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The HALT Act, meant to take effect in 2022, defines “segregated confinement” as “the confinement of an incarcerated individual in any form of cell confinement for more than [17] hours a day other than in a facility-wide emergency.” It also mandated at least four hours per day of out-of-cell programming, including at least one hour for recreation.
In February, Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency because of the correction officers’ strike. DOCCS Commissioner Daniel Martuscello issued a memo “suspending the elements of HALT that cannot safely be operationalized under a prison-wide state of emergency.”
Per Lynch, that suspension arbitrarily and capriciously relied on a system-wide emergency to suspend the law in each facility. But HALT specifically requires a “facility-wide emergency” to confine individuals for more than 17 hours a day. The court found that DOCCS lacked “specific findings of fact related to the conditions in each facility.”
The court also ruled that suspending HALT has lacked any rational basis in fact since June 6. That’s because DOCCS didn’t offer any other facility-wide emergency conditions beyond that date. The judge also worried over the admission that DOCCS had no long-term plans to reimplement HALT.
The court granted a preliminary injunction, telling DOCCS to comply with HALT effective July 11. Nor can the agency enforce any suspension without specific findings of emergency conditions at each specific facility, supported by sworn, factual, detailed, and publicly available documentation.
“We are grateful that the court recognized the grave harm caused by DOCCS’s unlawful suspension of the HALT Solitary Law and acted to stop it,” said Antony Gemmell, Supervising Attorney with the Prisoners’ Rights Project at The Legal Aid Society. “No agency—regardless of political pressure—can unilaterally disregard laws enacted to protect human rights.”
Meanwhile, earlier in the week on Monday, Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Jeffrey Pearlman vacated Adams’ order blocking Local Law 42, which banned solitary confinement in NYC jails. The decision came in response to a lawsuit filed by the City Council and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.
The city council passed Local Law 42 in 2023 after years of hearings and debate, including input from the mayor and the New York City Department of Correction, not to be confused with the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. It banned solitary and other severe restrictions on movement, granted due process protections during disciplinary hearings, improved services offered to the incarcerated, and required more reporting on discipline.
Adams vetoed the law, but the council overrode his veto, all within a month of its initial passing. He declared a state of emergency and issued two emergency orders suspending it the day before it would have taken effect, which he periodically renewed.
The mayor cited staffing shortages and the inability of guards to constrain prisoners to justify the emergency. But those orders were challenged for being arbitrary and capricious, contradicting the law, and usurping council authority.
The court found that using emergency powers here violated the law. Pearlman said that the city council overturning the mayor’s veto was not actually an emergency, but “a democratic process, clearly laid out in the New York City Charter.” He also ruled that Adams cannot make further orders to prevent that law.
Victor Pate, HALTsolitary Campaign Co-Director and a survivor of solitary on Rikers Island, applauded the decision. “The mayor and DOC must now finally implement Local Law 42 to end solitary confinement and utilize alternatives proven to reduce harm and improve safety for everyone,” he said.
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