BILL NUMBER:S5729

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 weapons, 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
excruciating 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 circumstances, 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 pregnancy.

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
agreement 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 correctional facilities as well as the prison system, this new
subdivision will also apply to pregnant women in jails throughout New
York.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2014: A09550 (Rozic) - Passed Assembly

FISCAL IMPACT ON THE STATE:

None.

EFFECTIVE DATE:

This act shall take effect immediately.