bare outdoor cage. Inmates in SHU are denied commissary privileges, phone calls, most personal property and most programming, including educa- tional programming They have restricted visitation privileges or may lose visitation privileges altogether, and are unable to attend reli- gious services. In some cases, a restricted diet may be given as punish- ment for misbehavior when the inmate is being punished for food-related misconduct. Some inmates may be in SHU for several years. In contrast the Office of Children and Family Services, which runs New York's juve- nile justice secure and limited-secure facilities, drily permits one day of room confinement for the young people in its custody. A 17-year old in OCFS custody is thus treated entirely differently than an 18-year old in an adult correctional facility. According to an investigation by the New York Civil Liberties Union, only about 16% of the inmates in SHU are

placed there for incidents involving assaults or weapons, so the majori- ty of inmates in SHU are there for non-violent misbehavior and drug use.

Heavy reliance on solitary confinement is not only a state prison poli- cy. In March 2012, the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Correction testified at a city council budget hearing that the use of solitary confinement had increased 44% at Rikers Island over the previ- ous two years. While the over-use of solitary confinement is being reex- amined and questioned in much of the country, with resulting policy changes in states as diverse as Maine, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Mississippi and Colorado, New York continues its reliance on such confinement.

Under the terms of an interim settlement agreement in a federal civil rights law suit, Peoples v. Fischer, 11-CIV2694 (SAS), the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision has agreed to imple- ment reforms in SHU that should decrease the SHU population and allow individuals to earn incentives including limited time in programming in some cases. This bill seeks to codify and expand that agreement to apply to all adolescents and young adults in state and local correctional facilities. It is time to end the cruel practice of placing young people in punitive isolation without sustained human contact or educational and therapeutic programming. Young inmates should be socialized, not isolated.

Fiscal implications

To be determined.

Effective date

One hundred eighty days after the act becomes law.