No More Loners: New York State Changes Inmate Rules

In March 2022, a law signed by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo will come into force, according to which it will be prohibited to put criminals in solitary confinement for more than 15 days in a row. Writes about it with the BBC.

Also, the innovation provides for an absolute prohibition of solitary confinement for minors and people with certain diseases.

“The most disgusting side of prison life. There is no end, no beginning, there is only reason, which can start throwing out all sorts of tricks, "- shared his thought about solitary confinement Nelson Mandela. In 2015, the UN adopted a set of rules he wrote that protect the rights of convicts.

In March 2022, one of the Mandela rules will take effect in the state of New York. It will become the first state in the country to ban the imprisonment of criminals in solitary confinement for more than 15 days in a row.

A prisoner's memory of suffering alone

One has only to imagine if you had to spend years alone in a small cell, constantly hearing people screaming in despair in the same loners in the neighborhood? Candy Haley, a mother of two who was sent to prison on murder charges, spent three years in such a room. The charges were later dropped, but as soon as the woman was released from prison, she made a series of suicide attempts.

“I went to hell. The cell was like an elevator in which you were stuck for 24 hours, says Haley, who was sent to solitary confinement at Rikers Prison in 2012 for what she said was minor violations of prison rules. "All you think about there is how to kill yourself."

According to official statistics, before the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, solitary confinement occupied about 60 yew. human.

Why were solitary confinement needed

Solitary confinement (officially - isolation) - was originally supposed to ensure the safety of "peaceful" prisoners by protecting them from dangerous and violent criminals. But loners are being used in the United States much more often than expected, and not always in order to maintain order.

Most often, a loner acts as a punishment system for minor violations of the rules. Prisoners, many of whom suffer from mental illness, are sent to isolation wards, often for long periods.

Removing a prisoner from society was recognized as a dangerous practice in the United States as early as the 1890s. Despite this, 100 years later, in 1983, after the murder of two prison officers by prisoners in Marion, Illinois, the practice of isolation returned on an unprecedented scale, including the use of the so-called Supermax prisons, where the most dangerous criminals are sent and where they are by default. kept in isolation.

What happens to a person during isolation

“Solitary confinement has been used to detain tens of thousands of people for years,” said Homer Venters, a former chief physician of the New York City prison system.

This is despite strong medical evidence that isolation can cause serious mental health problems.

“I have had many patients who very quickly developed auditory and visual hallucinations. This is because, alone, they are deprived of all the elements of human life. I'm not even talking about the inability to talk to people - they just don't know what time it is, ”explained Dr. Venters.

Billy Blake, who was convicted of murder, has been imprisoned in a small cell in a prison in upstate New York for 34 years. He claims that he literally forced himself not to go crazy in isolation.

“I saw how people, before finally losing their minds, begin to constantly sway back and forth, back and forth. I also caught myself on the fact that I myself began to sway. And he said to himself: “Stop. This is what crazy people do. " So the next thing you do is play with faeces or pee on the floor. I didn't want this to happen to me, ”Blake told the world his story.

On the subject: New Yorker mistakenly convicted of murder released from prison after 24 of the year

In the United States, the prison administration has the right to isolate a prisoner as long as it wishes, without court intervention. In many situations, such a decision can depend on the sanity, and sometimes the life of the prisoner.

Scientific research confirms that isolated prisoners are six times more likely to commit suicide than others. Even a year after release, the risk of suicide remains extremely high.

Candy Haley claims that even six years of living in freedom could not solve mental problems, and that the desire to commit suicide still remains. She was diagnosed with severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. In isolation, she said, not only can loneliness be harmful, but also the guards who can rape, which is what happened to Candy.

“If I do commit suicide, it’s because of what happened to me alone,” she said.

Juveniles in solitary confinement

According to prisoners, brutal treatment by the guards in solitary confinement is common. At the same time, if isolation can break a previously sane, adult, mentally healthy person, then what can it do with minors.

Solan Peterson, a 13-year-old boy with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder [ADHD], set fire to a trash can at a school near Shreveport, Louisiana in February 2019. He was sent to a juvenile detention center, where he was sent to solitary confinement for inappropriate behavior.

His father, Ronnie Peterson, was allowed to see him a few days later.

“I could only talk to him through a little four-inch window,” Peterson says. - We can say that this loneliness kind of broke him. He was banging on the wall. "

Peterson was told that Solan would be released soon, but the boy was still in solitary confinement five days later.

“They called me at two in the morning and said he was dead,” his father recalls.

Solan committed suicide at the age of 13.

On the subject: Dangerous prisoner freed from prison on Rikers Island by mistake

“I was just numb,” says Peterson. “We had no idea that he was capable of harming himself. I mean, he was a perfectly normal teenager. "

Isolation of juvenile offenders is not used in federal prisons in the United States, but many local institutions, including detention centers for children, are actively using this practice.

Attempts to change the system, opinion of correctional officers

New York's new law will take effect only a year later, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo has announced his intention to discuss changes to it.

New York authorities have banned solitary confinement under the age of 22. This rule will now apply to the entire state. According to the new law, in addition to the age category, there are several other groups of people who are subject to the rule prohibiting isolation.

It is worth noting that the employees of urban correctional colonies themselves oppose such reforms and call them reckless.

"This will only increase the level of violence in prisons," said Benny Boschio, president of the New York City Corrections Charity Association. “We are credited with the reputation of being monsters who mistreat prisoners. But what do we do with a prisoner who cuts another face and disfigures the correctional staff? "

Venters argues that there are alternatives to solitary confinement for 23 hours a day.

“I have been to many prisons where prisoners are released from their cells for several hours a day. They can do programming and even communicate with others. But this is done in compliance with safety rules, ”he says.

In New York, Billy Blake was recently informed that after 34 years in solitary confinement, he would be allowed to live with other prisoners.

“I almost feel at home! - Blake says with joy. - It feels like I'm returning to humanity! I'm insanely excited! I smile all day. "

Unlike Billy, tens of thousands of prisoners in the United States continue to suffer in solitary confinement, losing their minds, counting the moments spent in a small room without comforts and communication.