HALT Act sponsor defends bill as state Republicans try for second repeal attempt

Yahoo

27-03-2025

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — The HALT Solitary Confinement Act has become a controversial bill, playing a part in the correctional officer strike that lasted for three weeks in New York State.
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After working as a correction officer for 27 years, Stephen Woodward retired once the HALT Act was signed.
'They could come out, punch an officer in the face, break their eye socket, get 15 days in a special housing unit or rehabilitation unit, come right out and do it over again,' Woodward said.
State Senator Julia Salazar, the bill's sponsor, says otherwise.
'It is not accurate when people claim that there aren't consequences for serious offenses. People can be held in RRU for up to a year,' she said. 'They are still subject to discipline. They are still separated from the general population. They can still have privileges taken away from them.'
Salazar says HALT prohibits people with disabilities and mental health issues from solitary confinement and requires out-of-cell time for those in segregated confinement. Over the last four years, she has visited prisons and correctional facilities across the state and says HALT isn't being enacted.
'People with serious mental health conditions are continuing to be placed in the special housing units, and we also saw instances of people being held for over 15 days at a time, without being moved to a rehabilitative unit,' Salazar said.
State Senator Daniel Stec has seven prisons in his district. For the second time, he's introducing a bill to repeal HALT.
'We're going to give them another opportunity to get it right. To realize that people who debated against this bill a few years ago and said it was a bad idea and make us less safe,' he said. 'Now, we have data that proves we are right. There's an opportunity to do the right thing.'
Despite Salazar's claims, Stec says the HALT Act has rewarded inmates for bad behavior.
'I want to know what Julia Salazar and some of my colleagues would say to the spouse of someone that had their face caved in by a sock with something heavy in it. That happens, and they'll never see again,' he said. 'What is the deterrent inside prisons where if someone does something like that, the worst they'll get is a timeout for 15 days, where they'll have Wi-Fi and tablets.'
According to DOCCS, assaults on corrections staff have gone up each year under the HALT Act.
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