NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A9286A REPLACEMENT MEMO 05/08/2014
SPONSOR: O'Donnell TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the correction law, in relation to
requiring structured out-of-cell programming for adolescents in segre-
gated disciplinary confinement
PURPOSE:
To exclude prisoners under the age of 21 from solitary confinement in
New York correctional facilities.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 amends subdivision 6 of correction law 137 to add a new cate-
gory of exclusion to the statute governing disciplinary confinement.
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 is one of two states that prosecute 16- and 17-year olds as
adults in criminal court. As a result, we have over 2,300 young offen-
ders 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 differ-
ent neurological pathways for decision-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 sanc-
tions as adults in the system.
At any given moment there are approximately 4,500 New York state prison-
ers, or 8% 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 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 an inmate has been sanctioned with SHU time
until his or her maximum expiration date or when the inmate is being
punished for food-related misconduct. There is no limit to the amount of
SHU time an inmate may receive as a sanction for misbehavior in New York
prisons. The average length of stay in SHU in New York is approximately
five months but some inmates may be in SHU for several years. In
contrast the Office of Children and Family Services, which runs New
York's juvenile justice secure and limited-secure facilities, only
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
a 17-year old in an adult correctional facility. According to an inves-
tigation 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 majority 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 rest of the country, with resulting
policy changes in states as diverse as Maine, North Carolina, Wisconsin,
Mississippi and Colorado, New York seems to be increasing its reliance
on such confinement. An October 2013 report by the New York City Board
of Correction stated that 27% of the 16-, 17- and 18-year olds at Bikers
Island were in punitive segregation.
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 place 16-
and 17-year-old inmates in separate housing and segregation units. This
bill seeks to codify and expand that agreement to apply to all adoles-
cents in state and local correctional facilities. It is time to end the
cruel practice of putting adolescents in punitive isolation without
educational and therapeutic programming. Young inmates should be
educated and socialized, not isolated.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
One hundred eighty days after the act becomes law.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
9286--A
IN ASSEMBLY
April 7, 2014
___________
Introduced by M. of A. O'DONNELL -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Correction -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered
reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the correction law, in relation to requiring structured
out-of-cell programming for adolescents in segregated disciplinary
confinement
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The opening paragraph of subdivision 6 of section 137 of
2 the correction law, as amended by chapter 1 of the laws of 2008, is
3 amended to read as follows:
4 Except as provided in paragraphs (d) [and], (e) and (g) of this subdi-
5 vision, the superintendent of a correctional facility may keep any
6 inmate confined in a cell or room, apart from the accommodations
7 provided for inmates who are participating in programs of the facility,
8 for such period as may be necessary for maintenance of order or disci-
9 pline, but in any such case the following conditions shall be observed:
10 § 2. Subdivision 6 of section 137 of the correction law is amended by
11 adding a new paragraph (g) to read as follows:
12 (g) Any inmate under the age of twenty-one who is in segregated disci-
13 plinary confinement must be offered at least four hours a day of struc-
14 tured out-of-cell programming, in addition to exercise, and may be
15 provided with additional out-of-cell activities for good behavior. The
16 inmate's education, mental health and other programming needs must be
17 addressed during any such period of segregated confinement and the
18 inmate must be given significant daily opportunity to engage in physical
19 activity. No such inmate shall be kept in punitive isolation, be denied
20 telephone calls or visits or be placed on a restrictive diet as a sanc-
21 tion for misbehavior. Such inmates may not be housed in a special hous-
22 ing unit for adults unless there are exceptional circumstances which
23 would create an unacceptable risk to the safety and security of other
24 inmates or staff. In such exceptional circumstances the inmate's case
25 shall be immediately referred to the commissioner for review and resol-
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD14410-03-4
A. 9286--A 2
1 ution. Any such placement in an adult special housing unit shall not
2 exceed fifteen days.
3 § 3. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after
4 it shall have become a law.
