Members of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock will lobby state lawmakers on April 22 to approve proposed legislation limiting the amount of time inmates can spend in solitary confinement.
It is the second consecutive year the congregation, led by its social justice committee, is making the trip in hopes the Legislature passes the HALT Solitary Confinement Act and continues a years-long educational initiative about the practice.
“[Solitary confinement]’s led, on occasion, to desperate acts of self-mutilation. This has come out in testimony over the years. There are several examples of people having very adverse reactions to this,” said Paul Johnson, the congregation’s senior minister. “Hallucinations, panic attacks, mood swings…suicides. We have concerns about this.”
According to the New York Civil Liberties Union, approximately 4,500 inmates throughout the state live in solitary confinement.
The law would limit the amount of time an inmate could spend in solitary confinement to up to 15 consecutive days and 20 total days within a 60-day period. It would also prohibit members of various “vulnerable groups” – including people with physical or mental disabilities, pregnant women or new mothers, the very young and elderly and members of the LGBT community – from being placed into solitary confinement, and enhance conditions under which inmates are placed into and taken out of isolation.
“Often there’s not a real established policy of how to [determine whether an inmate should be put into solitary confinement],” Johnson said. “It’s typically arbitrary and unfair and done by staff who have no transparency or accountability.”
About 15 congregants are slated to make the trip, Johnson said, as is Claire Deroche, the congregation’s social justice coordinator. Deroche was not made available for comment, as officials said she does not have the authority to speak on behalf of the congregation.
Prior to leaving for Albany, the participants will be educated on the language of the bill and assigned to various members of the state Legislature, Johnson said.
He added that congregation officials met with state Sen. Jack Martins last Thursday to garner his support for the law, and said he was hopeful the Republican legislator would consider co-sponsoring the legislation.
The congregation has hosted numerous events in the last few years – including a lobbying trip in support of the HALT Solitary Confinement Act last May – to raise awareness of the physical and psychological effects of solitary confinement.
On March 30, the congregation held a dramatic reading of the play “Mariposa & the Saint,” which chronicles an inmate’s experiences in isolation, as well as a panel discussion about solitary confinement.
In December, in wake of incidents in Staten Island and Ferguson, Mo., the congregation analyzed allegations of police brutality and the targeted mass incarceration of minorities.
Congregants last June held a demonstration outside the Nassau County Correctional Facility in East Meadow, protesting its incarceration practices.
In March 2014, the congregation hosted a roundtable event with three speakers who shared their experiences with solitary confinement, either by being placed in isolation or coping with their loved ones being imprisoned.
