Solitary confinement in prisons misrepresented, officer says

DANNEMORA — Cinematic portrayals of inmates being thrown in a dingy, small, unlit cell with no running water and only a slit in the door for occasional food for years on end, is not the reality in New York state prisons, one retired correction officer says.

“It’s not like the movies at all,” Shawn Terry, who retired as a correction officer in November of 2021 after more than 32 years, mostly at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, said.

“There is no such thing as what they show in the movies.”

The Humane Alternatives to Long Term Incarceration Act is one of the main sticking points driving the wild cat strike by correction officers across the state that began Monday.

Officers, including those at North Country prisons, Clinton, Altona, Upstate, Bare Hill and Franklin Correctional Facilities, are upset about low staffing levels, the lack of controls over preventing contraband such as drugs getting inside prisons, and the HALT Act.

HALT ACT

The HALT Act, which was implemented in 2022 has been widely touted as a measure that limits the amount of time, and which inmates, can be put in solitary confinement.

Inmates over the age of 55 or under the age of 21 cannot be subjected to solitary confinement under HALT.

Since its implementation, the New York State Correction Officers Police Benevolent Association, the union representing correction officers, say the amount of violence against staff and other inmates has risen sharply.

REPORTS OF VIOLENCE

The union said last year that the year before HALT was enacted, there were 1,490 inmate on inmate assaults in state prisons, according to the state.

In the first year of HALT, there were 2,117 inmate on inmate assaults, an increase of more than 600.

In the same time frame, there were 1,474 inmate on staff assaults, and in 2023 there were 1,674 assaults on officers, an increase of 200.

Halfway through 2024 there were 873 inmate on inmate assaults, which was on pace to far exceed 2023 numbers.

Also midway through 2024, there were 713 inmate on staff assaults, also well ahead of the 2023 record-setting pace.

The lack of using special housing as a deterrence has been cited as a key contributing factor.

Terry, speaking on his own experiences, said he believes the HALT Act was sold on misconceptions offered by state lawmakers and activists.

“This idea of solitary confinement was greatly exaggerated and it’s not true,” Terry said.

Terry said that from his experience, inmates guilty of assaulting staff or other inmates or any other egregious behavior, are sent to a special housing unit. He said there are four units with 12 cells each inside most prisons.

He said the inmates sent there have a regular cell with a door with bars, and not a solid wall with a small slit, they have their own toilet, lights, running water and are fed three times a day in their cells.

‘JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER INMATE’

They can communicate with other inmates in the unit, and they are also allowed outside in their own recreation yard once a day. They are also given showers every other day and have items from the commissary brought to them.

They are also given headphones to listen to sporting events or television or radio shows, and books from the library.

“They live just like every other inmate except they are not out in the yard with all the rest of them,” Terry said.

“They are in that unit because they do not play well with others and many of them are the worst of the worst and they need to be in there away from others.”

Terry said inmates used to get sent to the special housing unit for up to 18 months to two years, depending on the severity of their misbehavior.

“That did the trick because they would miss being out there doing whatever they were doing with their friends out in the main prison and they didn’t like that, and it was a very effective deterrent,” he said.

“Now, they can punch an officer in the face and be sent to the unit for two weeks and then be back out doing the same stuff all over again.”

Terry said the state needs to repeal the HALT Act sooner rather than later or there will be more trouble.

“It’s not working and they have to see that,” he said.

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