[NYAPRS Enews] MHASC Lauds Long Awaited Human Rights 'Ban the Box' Agreement

[Harvey Rosenthal]

Mental Health Advocates Applaud Long-Awaited Human Rights Victory:
Albany Agrees to Cease Practice of Placing Prisoners with Psychiatric
Disabilities into Solitary Confinement Cells



New York City - Leaders of the Mental Health Alternatives to Solitary
Confinement coalition lauded Governor Spitzer, Sen. Michael Nozzolio
(R-Seneca County) and Assemblymember Jeffrion Aubry (D-Queens) for
reaching a three-way agreement to improve conditions for New York State
prisoners with severe psychiatric disabilities. 

Under the legislation agreed to and passed by the State Senate
yesterday, the Department of Correctional Services (DOCS) will no longer
place prisoners with severe psychiatric disabilities into solitary
confinement. Instead New York State will establish residential treatment
facilities within prisons that offer inmates therapy or treatment
outside of their cells at least four hours per day, five days a week.
"Yesterday we saw government at its best. Legislators and the Governor
came together in a bipartisan fashion to address the safety, dignity and
security of prisoners with psychiatric disabilities and prison guards,"
stated Harvey Rosenthal, Executive Director of the New York Association
of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services.

The legislation agreed to Monday is a modified version of the original
legislation and was amended to address the Spitzer administration's
concern about costs and prison administration. In 2006 Governor Pataki
vetoed the original legislation. "This remarkable measure will save
lives by giving prisoners with psychiatric disabilities access to humane
treatment and improving training for DOCS personnel," stated Jennifer
Parish, Director of Criminal Justice Advocacy at the Urban Justice
Center.

"The agreement reached in Albany this week is a landmark advancement and
demonstrates the State's notable commitment to appropriately treating
individuals with psychiatric disabilities," stated Vuka Stricevic, the
Director of Public Policy at Community Access. Unlike other states that
have amended the use of solitary placements on disabled inmates through
litigation, New York made history. According to Ms. Stricevic, the
agreement between the legislature and the Governor will improve
conditions beyond what had been agreed to in a litigation settlement
earlier this year. "With this legislation we have built on the victory
in the courts and will finally have a humane policy in place that
addresses the needs of some of New York's most vulnerable inmates - we
can thank our lawmakers for this redress."

Leah Gitter, a leading member of MHASC and family member of someone in
SHU remarked, "My godson is in SHU now, and I can see how deeply the
stress from the confinement and punishment is affecting him. This bill
will be a huge improvement over what is happening now in SHU. I only
wish it would have banned the SHU forever for all prisoners with mental
illness in DOCS."

"This has been a long journey for many of us, but we believe we have
achieved meaningful reform in the treatment of New Yorkers with
psychiatric disabilities who are incarcerated," said Bob Corliss,
Director of Forensic Services of the Mental Health Association of New
York State.

-------------------

 

Mentally Ill And In Prison? Pray It's In NY

By Barbara Curtin    Editorial Blogs 

Statesman Journal   July 17, 2007 

Salem, Oregon 

 

Oregon isn't the only state struggling with how to handle mentally ill
prison inmates who act out and get assigned to solitary confinement (see
the Statesman Journal's series on July 8 and 9 and editorial on July
15). 

New York plans to take a more humane (and costly) approach, according to
this article from the July 17 Rochester (NY) Democrat and Chronicle:

------

 

Solitary-confinement bill advances

Senate acts, Assembly to vote later, after Spitzer, lawmakers reach a
deal

By Cara Matthews   Albany bureau 

 

ALBANY - Gov. Eliot Spitzer and lawmakers announced Monday that they
have agreed on a compromise bill to ban solitary confinement for
seriously mentally ill prison inmates because legislation passed this
session faced a certain veto by the executive. 

 

The Senate passed the bill unanimously during a special session Monday,
and the Assembly is scheduled to vote on the measure when it returns to
Albany later this year. The legislation would require the state
Department of Correctional Services to set up residential treatment
units for inmates with serious mental illnesses. Prisoners would be
offered at least four hours a day, five days a week, of therapeutic
programming and/or treatment out of their cell. 

 

Senate Crime Victims, Crime and Corrections Committee Chairman Michael
Nozzolio, R-Fayette, Seneca County, said the bill is a "landmark
legislative measure, fully agreed upon with the Assembly and the
governor" that "encourages, establishes and requires the different
treatment of the mentally ill who are incarcerated." 

 

Correction officers would receive special training on how to work with
this population, and the state Commission on Quality of Care and
Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities would monitor the program on
behalf of inmates. 

 

"This legislation will make our prisons safer, will make our prisons
more humane," Nozzolio said.

 

Mental Health Alternatives to Solitary Confinement, a coalition of
groups that favor the legislation, have opposed solitary confinement -
also known as the box - for seriously mentally ill prisoners because
members believe it exacerbates inmates' conditions. 

 

Cells in the box are 6-by-9-feet, and occupants eat what's known as the
loaf, made from bread and cabbage, as punishment. The agreed-upon
legislation ensures that would no longer happen in most cases. 

 

"We know that people who are very sick are not going to be stuck in the
toxic environment of special housing, where they're only going to get
worse," said Bob Corliss of the Mental Health Association of New York. 

 

About 12 percent of the prison population in New York, or some 8,000
inmates, has serious psychiatric disabilities, according to the bill's
sponsors, Nozzolio and Assembly Correction Committee Chairman Jeffrion
Aubry, D-Queens. 

 

The bill would not ban solitary confinement entirely for this
population.

 

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070717/
NEWS01/707170321/1002/NEWS 

 

 

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