Thread by @ScottHech

🔥🔥THE NYT EDITORIAL BOARD CALLS TODAY FOR THE END OF SOLITARY CONFINEMENT.

"The isolation, confinement & sensory deprivation of solitary eats away at bodies and minds. Become prone to self-harm including suicide"

#HALTsolitary is on @NYGovCuomo's desk. nytimes.com/2021/03/25/opi…

"NY stands poised to overhaul solitary confinement in its prisons & jails, a practice widely recognized as inhumane, arbitrary & counterproductive. Despite piles of research detailing brutal physical & psychological toll of solitary confinement its a common form of discipline."

"NY correctional employees have wide discretion to throw people into “the box,” where people spend 23/hrs a day in a tiny space cut off from most human contact. Signs that someone belongs to a gang can land them in the box. So can “eyeballing” a guard."

Domino effect: People "suffer from rage, depression, anxiety & post-traumatic stress disorder. Unsurprisingly, under these conditions, inmates often pile up additional infractions, or “tickets,” that extend their punishment. Some languish in solitary for years or even decades."

"The damage people in solitary suffer can last far longer. The United Nations considers the use of solitary confinement beyond 15 consecutive days to be a form of torture. Former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has noted that the practice “literally drives men mad.”

Racist: "Solitary confinement hits minority groups particularly hard. Data from New York Civil Liberties Union shows 48% of the state’s incarcerated population are Black, but 58% of those in Special Housing Units. Together, Black & Latino people make up 82% of those in solitary."

"The HALT Act would bring NY's system more into line with international humanitarian standards." It's now on his desk again. Tell @NYGovCuomo to sign it now. p2a.co/vlchm7u