Senate Bill S799

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S799

SPONSOR: LANZA
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the correction law, in relation to the segregated
confinement of pregnant inmates

 
PURPOSE:

To exclude pregnant prisoners from solitary confinement in New York
correctional facilities.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section I amends the opening paragraph of subdivision 6 of section 137
of the correction law.

Section II adds a new paragraph (g) to subdivision 6 of section 137 of
the correction law. Section III sets forth the effective date.

              

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Solitary confinement is overused in New York prisons and jails. At any
given time, approximately 8% of the state prison population is in the
special housing unit, known as SHU, but only around 16% of those inmates
are placed in such housing units because they committed violent
offenses. Of the 84% of inmates placed in SHU for non-violent offenses,
many committed disciplinary infractions involving misbehavior such as
being out of place, possessing some kind of contraband other than weap-
ons, failing to obey an order from a correctional officer or smoking
marijuana. The average length of stay in SHU in state prisons was five
months in a recent survey conducted by the Correctional Association.

Solitary confinement in this state involves locking a person in a small
cell, generally about the size of an average apartment bathroom, for 23
hours a day, with one hour of exercise in an outdoor caged recreation
area similar to a dog kennel. Inmates in SHU are not permitted to eat
their own food or buy commissary items, including personal hygiene items
and fresh vegetables and fruit. They have very limited personal property
and cannot attend programs or make phone calls, have cell-side sick call
and are left without meaningful social contacts or personal freedom of
motion. Inmates in SHU are more likely to attempt self-harm, commit
suicide and suffer from anxiety and depression. The UN Rapporteur on
Torture has specifically found that New York has engaged in torture of
at least three inmates in long-term solitary confinement in state
correctional facilities, simply by virtue of placing them under the same
kinds of conditions of confinement shared by all inmates held in SHU.

While solitary confinement is difficult on all inmates, it is an excru-
ciating hardship on pregnant women. Constricted movement and restricted
access to medical and mental health care alone, even without the other
deprivations inherent in solitary confinement, make time spent in SHU a
very harsh punishment for a pregnant woman.  Unless a pregnant woman
poses a severe and immediate threat to the safety of other people, she
should not be placed in SHU. If placed in SHU under exception circum-
stances, she should be released as soon as it is safe to do so in order
to receive the care, exercise, and nutrition critical in every pregnan-
cy.
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 to a
presumption against placing pregnant women in SHU unless there are
exceptional circumstances. This bill would codify and expand that agree-
ment to ensure that the state does not back slide and that pregnant
women are not sent back to isolation if a final settlement agreement is
not reached. Since Correction Law Section 137 applies to local correc-
tional facilities as well as the prison system, this new subdivision
will also apply to pregnant women in jails throughout New York.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2018:S.4795 - Referred to Crime Victims/A.1610- Passed Assembly

2017:S.4795 - Referred to Crime Victims/A.1610- Passed Assembly

2016:S.5729 - Referred to Crime Victims/A.1347- Passed Assembly

2015:S.5729- Referred to Crime Victims/A.1347- Passed Assembly

2014:A.09550- Rozic

 
FISCAL IMPACT ON THE STATE:

None.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.