NY Prisoners Challenge Freeze on Solitary Confinement Limits

New York’s rollback of a law that limits the use of solitary confinement in prisons and jails is “far-reaching and unlawful,” according to a proposed class action in the Albany trial court.

The Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act was unconstitutionally suspended by the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to “placate” officers who in February went on strike demanding repeal of the law, says the lawsuit filed Thursday by The Legal Aid Society, on behalf of six incarcerated people.

The prisoners say the corrections department is in “open defiance of the Legislature’s reasoned judgment to restrict solitary confinement ...