Katherine Haas, an attorney with The Legal Aid Society’s Prisoners’ Rights Project, recently joined The Capitol Pressroom to discuss a legal victory in which a court blocked the suspension of solitary confinement protections.

The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) had unlawfully paused the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Law (HALT) in response to a recent strike by prison guards. HALT is a landmark human rights law that limits the use of solitary confinement in prisons and jails throughout the State.

The ruling comes after Legal Aid filed a lawsuit in April against DOCCS over this illegal suspension. The class-action suit was filed by six incarcerated New Yorkers seeking to represent people in prisons across the state who are subjected to daily, prolonged periods of solitary confinement.

Haas explained that there is an emergency exception written into the HALT law, but that the State must provide a reason, the place, and the expected duration for the suspension.

“There’s no longer a blank check for DOCCS to simply ignore HALT across the state,” she said. “The judge demanded that they be more precise, as the law requires.”

Listen to the full segment below: