The Legal Aid Society has filed a lawsuit against the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) for its unlawful rollback of the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement (HALT) Act. This landmark human rights law limited the use of solitary confinement in prisons and jails throughout New York State.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of six people incarcerated in prisons across the state who are subjected to daily, prolonged periods of solitary confinement.

One of the plaintiffs, Alfonso Smalls, is a 29-year-old man from Harlem who is currently incarcerated at Coxsackie Correctional Facility. Since the strike began Mr. Smalls has been isolated in his cell for between 22 and 24 hours per day. During the strike, Mr. Smalls was locked in his cell continuously for about two and a half weeks, with only three eight-minute showers allowed. Since the strike has ended, Mr. Smalls is still only permitted to leave his cell for between 90 minutes to an hour and 45 minutes each day.

The purportedly temporary suspension was announced via a memorandum issued by DOCCS Commissioner Daniel F. Martuscello III three days into a weeks-long strike by DOCCS staff, which comprised hundreds of corrections officers from dozens of prisons upstate.

The lawsuit seeks a court order directing DOCCS to vacate the illegal HALT suspension and restore the critical protections granted under the duly enacted legislation.

“In a misguided attempt to appease the prison officers who participated in an unsanctioned strike – the deeply harmful consequences of which are still being felt by incarcerated people across the state – DOCCS has unlawfully rolled back key provisions of a landmark human rights law, despite having no authority to do so,” said Antony Gemmell, Supervising Attorney with Legal Aid’s Prisoners’ Rights Project.

“HALT was duly enacted by the Legislature to protect incarcerated people from the profoundly damaging effects of solitary confinement. The law cannot simply be cast aside at the political whim of the Commissioner,” he continued. “This illegal suspension – which remains in place weeks after the strike’s conclusion – must be lifted to ensure that our clients, and all similarly situated New Yorkers, do not continue to suffer precisely the harm HALT was designed to prevent.”