End Solitary for Pregnant Inmates

Section II adds a new paragraph (g) to subdivision 6 of section 137 of the correction law. Section III sets forth the effective date.

Justification

Solitary confinement is overused in New York prisons and jails. At any given time, approximately 8% of the state prison population is in the special housing unit, known as SHU, but only around 16% of those inmates are placed in such housing units because they committed violent offenses. Of the 84% of inmates placed in SHU for non-violent offenses, many committed disciplinary infractions involving misbehavior such as being out of place, possessing some kind of contraband other than weap- ons, failing to obey an order from a correctional officer or smoking marijuana. The average length of stay in SHU in state prisons was five months in a recent survey conducted by the Correctional Association.

Solitary confinement in this state involves locking a person in a small cell, generally about the size of an average apartment bathroom, for 23 hours a day, with one hour of exercise in an outdoor caged recreation area similar to a dog kennel. Inmates in SHU are not permitted to eat their own food or buy commissary items, including personal hygiene items and fresh vegetables and fruit. They have very limited personal property and cannot attend programs or make phone calls, have cell-side sick call and are left without meaningful social contacts or personal freedom of motion. Inmates in SHU are more likely to attempt self-harm, commit suicide and suffer from anxiety and depression. The UN Rapporteur on Torture has specifically found that New York has engaged in torture of at least three inmates in long-term solitary confinement in state correctional facilities, simply by virtue of placing them under the same kinds of conditions of confinement shared by all inmates held in SHU.

While solitary confinement is difficult on all inmates, it is an excru- ciating hardship on pregnant women. Constricted movement and restricted access to medical and mental health care alone, even without the other deprivations inherent in solitary confinement, make time spent in SHU a very harsh punishment for a pregnant woman. Unless a pregnant woman poses a severe and immediate threat to the safety of other people, she should not be placed in SHU. If placed in SHU under exception circum- stances, she should be released as soon as it is safe to do so in order to receive the care, exercise, and nutrition critical in every pregnan- cy. Under the terms of an interim settlement agreement in a federal civil rights law suit, Peoples v. Fischer, 11-CIV-2694 (SAS), the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision has agreed to a presumption against placing pregnant women in SHU unless there are exceptional circumstances. This bill would codify and expand that agree- ment to ensure that the state does not back slide and that pregnant women are not sent back to isolation if a final settlement agreement is not reached. Since Correction Law Section 137 applies to local correc- tional facilities as well as the prison system, this new subdivision will also apply to pregnant women in jails throughout New York.

Legislative history

2018:S.4795 - Referred to Crime Victims/A.1610- Passed Assembly

2017:S.4795 - Referred to Crime Victims/A.1610- Passed Assembly

2016:S.5729 - Referred to Crime Victims/A.1347- Passed Assembly

2015:S.5729- Referred to Crime Victims/A.1347- Passed Assembly

2014:A.09550- Rozic

Fiscal impact on the state

None.

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately.