ALBANY — Violent attacks by inmates on corrections officers and other prisoners have increased sharply since Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation restricting the use of segregated confinement as a disciplinary tool, lawmakers allied with the union for corrections officers said Tuesday.

The push to repeal a law known as the Humane Alternatives to Solitary Confinement (HALT) Act comes at a time when criminal justice has shifted to the front burner at the statehouse, with statewide elections looming.

TOOK AWAY A TOOL

The statute had been co-sponsored by former state Sen. Brian Benjamin, a Democrat who was later appointed by Hochul as lieutenant governor, though he resigned from that post last month after being arrested on felony corruption charges. The New York Civil Liberties Union and other groups have charged that keeping inmates isolated for long periods is so inhumane that it amounts to torture.

But Republicans, including Sen. Dan Stec, R-Queensbury; Senate GOP Leader Rob Ortt, R-Niagara County; and Sen. Tom O’Mara, R-Big Flats, argue the new law has emboldened inmates by taking away a disciplinary measure that has helped keep order behind prison walls.

“If you take away a tool that disincentivizes bad behavior, you’re going to get more bad behavior,” Stec said. The increase in violent attacks was predicted by the leaders of the New York State Corrections Officers Police Benevolent Association, the union for the prison security workers.

‘MASSIVE INCREASE’

Even as inmate populations were going down while the new procedures were being implemented, corrections officers had to defend themselves more often from assaults, a pattern that has continued in recent weeks, according to John Roberts, a North Country vice president for the corrections union, and Stec.

“We’ve seen a massive increase in violence in the prisons since April 1,” Roberts said.

The Legislature’s only former corrections officer, Assemblyman Billy Jones, D-Plattsburgh, said having the option of sending unruly inmates to a special housing unit had been an effective way to keep prison violence in check.

“We have gang activity in the facilities and we have contraband getting into the facilities,” Jones noted. “But when you have no consequences for that, it puts everyone within the confines of these facilities in danger.”

ASSAULTS ROSE

According to NYSCOPBA, the number of assaults in state prisons last year averaged about 190 per month. But in the first month after the use of special housing units was ended, there were 260 assaults, the union said.

At the Gouverneur Correctional Facility last week, Hipolito Nunez, serving a nine-year sentence for drug and weapon possession, was pronounced dead in his cell. State Police reported he had been involved in a fight with his cellmate.

CLEAN SLATE

Critics of the special housing units have argued the discipline was at times used to retaliate against prison whistleblowers or who committed minor infractions of prison rules.

As corrections union leaders were lobbying lawmakers to repeal the legislation, progressive activists were calling for enactment of a measure known as Clean Slate, intended to give convicted felons a fresh start by expunging their conviction records seven years after they leave prison. Supporters say the legislation would benefit the 2.3 million New Yorkers with criminal records.

Individuals listed on the state’s Sexual Offender Registry would be ineligible for having their records sealed.

Also on the criminal justice front, Hochul signed a measure that extends for one year the lookback window for victims of rape and sexual molestation to sue their abusers.

Trending Video

Recommended for you