NYCLU Motion: DOCCS Should Be Held In Contempt For Violating Solitary Confinement Law

NEW YORK – Today, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) filed a contempt motion against the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) for continuing to illegally subject people to prolonged solitary confinement. Last year, following a lawsuit brought by the NYCLU and Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York (PLS), a court found that the department had violated HALT, the New York law restricting the use of solitary confinement.  

“The drumbeat of evidence the NYCLU and PLS have reviewed is loud and clear: DOCCS continues to subject incarcerated people to solitary confinement for dubious reasons, in plain violation of both a court’s order and the HALT Act,” said Ify Chikezie, staff attorney at the New York Civil Liberties Union. “Solitary confinement is torture and it is disproportionately used against Black and Brown people. In the face of these persistent violations, we are asking the court to take action, hold DOCCS in contempt, and force them to follow the law.” 

Under the HALT Act and a 2024 court’s order, DOCCS is required to make certain written, individualized, and fact-specific determinations before placing any person in extended disciplinary confinement. Yet, evidence reviewed by the NYCLU and PLS reveals that the department is still breaking the rules by not vacating past illegal punishments and by giving new ones that violate the HALT Act. For example, DOCCS unlawfully placed an incarcerated individual in solitary confinement for allegedly throwing coffee at a correctional officer. DOCCS illegally placed another individual in solitary confinement for having tobacco and a lighter. In both cases, DOCCS failed to meet the HALT requirement that the acts were “so heinous and destructive” that they justified such placements. 

The NYCLU motion requests the court to find DOCCS in contempt of the 2024 court’s order, immediately comply with and remedy all ongoing violations of the court’s order, and produce data to demonstrate its compliance with the court’s order and the HALT Act. 

NYCLU counsel includes attorneys Ify Chikezie, Megan Porter, Molly Biklen, and paralegal Zawareen Zakaria.  

You can find the motion and other case materials here: https://www.nyclu.org/court-cases/fields-v-annucci

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