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���������� Note: The following powerful piece by torture survivor and Special Rapporteur on Torture for the United Nations, Juan Mendez, calls on Governor Cuomo to sign the HALT (Humane Alternatives to Isolated Long-term Confinement) bill in to law. The bill passed both houses of the NYS Legislature last week by a 2-1 margin. Juan Mendez writes “One major leap forward is on the cusp of happening in ���������� state, where survivors of solitary confinement and lawmakers are working together to enact legislation that would significantly curtail the use of solitary. passed in the ���������� State Legislature last week with supermajority support and it’s now on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s desk, awaiting action. Polls show it is popular among the public. Everyone from to organized labor and has lined up behind this bill.”

Torture In Your Backyard: Cuomo Must Sign Law To Curb Solitary Confinement
Juan Mendez Journal News Commentary March 23, 2021

In the United States, people often think of human rights as an issue for people in foreign countries. Governments abroad are often condemned by U.S. lawmakers of all parties for heinous acts. As the former I examined some of the most egregious human rights violations around the globe, and one particularly captured my attention: solitary confinement. For the last several decades,

What people in quarantine amid COVID this past year are feeling is hardly a fraction of what it’s like to be alone in solitary confinement — in a tiny concrete box, surrounded only by the desperate cries of people mentally decompensating in nearby cells. Like all forms of torture, solitary inflicts severe mental and physical pain and suffering — and it weaponizes people against themselves, driving people to commit the most horrifying acts of what is conveniently called

People in solitary in the U.S. have or castrated themselves, in addition to the more common tragedies of cutting themselves, against the wall or dying by hanging or of Solitary has also been shown to increase the likelihood of death by and after a person has been released. Due to the lack of witnesses, solitary gives rise to all manner of brutality by guards. While the harms of solitary do not necessarily require a government actor to physically suffocate or maim a person, they are not substantively different from those of, say, waterboarding or pulling fingernails.

I, myself, was tortured by the Argentine government in the 1970s while locked up for representing political prisoners during Argentina’s Dirty War. Government agents violently used electric prods with extreme voltage all over my body. Almost five decades later, I am still affected by the torture I endured.

In my capacity as Special Rapporteur, I examined the global practice of solitary confinement under the framework of the international prohibition of torture and ill-treatment. Based on my investigations, as well as my own experiences as a torture survivor, I concluded solitary indeed constitutes torture. Ten years ago, of indefinite solitary, prolonged solitary — beyond 15 days, solitary as a means of coercion in pre-trial detention and solitary of any duration for children, persons with any psycho-social disability and pregnant or breast-feeding women. In 2015, the UN General Assembly as part of the so-called Mandela Rules for the standard minimum treatment of persons deprived of liberty. All member states, including the United States, agreed.

In flagrant violation of these rules, incarcerated people in much of the United States are subjected to months, years and decades in solitary confinement. People are locked in solitary, often for and at the whims of prison staff, or simply as “prison management” decisions by wardens without any disciplinary rationale. Race often drives these abuses, as Black people are to experience solitary, even relative to

But I believe change is finally coming, with some courts ruling against these abuses and many jurisdictions working to reduce or even eliminate them.

One major leap forward is on the cusp of happening in ���������� state, where survivors of solitary confinement and lawmakers are working together to enact legislation that would significantly curtail the use of solitary. passed in the ���������� State Legislature last week with supermajority support and it’s now on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s desk, awaiting action. Polls show it is popular among the public. Everyone from to organized labor and has lined up behind this bill.

Addressing concerns about safety that purportedly underlie the use of solitary confinement, the HALT Solitary Confinement Act not only prohibits solitary beyond 15 days for all people but also creates more humane and effective alternatives. shows that putting people in solitary actually causes people to deteriorate, likely leading to more violence, not less. In fact, that what actually works for reducing violence in prisons, jails and outside communities is pro-social engagement and programming.

This legislation is a critical step for ���������� to take in the direction of ending solitary confinement and respecting international law and human rights norms, and I respectfully urge Cuomo to sign it. For those who have suffered in solitary in ���������� for 15, or stopping this torture could not come soon enough. 

Juan Mendez was the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment from 2010 to 2016.  See the  2015 report at