ALBANY- According to data maintained by the State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, 2022 set the single year record for inmate-on-staff and inmate-on-inmate assaults. Data shows that overall prison violence is up 31 percent from the year prior.
There are several state prisons in the Mid-Hudson Valley impacted by this new policy.
The New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association (NYSCOPBA), the union that represents the state’s corrections officers, reports that violence has spiked dramatically after the implementation of the HALT Act.
The Humane Alternatives for Long Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act, which took effect in all state correctional facilities on April 1, 2022, severely limits, and in some cases eliminates, the ability to place inmates in Special Housing Units, which are special confinement areas separated from the general population. These confinement units are often used to house inmates who have been determined too violent to remain in general population.
NYSCOPBA is calling for the repeal of the HALT Act, which they claim is necessary to restore safety in New York’s prisons and jails.
Union President Michael Powers said, “For nearly nine months, thousands of people who work or reside in prison, have been forced to endure some of the most violent conditions New York has ever experienced.”
The union claims that despite months of data that supports the need for changes in the policy, the sponsors of the HALT Act refuse to entertain changes.
Powers renewed his call to the state legislature to fix the problem. “Now more than ever we need the New York State Legislature to put common sense over political agendas and address the skyrocketing violence we’ve been experiencing since the enactment of the HALT Act. The time is now to repeal HALT before another individual has to needlessly suffer from this state-created danger.”
