HALT law suspension continues under prison strike agreement

State and union leaders have reached a tentative agreement to end a nearly two-week wildcat strike by corrections officers at prisons around the state. But provisions in the agreement related to a law restricting solitary confinement have already drawn scrutiny from criminal justice reform advocates.

Leaders with the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association and the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision began negotiating for an end to the work stoppage several days ago. On Thursday night, a mediator released a consent award that the parties agreed to. The agreement is binding and carries the weight of a court order, with penalties if either party violates the terms. However, since the strike was not union-sanctioned and violates the state’s Taylor Law, individual corrections officers will need to make the decision to return to work. Those who do so before a Saturday deadline won’t face discipline. 

The very first provision of the consent award continues the suspension of parts of the HALT Solitary Confinement Act. In a Feb. 20 memo, DOCCS Commissioner Daniel Martuscello III wrote that the law allows “temporary suspension of specific elements” in extreme circumstances, and therefore initiated such limited suspension. The move drew immediate condemnation from criminal justice advocates, who questioned the legality of the decision. And state Sen. Julia Salazar, the bill’s initial sponsor and chair of the state Senate Crime Victims, Crime and Corrections Committee, said that Martuscello did not have the authority to suspend the law, suggesting the “suspension” language was inaccurate for the narrow exceptions for meeting the law’s requirements in extraordinary situations. 

But the consent award again used the suspension language, saying that Martuscello is to continue suspending “programming elements” of the HALT Law for another 90 days “due to the ongoing emergency” and existing staff shortages. After 30 days, DOCCS will begin evaluation “operations, safety, and security” at prisons to determine whether it’s safe to reinstate the suspended provisions based on staffing levels. “This analysis will be done on a facility-by-facility basis and will be ongoing,” the agreement reads, specifying that only the elements that the commissioner has discretion around will remain suspended, while all other aspects of the law will remain in place.

Salazar said in a statement to City & State that she is “disappointed and concerned with certain elements of the consent agreement,” particularly because the language around the HALT Law “creates the fear that New York would take a step backward regarding the harmful use of long-term segregated confinement.” She noted that a 2024 inspector general report determined that DOCCS had not even implemented the 2021 law properly. “While the lack of full compliance with the HALT law was unacceptable even before corrections officers’ unauthorized work stoppage, the newly announced consent agreement exacerbates concerns about HALT implementation,” Salazar said.

Advocates for incarcerated individuals also slammed the agreement. “Today’s illegal agreement aims to maintain a racist regime of torture, brutality, and death,” said Jerome Wright, co-director of the #HALTsolitary Campaign. “DOCCS does not have the authority to suspend the HALT Solitary Confinement Law. Let’s be clear that they are simply violating the law and people will be tortured and die as a result.” The group and others had previously sent a letter to DOCCS and Gov. Kathy Hochul that called any suspension of the law illegal and demanded its immediate reinstatement.

The Legal Aid Society charged that the agreement raised more questions than answers, including when the emergency period will actually end and when corrections officers will realistically return to work. “The public deserves clarity, and this moment demands more than an agreement that seeks to erode the HALT Solitary law and prioritizes appeasement over accountability,” the organization said in a statement.

Although criminal justice activists are disappointed by the consent award’s continued suspension of provisions of the HALT law, the agreement does not go as far as what striking guards and Republicans had called for. They were demanding a full repeal of the HALT Solitary Confinement Act, citing concerns over staffing levels and safety. But doing that would require action by the state Legislature, and fully reversing the landmark law is not something the Democratic majorities have an appetite for.

In a Thursday evening statement announcing the agreement to end the strike, Hochul did not directly address any aspects of the consent award, including the continued suspension of the HALT Law. But she asserted that the agreed-upon provisions, among other things, “respect the rights of incarcerated individuals” and “put DOCCS back on the path to safe operations.” A spokesperson for the corrections officer’s union similarly did not weigh in on specifics, but said the union had “encouraged each member to return to work based on what was achieved in the consent award.”