Staff Writer
Bishop Howard J. Hubbard and a group of other religious leaders want to spring some inmates from their cells -- at least from the special housing units (SHU) in which they are confined for 23 hours a day.
More than 5,600 prisoners in New York State are locked in SHUs; some have been kept in the 105-square-foot cells for more than five years, with only one hour of recreation each day in a 6-by-8 foot fenced-in area.
Last week, the Capital Region Ecumenical Organization (CREO) held a press conference about the issue at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany. Among those who attended were Bishop Hubbard; Rev. Peter Klotz, from the Hudson Mohawk Conference of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; and Bishop Susan Morrison, from the Troy Conference of the United Methodist Church.
Reforms sought
CREO is calling on Gov. George Pataki and the State Legislature to change the practice of confining prisoners for so many hours per day and for such a length of time, which, the religious leaders say, treats inmates as less than human, and negatively impacts their mental health and readjustment to society when they are released.
There are two kinds of 23-hour confinement: SHUs and keeplock:
* SHUs consist of single-occupancy cells grouped to provide separation from the general population in maximum- and designated medium-security prisons. (Under Gov. Pataki, double-celling of inmates in 3,100 new SHUs was authorized in the 1997-98 budget.)
* Keeplock confines inmates to their existing units.
Objections
Of the more than 5,600 prisoners in New York who are locked up for 23 hours a day, about 30 percent have been held in this condition for more than one year (154 of them for more than five years). That's too many inmates being confined for too long, according to Jim Murphy, CREO's coordinator.
"There's no doubt a need to have secure units for a certain amount of inmates, but we feel there are too many," he said. "The lengths of stay of people in those units have gone up, and it's getting little attention."
CREO's overriding concern regarding SHUs is that inmates are being seen as less than human, and that "the purpose of imprisonment becomes punishment, not public safety, rehabilitation or restitution," Mr. Murphy said. "This focus on punishment turns the system into an instrument of vengeance rather than of justice, and confuses the purpose of the justice system, which we believe is to protect the public, hold offenders responsible for their behaviors, and as much as possible restore what has been lost to the victim and community."
Concerns
A second concern on the part of CREO is the impact of SHUs on inmates' mental health. A 1998 report in The Mental Health Weekly stated that "long-term stays in SHUs had similar effects to those produced by sensory-deprivation environments and tended to induce psychosis."
A third concern is how SHUs prepare inmates for their return to society. Most inmates confined in SHUs and keeplock will eventually be released from prison, but their experience of isolation and the absence of rehabilitative programming could prevent them from readjusting to society.
CREO also is concerned about protections against abuse, such as an inmate being sentenced by the state Department of Corrections to 17 years in an SHU for his role in a 1997 riot at Mohawk Correctional Facility. He had been sentenced in Oneida County Court to 13 years for his crime.
(For more information about CREO's campaign, call Mr. Murphy at 382-7505.)