Solitary at Southport

SOLITARY
AT
SOUTHPORT
A 2017 Report based upon the Correctional
Association’s Visits, Data Analysis, & First-Hand
Accounts of the Torture of Solitary Confinement
from One of New York’s Supermax Prisons

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Solitary at Southport

“Caging animals for
years is inhumane and
deemed animal cruelty,
yet it is considered
rehabilitation for
human beings?”

Founded in 1844, the Correctional Association of New York (CA) is an independent non-profit organization
that advocates for a more humane and effective criminal justice system and a more just and equitable
society. Authorized by the New York State Legislature to monitor prison conditions, the CA utilizes our unique
access to keep elected officials, policymakers and the public informed about conditions of confinement that
have an impact on the people who are incarcerated, prison staff, communities disproportionately affected
by incarceration, and ultimately, society at large.
For more information about the CA, please call 212-254-5700
or visit www.correctionalassociation.org
The Correctional Association of New York
22 Cortlandt Street, 33rd Floor, New York, NY 10007
212-254-5700 • 212-473-2807 (fax)
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Solitary at Southport

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2 DEVASTATING CONDITIONS AND IMPACT OF SOLITARY CONFINEMENT
My Voice Has No Sound within this Prison System
I Am Enduring
Southport is Like the Matrix: If You Go In, You May Not Come Out

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3 INTERSECTIONS BETWEEN SOLITARY, MENTAL HEALTH, AND SELF-HARM
Atrocities Behind the Walls
The Walls Are Closing in on Me
Staff Need to Respect Us as People
Solitary Destroys People

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4 PERVASIVE STAFF BRUTALITY, RACISM, AND ABUSE IN THE BOX
I Gotta Stay Strong
Like a Slave
Hard for Me to Smile
No One to Turn to
Please, We Need Help

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5 MINOR CONDUCT RESULTING IN LONG-TERM SOLITARY
I Wouldn’t Wish Solitary on My Worst Enemy
Police Abuse in the Streets? Just Imagine in Here
When Will I Finally Get the Help I Need

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6 YOUNG PEOPLE GROWING UP IN PRISON AND SOLITARY
I Am Tired of Being Beaten Down
Raised in the Box
Floating Around the System
Possible Chocolate or CO Abuse
Growing Up in Prison
Like a Gerbil in a Wheel

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7 PEOPLE RELEASED DIRECTLY FROM SOLITARY TO THE OUTSIDE COMMUNITY
From Solitary Directly to the Community
I Want to Be a Good Father
Going Home from Solitary with My Mental Health Deteriorated

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8 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENTATIONS

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TERMS FOR REFERENCE

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SOLITARY AT SOUTHPORT

1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Solitary at Southport

“Being in solitary confinement causes me to experience anxiety, depression, panic attacks, extreme
weight loss. I barely achieve sleep and constantly wake up in cold sweats. I experience a feeling of
death. I feel as though I stop breathing while I’m sleeping, I wake up gasping for air. I’ve become
anti-social. I’m losing my mind.”
– Person incarcerated in solitary at Southport.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
delegation consisting of corrections administrators,
and voted for by the US government – prohibit solitary
beyond 15 consecutive days. Yet, in New York people
are regularly held in solitary for months, years, and
even for decades.

Solitary confinement is torture. New York State
(NYS) subjects people to solitary confinement and
other forms of isolation at rates above the national
average and in a racially disparate manner. On
any given day, in NYS prisons alone roughly 2,900
people are held in Special Housing Units (SHU) and
an additional estimated 1,000 or more people are
held in keeplock (KL). In 2015 after limited SHU
reforms, the number of people in SHU rose to over
4,100, the highest rate of solitary in the history of
NYS prisons, more than a third higher than in the
early 2000s and higher than its previous 2012
peak. Even with some reductions in 2016 and 2017,
NYS’s rate of isolation – nearly 8% including KL and
5.8% if only SHU – is much higher than the national
average of 4.4% and four or more times higher
than some states – like Colorado, Washington,
and Connecticut – that have less than 1% or 2% of
incarcerated people in solitary.

Southport Correctional Facility is one of the two
super-maximum security prisons in NYS with the
primary purpose of holding people in solitary or
isolated confinement. Southport was originally
a regular maximum security prison, but became
New York’s first prison dedicated entirely to solitary
confinement in 1991. The budget to operate
this supermax is almost $39 million per year.
Southport currently incarcerates about 400 people
in solitary in the SHU. Beyond the already racially
disproportionate infliction of solitary across prisons
statewide, nearly 90% of people in the SHU at
Southport are Black (62%) or Latino (27%), while
only 2% of Correctional Officers (COs) at Southport
are Black (1.4%) or Latino (0.7%). Even more
extreme, and reflective of the deeply engrained
racism of the prison system, of all people who were
held at Southport for the entirety of 2015, 76% of
all the people who were held at Southport in 2015
were Black.

In the SHU or KL, people are held alone in their cells
23-24 hours a day, without any meaningful human
contact or out-of-cell programming, with limited or
no access to phone calls, and often with limited,
restricted, or no visits. The sensory deprivation, lack
of normal human interaction, and extreme idleness
have long been proven to cause intense suffering,
devastating physical, mental, and emotional effects,
and the increased likelihood of self-harm. Solitary
– “the Box” – can cause deterioration in people’s
behavior, while limits on solitary have had neutral
or even positive effects on institutional safety. The
Mandela Rules – recently adopted by the entire
United Nations General Assembly, supported by a US

The Correctional Association of New York (CA)
conducted a full monitoring visit of Southport
in February 2015 and further investigations of
Southport in 2015 and 2016. During the 2015 visit,
the CA spoke one-on-one with nearly every person in
the SHU while we were there. The CA subsequently
received over 190 written surveys from people in
Southport’s SHU, had repeated correspondence
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Solitary at Southport

with numerous people incarcerated at Southport, conducted extensive interviews in 2015 and 2016 with
nearly 50 people held in the SHU at Southport, and analyzed prison-specific and system-wide data. To
even begin to have some understanding of the real experience of solitary at Southport requires learning
directly from the people who are living in solitary the details of what they are enduring. The narratives
in this publication provide representative examples of the experiences of the hundreds of people the CA
communicated with at Southport. The combination of the in-depth lived experiences with the CA’s overall
investigations and analysis revealed the following key findings and recommendations:

KEY FINDINGS
on various indicators of staff brutality and feelings
of being unsafe. Even with so few opportunities
for physical interactions between Southport staff
and residents because people are in their cells 2324 hours a day, nearly half of survey respondents
reported they had personally experienced a
physical confrontation with Southport staff, while
roughly 84% reported they frequently hear about
staff physical confrontations. Moreover, Southport
frequently imposes lengthy solitary sentences based
on allegations of assault of staff after staff have
actually brutalized an incarcerated person. Many
people reported that staff and systemic racism
infuse all other abuses taking place at Southport.

1. Devastating conditions and impacts of solitary
confinement: People in the SHU at Southport spend
23-24 hours a day in their cell, with the possibility
of one hour a day of recreation alone in an outdoor
cage, although between 70-85% of people in the
SHU at Southport do not go to recreation on any
given day. These conditions – as in solitary units
across the state – have had devastating impacts
on all people held in the prison, led people to
suffer from mental health issues, and exacerbated
people’s pre-existing mental health needs.
2. Intersections between solitary, mental health,
and self-harm: Southport is an OMH level 2 facility.
Generally throughout 2015-16, over a quarter
of the people in Southport’s SHU were on the
OMH caseload. As across the system, people with
mental health needs at Southport do not receive
any group therapy or programming and only have
short periodic clinic contacts with staff. Of serious
concern, a number of people in the SHU previously
had diagnoses that should classify them as having
a Serious Mental Illness in need of diversion from
SHU. Relatedly, a large number of people reported
repeated trips to the mental health Residential
Crisis Treatment Program (RCTP) and back to the
SHU, including after incidents of self-harm.
3. Pervasive staff brutality, racism, and abuse in
the Box: Many people face staff brutality, racism,
and abuse at Southport. Survey responses from
Southport’s SHU residents ranked the prison as
one of the worst CA-visited SHUs across the state
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Solitary at Southport

4. Minor conduct resulting in long-term solitary:
Solitary often comes in response to non-violent
prison rule violations, such as disobeying an
order, interfering with the count, drug use, or even
retaliation for questioning authority or talking back
to staff. Approximately 57% and 77% of the average
annual population at Southport in 2015 and 2016,
respectively, received at least one disciplinary ticket
in Southport’s SHU, and more than a third of those
who received a ticket got at least two. Roughly 98% of
all tickets in 2015-16 resulted in guilty findings. Half
the people in 2015 and 2016 found guilty of a rule
violation received 60 and 75 days or more in SHU,
respectively. During 2015 and 2016, the percentage
of persons receiving an additional six months or
more in SHU was 21% and 32%, respectively; the
number receiving an additional year or more was 22
and 46, respectively, and two 2015 residents and
seven 2016 residents received three or more years
of segregation time. Black people represented 64%
of all people receiving a ticket in 2015 and 67% of
people receiving six months or more additional time
in solitary. The average length of stay in Southport’s
SHU is 7.6 months, and people have often spent
more time in solitary before and/or after Southport.
Some people the CA interviewed had spent over
four years in SHU at Southport, and a total of over
10 years in SHU.

6. People released directly from solitary to the
outside community and people denied release:
More than 90 people per year are released directly
from Southport’s solitary to the outside community.
These individuals are not provided any transitional
support and instead continue to be held 23 to 24
hours a day without any meaningful human contact
or programs until their release. People held in
Southport’s SHU almost always spend more total
time incarcerated than other people. Only 3% of
people in the Southport SHU who went to the Parole
Board from 2012-14 were granted parole. Everyone
else, although they had already completed at least
their minimum prison sentence, was held in prison
for one to two more years before being allowed
another parole hearing.
What is taking place at Southport is deeply disturbing.
The environment is problematic even for people in
the work cadre, who are there solely to help the
prison operate. Cadre members work to ensure the
prison is able to function, including in the mess hall,
commissary, medical, custodial jobs, or as porters
for cleaning and food distribution. Many cadre
residents reported the lack of program opportunities,
as well as negative staff attitudes, harassment and
abuses. Overall, Southport embodies some of the
very worst aspects of incarceration in New York:
the devastating conditions and impacts of solitary;
the particularly challenging impacts for people
with mental health needs and young people; the
pervasive staff brutality and abuse; the frequent
imposition of additional time in solitary and the
months and years people spend in the box; the
denial of people’s early release from prison and
the release of people directly from solitary to the
outside community; and the systemic racism driving
all of these injustices.

5. Young people growing up in prison and solitary:
There are many young people incarcerated at
Southport, and many people who ended up at
Southport after growing up in New York’s adult
and youth prisons. The median age in Southport’s
SHU is 32, substantially less than the median age
of 37 across the system. Around 17% of people
held in Southport’s SHU were under the age of 25
and almost 6% were 21 or younger. Moreover, the
median age of arrest on survey respondents’ current
sentences was 23-years-old, 41% were arrested at
age 21 or younger and 12.5% were arrested under
18. Over half of all survey respondents in Southport’s
SHU reported they had been in a youth prison during
their childhood.

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KEY RECOMMENDATIONS
2. Create more humane and effective alternatives:
For any person who needs to be separated from the
general prison population for more than 15 days,
HALT would create separate, secure, rehabilitative
and therapeutic units providing programs, therapy,
and support to address underlying needs and
causes of behavior, with at least seven hours out-ofcell time per day consisting of six hours of out-of-cell
programming and one hour of out-of-cell recreation.

New York State must end the torture of solitary
confinement for all people at Southport and across
the prison system, and create more humane and
effective alternatives. Policy-makers should pass
and implement the Humane Alternatives to Long
Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act, A. 3080 / S.
4784. Other legislation, such as A. 1905A / S. 5241
would also take important steps to reduce the use
of solitary in New York. As the experiences of people
in solitary at Southport reveal, however, ending or
limiting solitary must be part of a broader package
of policy changes to stop the abuses people are
enduring in the state prison system. Some of the
key recommendations to end the torture of solitary
and other racist abuses include:

3. Further protect people from solitary or other
separation: HALT would also restrict the criteria for
placement in solitary or alternative units; ban the
use of solitary for people particularly vulnerable to
its damaging effects or additional abuse in solitary,
such as young people and people with mental
illness; expand staff training, procedural protections,
transparency, and oversight; and ensure that no one
is released from solitary to the outside community
but instead receives additional transitional support
before going home.

1. End the torture of solitary confinement for
all people: HALT would ensure that no person is
subjected to the torture of solitary confinement
beyond 15 consecutive days and would create more
humane and effective alternatives. HALT would also
ensure that no person is held in solitary for more
than 20 days total in any 60 day period.

“Being in solitary is like sitting in your bathroom for
almost 24 hours a day for years straight. You are
stuck here. You start hearing voices and you argue
more easily. You go crazy like an animal in a cage. This
place really is like a dog kennel but for humans.”
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incarcerated, and/or readiness for return to the
outside community, including by passing the SAFE
Parole Act, A. 4353 / S. 3095A, as well as A. 1909
and A. 7546. Moreover, New York must take further
steps to reduce the number of people at Southport
and in all prisons, by, among other changes, ending
life without parole, reducing sentence lengths, and
promoting alternatives to incarceration and other
effective interventions.

4. Stop the brutality, end systemic racism, and
transform the culture: At Southport and across the
prisons, New York must implement a no-tolerance
policy for improper or excessive use of force, including
absolute prohibitions of certain types of force, such
as blows to the head. New York must also end
systemic racism, including by implementing racial
impact statements on incarceration-related policies
and practices; enhancing recruitment and staff
incentives to hire a racially, culturally, and gender
diverse staff; and reversing racial disparities at all
stages of the incarceration process from arrests,
prosecutions, and sentencing to treatment of
people while incarcerated and imposing disciplinary
tickets and solitary sentences. Further, New York
must transform the punitive culture at Southport
and all prisons into one based on communication
and empowerment, including by shifting toward deescalation, crisis intervention, and trauma-informed
care; expanding existing and creating new treatment
and educational program opportunities.

Southport intentionally exists to hold people in the
torture of solitary confinement, and staff abuses
cause the harm in solitary to be even worse and
result in even longer time periods in solitary. New
York must end the torture, brutality, racism, and
abuse at Southport and across the state prisons at
the same time that it transforms the purpose and
practices of incarceration and reduces the number
of people incarcerated. The CA is deeply grateful to
the incredibly courageous people incarcerated at
Southport who took substantial risks to share their
experiences and insights, speak truth to power,
expose the torture of solitary confinement, and
help build a movement toward halting this torture,
ending violence and abuse behind the walls, and
challenging the racist system of incarceration.

5. Expand transparency, oversight, investigations,
and accountability: At Southport and across the
prisons, New York must expand public oversight,
media access, mandatory public reporting, and
independent state oversight, including by creating
a correctional Ombudsman, A. 1904. New York
must also welcome independent investigations
and accountability at Southport and across the
DOCCS system, including through a system-wide
investigation by the federal Department of Justice
and access by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture.

People in the SHU at Southport spend
23-24 hours a day in their cell

6. Raise the age, release parole-ready people,
and reduce the number of all people in prison:
New York must fully implement, adequately fund,
and expand the raise the age law enacted in 2017,
which will divert most 16- and 17-year-olds to
Family Court, and ensure that no children are held
in adult prisons or jails. Young people in New York
State should not be growing up in youth and adult
prisons, let alone in solitary confinement. At the
same time, New York must release aging people
and all people who have demonstrated their low
risk to society, growth and transformation while

•	 with the possibility of one hour
a day of recreation alone in an
outdoor cage
•	 between 70-85% of people in
the SHU at Southport do not go to
recreation on any given day.
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DEVASTATING CONDITIONS AND IMPACT OF SOLITARY CONFINEMENT

As in SHU units across New York State, people in
SHU at Southport spend 23 or 24 hours a day in
their cell, without any meaningful human contact
or programs. The extreme isolation and lack of
normal human interaction and programs has been
shown to have devastating impacts on all people.
Southport exemplifies these impacts. People held
in SHU at Southport described the harm caused to
their physical, mental, psychological, and emotional
well-being. Of all survey respondents, 90% reported
that they suffered depression as a result of being in
the SHU and 68% reported suffering from anxiety.
As one person reported, “I do not feel like writing
all that my mind, body, and soul are going through
being in this cell 24/7. To make a long story short,
it is a living h*ll for me. Bottom line!” Some people
reported other forms of severe psychological harm,
including 21% reporting that they had hallucinations
as a result of being in the SHU and 40% suffered
panic attacks. People described how they were
“losing [their] mind” or how they felt that the “walls
are closing in on [them].”

person reported, “it makes it hard to open up to
people. Even saying ‘good morning’ sometimes
seems hard. I might have an outburst while having
a regular conversation and then pass it off as being
stressed out.”
People also reported various physical pains and
medical problems they suffered as a result of being
in solitary. Over a quarter of survey respondents
reported that they suffered from muscle atrophy as
a result of being in the SHU. People talked about
suffering neck and back pain, heart conditions, high
blood pressure and other conditions exacerbated
by even simply the lack of movement or exercise
while in the box. Over 64% reported that they had
trouble sleeping.
Moreover, all of these various effects interact and
compound each other. As one person related, “I’ve
lost weight due to insufficient amount of food. I feel
like everyone I come in contact with is trying to start
a fight with me in some way. I feel worthless at times,
feel extreme bouts of sadness. I find myself waking
up like every half hour or so at night. I don’t want
to speak to anyone about anything. I sometimes
find myself panicking about my family’s well-being
because their mail takes over seven days to reach
me and the same for my mail to reach them.”
Another person summarized that “being in SHU
makes me feel like a caged animal; [it’s] inhumane.”

In addition, people reported how the box negatively
impacted them socially and behaviorally. Over half
of all survey respondents reported they suffered
from paranoia as a result of being in the SHU.
According to one person in Southport’s SHU, the
“mental, emotional, and social [impact] has been
extensive in so many ways I never wanna or will be
able to interact positively with others ever again. My
life is always threatened and feels in danger all the
time. I’m paranoid and not sure sometimes what is
real or an illusion.” In a potentially related manner,
56% of survey respondents reported they suffered
from social withdrawal, the same percentage
reported they had difficulty interacting with people,
and over 42% of survey respondents reported that
the SHU caused them to have outbursts. As one

These impacts are caused by the extreme isolation
of being in the SHU at Southport. The cells at
Southport have inside them a toilet, a sink, a metal
bed with a thin mattress, a slot in the door for a
food tray, and some have a small book shelf. There
are no out-of-cell programs at Southport. Southport
does offer independent cell study where people
can get materials and workbooks to work through
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on their own in their cell. At the time of our visit,
most people incarcerated at Southport were
enrolled in academic cell study, and Southport had
six full-time teachers who managed the academic
cell study program for both people in the SHU and
in the work cadre, with a plan to hire another parttime teacher, leaving one part time teacher position
still vacant. According to staff, the program for each
person in cell study is individualized – people can
work on reading or vocabulary, or pre-High School
Equivalence (HSE) or HSE, or other identified
topics of interest like business plans, “Non-profits
for Dummies,” languages, animals, countries, or
politics. Mostly, the prison just provides reading
materials for various subjects and the person in the
SHU does their own independent study in their cell,
with brief periodic check-ins from staff cellside with
the cell door in between teacher and student. Staff
indicated that there is no consistent schedule for
when teachers go into the cell tiers, but teachers do
periodically walk the tiers to check in with people
about their program. DOCCS’ own policy regarding
cell study indicates that participants will be seen
by a teacher on average every two weeks and that
participants are supposed to complete work given
to them between each meeting.

mandatory program and must be at the highest
level of privileges: PIMS Level 3 (“Progressive
Inmate Movement System”). At the time of our
visit, there were only 13 people enrolled in an ART
workbook and 25 people enrolled in an ASAT pretreatment workbook. From 2012-2014, there were
an average of 21 completions of the substance
abuse pre-treatment workbook. For the SHU ART
workbook program, the prison indicated it did not
have figures for 2012 or 2013, and 14 people
completed the workbook in 2014. Staff reported
that there are three ART workbooks that people can
progress through, that participants go at their own
pace. If they turn one workbook in, the ART staff
person will look it over and provide the person with
the next workbook. Staff reported that completing
the workbook in ART or ASAT does not satisfy the
program requirement and does not help a person
get into an actual ART program upon transfer from
the SHU. Overall, over 92% of survey respondents
reported that they are not satisfied with the ART or
ASAT workbooks. When compared to people who
are in regular general population substance abuse
programs, Southport’s SHU has worse ratings than
all CA-visited prisons (not surprisingly, given that
it is just an in-cell workbook rather than an actual
program).

Overall, 73% of survey respondents at Southport
reported that they were not satisfied with the cell
study program. This poor rating ranks Southport
as about average for CA-visited SHUs, which is a
much lower satisfaction rate than most general
population survey respondents have for regular
academic programs. Moreover, over 63% of survey
respondents reported they were not satisfied with
reading materials in the SHU and only 8% reported
they were satisfied, ranking Southport in the worst
quarter of CA-visited SHUs.

Beyond these in-cell programs, people at Southport
should have the possibility of one hour a day of
recreation alone in an outdoor cage. According to
DOCCS data, between 70-85% of people in the SHU
at Southport do not go to recreation on any given
day. Similarly, only 16% of survey respondents
reported that they frequently go to recreation, while
53% reported they go once in a while and over 26%
reported they never go to recreation. Many people
described that they choose not to go to recreation
because they do not want to be beaten or abused
by staff. For example, one person reported “officers
beat you up as soon as you come out for recreation,”
while another person stated “I rarely come out of
my cell for fear of getting beat up with my cuffs on.”
The result is that often most people at Southport
spend 24 hours a day in their cells.

With respect to the Aggression Replacement
Training (ART) cell study and Alcohol and Substance
Abuse Treatment (ASAT) pre-treatment workbooks,
there are few participants and poor ratings. In order
to participate in these in-cell workbooks, a person
in SHU must have ART or ASAT respectively as a
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Solitary at Southport

Under the settlement in Peoples v. Annucci, by April
2019 Southport will implement a new step-down
program that will allow for two hours of out-of-cell
programming four days a week and two hours of
recreation every day. The program will have a
capacity of 252 people, and will be for people who
have a minimum of a nine month SHU sentence,
with placement in the program based on DOCCS’
discretion. In addition, also by 2019, 84 people will
be able to be in a Confinement Program Plan (CPP),
which will allow for in-cell study and congregate
recreation, and permit those who complete this incell ASAT or ART in CPP to get credit for 25% to 50%
(ASAT) and 33% (ART) of program completion. In
addition, it will allow for those who complete these
in-cell programs to get expedited placement into
the programs upon return to general population.
While it is very positive there will be some outof-cell programming at Southport, the limited
amount of programming and the years of delay for
implementation mean people will continue to be
held in the torturous conditions described herein.

basic services and life necessities, including
phone calls, commissary food items, sufficient food,
and reading materials. These basic deprivations
take an exacting toll. As one person succinctly
described why the SHU was so harmful, “I cannot
exercise, eat right, hear from my family, or work.”
The incentives people can earn if they progress
through the different levels at Southport exemplify
the draconian conditions people face in the SHU.
For example, only if a person moves from PIMS
Level 1 to Level 2 can the person have a winter
coat in their cell or have restraints removed during
exercise, visits, or when taking tests. Similarly, a
person can only purchase candy if they progress to
PIMS Level 3. They may only make one total phone
call if they are PIMS Level 2, or only one phone call
every 30 days if they are PIMS Level 3. People are
only allowed at most three showers per week if they
are Level 3, and at most two showers per week if
they are Level 1 or 2.
People do have the ability to obtain materials from
the law library, although they are not allowed to go to
the law library. Compared to other SHUs, Southport
ranked near the top third, with 47% of respondents
reporting being somewhat satisfied and 14%
satisfied with the law library. More problematic,
71% reported they were not satisfied with the mail

In addition to the lack of program and recreation
opportunities, the general living conditions people
experience and the lack of adequate services cause
even more harm to people in solitary. In Southport’s
SHU, there is a lack of access to even the most

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Solitary at Southport

2013 and 2014. Many people during our visit and
in survey responses reported that medical staff had
taken them off of neccesary pain medications that
they had been taking at previous facilities. Survey
respondents complained that there was a lack of
confidentiality in speaking to medical staff, that
there are delays of a month or more to see a doctor
in getting medical treatment, and that the care
received was not adequate. People also reported
that they faced harassment or physical abuse by
staff on the way to and from medical care, or if they
grieved medical care.

and package system and only 5% reported being
satisfied, ranking Southport as one of the worst CAvisited SHUs. People complained about delays in
receiveing their mail and about staff tampering with
their mail. Similarly, 81% of survey respondents
reported being dissatisfied with the food and only
3% reported being satisfied, ranking Southport in
the worst quarter of CA-visited SHUs. Many people
reported that there was not enough food, that COs
tampered with their food or denied them meals,
and that they had lost weight while in the SHU. Over
three-quarters of survey respondents reported that
they suffered weightloss as a result of being in SHU.
People at Southport also complained about
the medical care at the prison. Overall, survey
respondents’ ratings of medical care placed
Southport about average or slightly below average
for CA-visited SHUs. Still, given the actual ratings,
the rankings also indicate the poor assessment of
medical care in SHUs across the system. Specifically,
overall only 6% of survey respondents rated medical
care as good at Southport, 40% as fair, and 54% as
poor. Survey respondents had slightly worse ratings
of physician care at Southport, with only 5% of
people rating physician care as good, 37% as fair,
and 58% as poor, while there were slightly better
ratings of sick call nursing care, with 11% rating it
as good, 48% as fair, and 41% as poor. Moreover,
medical was the most grieved issue at Southport in

More generally, any movement that people have
outside of their SHU cell – for medical, recreation,
or any other reason – requires shackling in chains
and interactions with staff, which many people
described as leading to further abuse and harm.
As one person described, “All SHUs breed a sense
of oppression because [incarcerated people] are
always at a minimum handcuffed when interacting
with staff, and there is no backlash for abuse when
staff can get away with saying that a shackled-up
[person] assaulted them.”

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Solitary at Southport

The following narratives provide greater insight into the conditions people live under in
Southport’s SHU and the devastating impact they suffer as a result.

MY VOICE HAS NO SOUND WITHIN THIS PRISON SYSTEM
I have spent most of my life in youth facilities and
adult prisons and jails, including many years in
solitary confinement. My grandmother raised me
because my mother was on drugs and my father was
non-existent. I had a pretty normal early childhood
and my grandmother gave me everything I could
have wanted as a kid. Still, I became a street person
when I was 12 or 13. Some guy raped someone I
considered my sister when I was 13, so I tried to
kill him and ended up in a youth facility. That’s
when I became a gang member as part of a Latino
and Black race and culture war – at that time the
conflict was about the seating placement for the TV.
It was one side against the other, so I had to join one.
From then on, I was in and out of youth facilities,

and ultimately was incarcerated in an adult jail and
then prison when I was 18.
When I came upstate, I was scared. I was a child. At
first, I didn’t go anywhere. I stayed in my cell. I didn’t
go to the mess hall. But I couldn’t just live in a cell.
Then I started learning what this life is like in here
– it is complicated. When I had my first altercation
in prison while still a child, the other man who was
in his thirties pulled out a weapon. That’s when I
decided I needed a weapon. The whole thing here
in prison is who gets who first. So that became
my tactic. No matter how hard you try to walk off,
someone will still come after you.

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Solitary at Southport

outbursts because of my human need for some type
of communication. And outside of the box, I have
difficulty interacting normally with other people,
and I don’t communicate anymore. Naturally, when
you are out of the box or are talking to your family,
you yell or seem angry. The box is not conducive to
helping us communicate with people. Solitary leads
certain characteristics to come out that otherwise
wouldn’t. Eye contact means a lot and I can’t keep
it. Eye contact deteriorates in the box.

“Solitary eats away at you. It is hard
to remain the same as you came in.
As a result of being in SHU, I have
experienced anxiety, depression,
weight loss, social withdrawal, and
feeling disoriented. I sometimes
talk to myself out loud. I am alone
in my conversation. I never talked
with myself until I came to SHU.
They say you’re sane if you talk to
yourself and no one responds. Well
I hear all parts of the conversation.
So I guess I have lost it. I know
mentally I’m deteriorating.”

Solitary eats away at you. It is hard to remain the
same as you came in. As a result of being in SHU,
I have experienced anxiety, depression, weight
loss, social withdrawal, and feeling disoriented. I
sometimes talk to myself out loud. I am alone in
my conversation. I never talked with myself until I
came to SHU. They say you’re sane if you talk to
yourself and no one responds. Well I hear all parts
of the conversation. So I guess I have lost it. I know
mentally I’m deteriorating.
I also sometimes start hallucinating. I hear things
or I see things that I don’t actually hear or see.
Sometimes, if I’m thinking about something, I’ll see
it there in front of me. I think about my crime and I
actually go through that whole situation and it feels
like I am actually going through it even though it is
not actually happening. When I snap out of it, I know
I need mental health.

I have thus been in and out of the box multiple
times, and have spent a total of around eight years
in solitary confinement, including nearly all of the
last five years. I spent three years in the box at
Upstate, was out for just two weeks, and then was
back in the box at Southport, where I have been for
the last almost two years.

You either adapt to solitary, or you end up on mental
health meds. I’ve adapted but it has broken me down
to where I do seek out mental assistance for some
of the thoughts that run through my head – often
more violence. Not toward anyone in particular. But
it is a built-up anger.

The isolation itself is torture. Mentally and
emotionally, it breaks you down. Spiritually it strips
you. The way it is built is to break you down as a
person and push your family away. There’s no form
of humanity among the people living and working
here.

Two years ago, I requested mental health. But
mental health here is only concerned with putting
a person on medication. I don’t need medication.
Medication here has people acting like zombies –
just sitting there, sometimes drooling. I’m scared – I
don’t want that medication or that I will end up like

Solitary is not productive to anything they say the
box is for. It leads to problems with my ability to
communicate – we gotta yell to communicate with
each other. The screaming and yelling is normal to
all of us as a way to communicate. I have verbal
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Solitary at Southport

that. Also, if I took the medication and then refuse it,
I’m concerned that this could lead to a conflict with
the staff and potentially a new charge. And I don’t
trust just anybody. Talking to the CA is therapy. I
can’t talk to mental health like this. I’d have to curb
what I’m saying. Because they will tell a CO what I
said. If I had a conflict with a CO and I was trying to
figure out how to resolve it, they might write me up
for that or tell the CO. So I don’t deal with mental
health anymore.

Just as one ridiculous example, when you move
from one cell to another, they make you carry your
bag with all of your property in it, even though you
are shackled with handcuffs connected to a waist
chain. The bag can weigh up to 50 pounds because
it has all of your property, books, clothes, pillow,
and such. One time, I fell while carrying my bag. I
made it to the second landing of the stairs. I missed
a step and fell backwards down a couple stairs.
You’re shackled so you can’t grab anything to break
your fall. One CO helped me up. The other laughed.
Luckily, I didn’t seriously hurt anything.

Being here makes you paranoid. Because you are
here by yourself, when I am around people the first
thought I have is that they’re gonna hurt me. I know
I have a paranoid reaction to a lot of things. But
also staff are out to hurt us. I believe that. Instead
of counseling us, they put us in cages and let
everything build up. After it builds up, then the COs
start antagonizing us: playing with our food, taking
away commissary. And commissary is necessary
just to have the essentials, like soap, toothpaste,
and deodorant. It is agitating that they mess with
these basic things. It makes us react violently. If you
talk to staff in a civilized manner, they still mess
with us. It is just aggravating. Now that I’m older, I
can sometimes let it roll. But it still bothers me that
they nitpick and harass incarcerated persons. I’m
trying to hold on.

There is lots of staff brutality at Southport. Officers
beat incarcerated people for nothing. D-block is the
worst – there are lots of children there. Staff jumps
on them and then will say that the kids jumped on
them. When the kids ask to see medical or mental
health, they are not allowed. The COs will say that
they’re fine. For one young person in D-block, the
COs recently broke his nose.
I only go to recreation once in a while because I don’t
like being touched by the officers. They’re provoking
us to say or do things. I have been threatened with
harm. I keep myself safer by staying in this cell.
Some of the officers play and tamper with mail
too. Also, the COs don’t treat your family as human
beings. They treat them as if they are incarcerated.
Incarcerated people should be given someone to
write or call that is above the superintendent that
actually does something to address the abuses. I
write to a lot of people but nothing has happened to
improve my situation. I am afraid – not of the fight,
but of receiving more jail time. I’m not scared of
them, but I’m scared of the repercussions. If they
jump me, I’m gonna get a new charge. That’s scary
because I’m getting so close to going before the
Parole Board. My voice, just as many others, has no
sound within this prison system.

And this SHU at Southport is worse than many
others. There are truly mentally ill people here.
People who are spitting and throwing feces. Yet,
the COs treat us all like animals. This place is like
a zoo. I compare it to a dog getting abused – COs
kick, curse, and throw things at us. They bring their
personal problems from home and take it out on us.
If we respond, we are wrong. If we don’t respond,
they’ll keep going. We’re the outlet for their anger.
Although they are supposed to be responsible for
care, custody, and control, they are only concerned
about control. There is no care.

13

Solitary at Southport

I AM ENDURING
them breaking down are high. I witnessed a man kill
himself while in a SHU at a previous prison before I
was transferred to Southport.

I came to Southport with a multiple year SHU
sentence after being brutalized by staff at another
prison. Although I was beaten so badly that I was
hospitalized for multiple days, had a fractured bone,
and continue to suffer medical effects, I was sent
to the box for multiple years for allegedly assaulting
staff and was prosecuted and sentenced to more
prison time.

Prison itself has had an impact on me physically,
mentally, emotionally, and socially. Just being in a
cage 23-24 hours a day is a difficulty in and of itself.
Caging animals for years is inhumane and deemed
animal cruelty, yet it is considered rehabilitation
for human beings? According to whom? When and
where did anyone fairly test this theory to assess its
impact on people and how did we determine it was
legal? Such are questions that shall find no answers.
Because the fact is that solitary is punishment and
nothing more. In here, it is punishment, punishment,
punishment.

Solitary confinement has a devastating impact
on people. People’s mind and humanity changes
while in isolation. Solitary makes people much
more antisocial. I have seen many people at
Southport deteriorate. Young people at Southport
in particular have no sense of how to act, and there
are no programs to help them grow or improve
their behavior. No one is concerned about them
in here, and there are no regular opportunities to
have one-on-one interactions. The only one-on-one
interactions are if someone wants to talk to mental
health, which many people are not comfortable with.
It makes most people feel as if they will be viewed
as crazy. If a person in the SHU is even slightly
mentally or emotionally fragile, the chances of

Despite the horrors of solitary, some people
become better in hope that they will be given a
second chance, but many accept the reality that
there is no forgiveness and no second chance. I
am able to do different things to help me cope – I
read, write, and draw for instance. I can cope. But
others can’t, and they start talking, screaming, and
yelling. Screaming, banging, and yelling in the SHU
14

Solitary at Southport

is infectious and once it starts, it continues to build,
particularly for people who have mental health
needs. Talking to someone you know is difficult
and at times impossible due to either distance or
noise of everyone trying to be heard. Solitary drives
people crazy.

a man’s cross to bear. Still, it is hard to feel safe in
chains around those who hate you.
They also mess with our mail in here. I used to draw
on envelopes for my daughter, but in here it is not
permitted. Alone in a cage, they have a problem
with normality. I have filed a lot of grievances to
complain about various abuses. However, when you
file a grievance you are basically writing to the same
people you are writing a grievance about. It is always
my word against DOCCS staff, and other DOCCS
staff always side with their colleagues. For example,
Southport’s medical assistance is very poor. I’ve
had to file numerous complaints and grievances
several times before being given medical care,
and I’ve had to file lawsuits because of this lack of
care. Many other people have had similar problems
getting medical assistance here at Southport.

The idea of caging people as a means of
rehabilitation is like referring to child abuse as a
proper means of discipline. Nothing that debilitates
a person’s morals and principles or conscience
can be considered a good thing. And what of those
who are struggling with their morals, principles,
or conscience from the start? What will spending
years in a cage do to them? A man or woman could
go insane if left alone on a small island for years, so
who could possibly conceive that being alone in a
cage would have no damaging effects? Not only on
the ones caged, but also on those locking the cages.
To make things worse, Southport denies people
contact visits without cause. To deny people the
privilege to hold and kiss their children, embrace
and kiss their family members, wives, or girlfriends
without a disciplinary “loss of visit” sanction or a
“non-contact” visit disposition, is a form of cruel
and unusual punishment upon both the people
incarcerated, and their loved ones. Yet, at Southport,
with plexiglass barriers, this privilege has been
revoked from hundreds of people who do not have
“loss of visits” or “non-contact visits” dispositions.
Human contact, especially with loved ones, is a
primary normality of human nature. The system is
claiming to rehabilitate by inhumane means. But
what would be the result of protesting against such
circumstances? More than likely even harsher
penalties with each disciplinary infraction.

On one occasion, I talked to mental health staff
about my feelings, including how much anger I feel.
But then the mental health staff talked to security,
and I received a disciplinary ticket and more SHU
time. Other times I tried to talk to a mental health
staff person about my feelings, but she related to
me in a judgmental and biased manner.
I rarely go out to recreation. I sometimes go just
to be in the sun. But going from one square cage
to another is not even recreation for a Chihuahua.
Recreation in Southport consists of a one-man cage

“On one occasion, I talked to
mental health staff about my
feelings, including how much
anger I feel. But then the mental
health staff talked to security, and
I received a disciplinary ticket and
more SHU time.”

At Southport, I have seen other people get jumped
and beaten up by correction officers. The COs are
not trained at all on how to effectively relate to
people. There are some security staff who take
this job to feed their families, while others take it
to exercise their hate or anger. Officers constantly
goad men whom staff realize are outnumbered and
in chains. Surely, this is a cowards’ paradise, and
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Solitary at Southport

“More money is spent on prisons that don’t work than on programs that do
or could work. Prison is a form of torture, not rehabilitation. It does more to
mentally handicap an individual than turn an individual into a productive
human being . . . Environments that do further damage to the mind cannot be
considered a remedy for crime prevention.”
outdoors about the size of a parking space. There’s
no recreation equipment at all, not even a pull-up
bar. All one can do is walk in circles. Who comes up
with this type of treatment?

I am grateful that they provide some cell study
programs at Southport. I appreciate the kindness
and respect of the teachers – not everyone who
works within the prisons sees it as an opportunity
to mistreat us. I believe the teachers want to help
people. On the other hand, cell study teachers only
come by once a month, and I dislike that we’re not
allowed to participate in any real correspondence
courses. I also have not been allowed to get the
substance abuse workbook or an Aggression
Replacement Training workbook. If I was allowed to
participate I would. I love reading, and the books I
receive from outside prison book programs I have
contacted, help me the most in here. It may take a
while to get them, but they send me a few books at
a time.

Making matters worse, sometimes it is even
hard to breathe in our cells and they can become
unbearably hot in the summer. There are no fans in
the cells. There are only vents in each cell that pull
in air to ventilate and remove dust. At times, certain
COs cut the vents off as a tactic, especially during
the summer when it is hot and muggy. There is no air
conditioning on the galleries or in the cells. When it
gets hot, all we can do is hope for a breeze through
the small window opening in front of our cells. On
days like these, all you can do is try to survive the
stifling heat alone in your cell.

More money is spent on prisons that don’t work
than on programs that do or could work. Prison is
a form of torture, not rehabilitation. It does more
to mentally handicap an individual than turn an
individual into a productive human being. And for
those organizations that do strive to do the job that
true rehabilitation can do, their greatest opposing
forces are DOCCS and politicians. The same people
who claim to want to stop crime.

I suffered from severe migraines due to the injuries
I received when I was beaten at another prison,
and I was not able to get the treatment I needed. I
have had to fight for every medical treatment I have
gotten and I am still fighting. I had a growth on my
tricep so I signed up for sick call, but they sent me
to see OMH instead of a medical doctor. They told
me that they didn’t believe that I had a medical
problem, and even after all my advocacy eventually
got me a biopsy ordered, medical staff stood over
my shoulder while I was getting the biopsy and said,
“I bet it’s just a zit.” But then eventually they cut
out the growth. I have also lost several pounds at
Southport due to certain medications I was forced
to keep taking.

Environments that do further damage to the mind
cannot be considered a remedy for crime prevention.
I have been in solitary confinement for over two
years now. In that time I witnessed a man kill
himself. I witnessed men become so angry during
caged arguments that they throw urine and feces
at one another. I never witnessed such behavior in
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Solitary at Southport

general population. Those with family of friends on
the outside are lucky enough to get a visit, but most
people don’t. It’s easy to lash out in violence when
one feels like he has nothing to live for, or that no one
cares about him. Some are violent just to feel alive or
a sense of purpose.
And that is what prison and solitary do to most men
and women – they give them no sense of purpose or
robs them of what little purpose they felt they once
had. And if someone does have any hope, the Parole
Board is extremely cruel and they kill the hope of
freedom.
And then there’s the loneliness. One may find it hard
to fathom feeling alone while surrounded by hundreds
of other people. But those who find that hard to
fathom are blind to the fact that even those who are
not in prison get lonely. Including a loneliness from
not having an intimate mate. It is a fight because this
madness chips away at all of us.
I am affected tremendously every passing day by
being in prison, whether in general population or
solitary, but I choose to do what I can to stay strong.
It is a battle, but it is a battle I don’t wish to lose. My strength through it all has been my faith in God. Not in
religion, but God alone. Not that I have anything against religion. But there are many without faith or who find
it too hard to have faith under such circumstances of prison or solitary. I too have felt that way at times. Nor
could I begin to tell you why I haven’t given up. I don’t have the answer to such a question. Even facing a new
charge and more time incarcerated when I was the one assaulted by staff, I feel I will find purpose to go on.
Before we can truly change the conditions of prisons, we must be able to change the minds of the people in
control of the prisons. But will they change if they are benefitting from how prison currently is? I doubt it very
much. It is good to know there are people out there who still consider us human beings. Too often people
tend to use incarcerated people as a stepping stone in considering themselves better or more righteous. It
is easier for them to feel better about themselves when they have someone else to look down on.
I am enduring. What choice does one have? It is either endure or be broken: mentally, spiritually, physically,
or otherwise. Though many will swiftly judge me due to the circumstances that brought me to prison, I am
truly sorry for what happened. It is not who I am nor is it who I was. I was a young irresponsible kid who
did something foolish over almost two decades ago. It is not an excuse, but it is the reality. If God should
condemn us the way we do one another, what hope would there be for any of us?

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Solitary at Southport

SOUTHPORT IS LIKE THE MATRIX:
IF YOU GO IN, YOU MAY NOT COME OUT

“To make sure I didn’t get stuck
at Southport any longer than my
original SHU sentence, I didn’t
take any showers because I
didn’t want to have contact with
any COs. I didn’t go to recreation
because I didn’t want to be
fondled and then end up saying
something slick and get a ticket
for it. I didn’t talk to anyone. I
had to make sure I didn’t upset
the porter so he didn’t starve
me. The discipline I had to exact
on myself just to get out of
Southport was crazy.”

Southport is like the matrix. People come in,
and end up spending years here. I know people
whfo came in initially with six month SHU
sentences and ended up staying at Southport
for as long as eight years because of receiving
multiple tickets.
To make sure I didn’t get stuck at Southport any
longer than my original SHU sentence, I didn’t
take any showers because I didn’t want to have
contact with any COs. I didn’t go to recreation
because I didn’t want to be fondled and then
end up saying something slick and get a ticket
for it. I didn’t talk to anyone. I had to make sure
I didn’t upset the porter so he didn’t starve me.
The discipline I had to exact on myself just to
get out of Southport was crazy.
I came into Southport with a six month SHU
sentence for refusing to double bunk in the
general population at another prison. One
time, I had spent over a year double-bunked at
Upstate. I had received two years of SHU time
after I was assaulted by COs. They punched me,
and when I tried to protect myself, they cracked
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Solitary at Southport

my ribs and head. At first, they tried to give me six
years in the box for assaulting staff, but luckily, I got
some help from people on the outside to get it down
to 24 months instead.

in just two and a half minutes. Then you come out
of the showers almost butt naked, in your boxers.
That’s it. It’s not right.
Worse still, the COs can be physically abusive. On my
second day at Southport, there was an incident with
this other guy who didn’t really speak any English.
He was a little guy, maybe 110 pounds. He tried to
ask about his property, but the COs said something
slick back. The little guy bugged out and cursed back.
The next day, they took him down to the bullpen with
restraints and I could hear them beating him up.
They lied and said he kicked and attacked them first,
but that would have been impossible. How could he
kick when he’s in restraints? Next thing I hear is
them bragging to the rest of us saying the little guy’s
going to need stitches. It’s like they were trying to
scare us. That’s how they get in your head. They play
games with you. The COs are bad, but the whole
system is rogue. I once heard an administrator tell
someone asking for a time cut that his whole career
has been based on keeping guys in the box.

Solitary is bad enough, but when they put me in the
box at another prison with somebody else, it was an
even worse form of torture. Once, they even put a
known enemy in my cell on purpose. It really messed
with my head. After over a year of double bunking, I
couldn’t handle it anymore. I wanted to be alone so
badly that I tried to hurt myself. When I was sent to
an observation cell – the boom boom room – that
was the most degrading experience of my whole
life. So when they tried to make me double bunk
in the general population this time, I refused and
ended up with a new SHU sentence and was sent to
Southport.
Solitary in Southport has its own psychological
effects. You’re in your cell all day, and you have
nothing. No TVs, nothing. It’s officially 23 hours
locked in your cell at Southport, but really it’s 24.
You’re supposed to get one hour out-of-cell time
a day, but the whole process just to go outside is
dehumanizing. You get fondled so many times. It’s
how the COs discourage you from going outside. It
makes it easier for them if you stay in your cell.

It takes a strong person to handle solitary. That’s why
you have people talking on the gate all day, because
you get bored and there’s nothing else to do. People
are talking all day every day. Plus, everything is
cheaply made, so you can hear everything that’s
going on. You’re all alone, but you’ve got no privacy.
You have to become numb to the noise. There’s no
quiet time, except maybe from 3 am to 5 am, but
that’s because you have to sleep some time. I don’t
like socializing and I got frustrated at Southport
when I heard other people constantly talking. I
always wanted to be alone and be left alone. I was
always thinking that there was someone against
me. I tried to keep myself obsessively busy in order
to avoid the reality of being in solitary.

The COs make up their own rules that create the
least amount of work for themselves. They use
incarcerated people to govern ourselves. They pick
a random person to be a porter to give out our
food and clean up afterwards. That person governs
everything. He gets to make all the decisions about
giving out food. He can decide not to give you
anything or can mess with your food, and the COs
don’t notice a thing or do anything about it because
they’re way out front.

The damage of solitary has stayed with me after
returning to general population. When I finally came
out of the box at Southport, I was a loner. I’m not in
the box anymore, but I’m still a loner now. I know
a lot of people, but I just don’t want to be around
them – or anyone. Solitary made me this way. I don’t
like people any more. Certain places with a lot of

You can’t even take a real shower. You’re supposed
to get a five minute shower twice a week, three times
a week if you’re PIMS Level 3. You’re supposed to
get five minutes, but really it’s more like two and
a half. You’ve got to figure out how to get yourself
clean, shave, clip your toenails and anything else
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Solitary at Southport

movement, like the visiting area, get me really anxious and cause me to be over-vigilant and concerned that
something bad might happen.
I’m out of the box now, but I know I will be back in again. I have already been in the box a total of 42 months
during this prison bid alone. The system is set up for us to go there. We keep their jobs. Their union is too
strong. We keep Southport open. We keep Upstate open. We keep those SHU 200s open. If you go in, you
may not come out.

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Solitary at Southport

3

INTERSECTIONS BETWEEN SOLITARY, MENTAL HEALTH, AND SELF-HARM

Solitary confinement at Southport can lead
people to suffer from mental health issues, and
can exacerbate people’s pre-existing mental
health needs. Southport is a NYS Office of Mental
Health (OMH) Level 2 prison and over a quarter of
people in the SHU are on the OMH caseload. In
addition to people on the caseload, over half of
survey respondents reported that they were either
currently on the OMH caseload or had been in the
past, which is about average for CA-visited SHUs but
more than 10% higher than the rest of the prison
system. Despite the large number of people with
mental health needs in the SHU, Southport does
not provide any group therapy or programming
for people with mental health needs, and OMH
staff only have short periodic clinic contacts
with patients. At the time of our visit, Southport
employed five full time social workers, and had just
hired a sixth. They had no psychologists, and they
used videoconferencing for all psychiatry. Mental
health staff reported that they conduct rounds
weekly in the SHU. Of concern, mental health staff
displayed a lack of recognition of the possible
negative impacts of solitary confinement on
patients’ mental health or well-being. Specifically,
despite the vast amount of literature documenting
the mental health deterioration caused by solitary
confinement, mental health staff at Southport
reported that they do not see the SHU causing
any negative impact or deterioration on people’s
mental health. Corrections staff also displayed
their lack of understanding of the negative impact
of solitary. Specifically, Union representatives
claimed that Southport is “one of the best kept
secrets in the state,” and that because the 23-hour
lockdown does not take place down in the “ground”
or in a “dungeon”, it is not right to say that people
are being deprived. These staff also claimed that
people want to be in Southport’s SHU because they
can be protected 24 hours a day in their cell.

Not surprisingly given statements by staff, numerous
people incarcerated at Southport reported that
mental health staff denied any negative impact of
solitary. As one person stated for example, “I was
told being depressed is normal and that my SHU
time is doable.” In turn, numerous people reported
that they did not receive the mental health care
they needed, including many survey respondents
describing how they had asked for mental health
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Solitary at Southport

“Solitary in Southport has its own psychological effects. You’re in your cell all day, and you have nothing. No
TVs, nothing. It’s officially 23 hours locked in your cell at Southport, but really it’s 24. You’re supposed to get
one hour out-of-cell time a day, but the whole process just to go outside is dehumanizing. You get fondled
so many times. It’s how the COs discourage you from going outside. It makes it easier for them if you stay in
your cell.”

support and were denied assistance or had delays
in receiving assistance. Indeed, nearly two-thirds
of all survey respondents reported that they had
received, been recommended for, or attempted
to use mental health services in prison – much
higher than the number on the OMH caseload. For
example, one person stated “Sometimes I’ve asked
to see mental health and I was straight out denied.”
Another person reported “I get depressed at times –
rather a lot – and I cannot get on the mental health
caseload, nor have I been given any medication,
which I requested.” Another person wrote that “I’ve
been emotional and had several outbursts . . . and
wrote to mental health at Southport, [only] to be
ignored.” Several people reported that they did not
receive mental health care even after thoughts or
attempts of self-harm or suicide.

Health Treatment Unit under the SHU Exclusion Law.
Instead, because their diagnosis had changed, they
were still in SHU despite their significant mental
health needs.
In addition to the lack of access to proper mental
health services, people also had mixed to negative
reviews about the quality of the mental health
care received. Specifically, when asked about
individual therapy, 13.5% assessed it as good and
44% as poor, about average for CA-visited SHUs.
Many people reported that mental health staff
essentially ignored their mental health concerns
or told them that they were fine. As one patient
stated, for example, “I’m receiving minimum, if any,
treatment for my principle mental illness, which is
being neglected.” Or another person stated ‘I told
them that I was depressed and they told me to
count backwards. Also, people expressed concerns
about confidentiality. According to one person, “The
CO stands there and hears all they are talking to
you about, saying remarks like ‘he is alright’ or
‘he is faking.’” Overall, only nine percent of survey
respondents rated mental health care as good
at Southport, while 49% rated it as poor, ranking
Southport in the bottom third of CA-visited SHUs.

Also of serious concern, some people at Southport
reported that they previously had diagnoses that
should classify them as having a Serious Mental
Illness that would require them to be diverted
from the SHU to an alternative Residential Mental

From 2000 through 2016,

NINE people – including one

Self-harm is one of the most disturbing results of
the combination of the negative mental health
impacts of SHU and the limited mental health
services provided at Southport. Staff indicated that
typically if someone goes into mental health crisis,
they would be transferred to Residential Crisis
Treatment Program (RCTP) observation cells at
Elmira, though they could go to an RCTP at another
prison. Staff reported that it almost never happens

person in 2015 and 2016 – committed
suicide at Southport, an average of
one person every other year.
22

Solitary at Southport

that a person from Southport ends up at Central New
York Psychiatric Center (CNYPC) after going to an RCTP.
Instead of providing people with the psychiatric support
that they need, people are returned to the very SHU
conditions that led them to engage in self-harm or go
into crisis. A large number of people reported that they
had been sent to an RCTP and many people reported
repeated trips between the RCTP and the SHU, including
after incidents of self-harm. Over 57% of survey
respondents reported that they had been to an RCTP at
some point since they had been incarcerated. Over 18%
of all survey respondents reported they had been to an
RCTP after being in Southport’s SHU, 5.7% had been
to an RCTP multiple times, and some people reported
many trips to the RCTP from Southport.
In a related manner, Southport has one of the highest
rates of suicide and suicide attempts/ self-harm in New
York prisons. From 2000 through 2016, nine people
committed suicide at Southport, including one suicide
each year in 2015 and 2016, which is the second highest
rate for all DOCCS facilities for this two-year period. In
addition, there were 78 incidents of suicide attempts
or self-harm at the prison during 2015-16, the highest
rate of such incidents for all DOCCS prisons. Survey
respondents also reported a high incidence of selfharm incidents at Southport. Specifically, 54% of survey
respondents reported that self-harm frequently occurs
at Southport, placing the supermax in the bottom third
of CA-visited prisons, and 27% of survey respondents
said that they themselves had attempted self-harm at
least once at Southport, about average for CA-visited
SHUs, indicating the disturbingly high level of self-harm
in SHU across the system.
People discussed the direct connection between the
torturous conditions in the SHU and their resultant selfharm. As one person described, for instance, “I [have]
been in the box/KL [for multiple years]; now all my
letters stop. I have no contact to my son and my mother.
I have no money for stamps, deodorant. No visits. I am
becoming more and more depressed. I feel the staff is
together and they want me to stay in the box. I’ve tried
to kill myself three times. I can’t take it no more. I just
want out.”
23

Solitary at Southport

The following narratives highlight the negative impact of solitary on people’s mental health,
the particularly negative harm for people who have pre-existing mental health needs, the
failure to divert people who have significant mental health needs – including those who
engage in self-harm – from the SHU at Southport, and the devastating consequences.

ATROCITIES BEHIND THE WALLS
I have a long history of mental health needs. I
repeatedly have received mental health treatment
since I was a young child. I have been diagnosed with
a serious mental illness – bipolar, manic depressive
disorder and a list of others. I had countless
hospitalizations and one long-term residential
treatment stay prior to being incarcerated. My case
that led me to be incarcerated was in the Mental
Health court, which is only for people who have
a “serious mental illness.” I didn’t comply with a
condition of the mental health court and so was
sentenced to prison time a couple of years ago.

That started a more than six month cycle between
solitary, self-harm, observation cells, more
disciplinary tickets, and solitary. I spent a number
of those months in the box at Great Meadow and
a number of months in Southport’s SHU. I also
received more disciplinary tickets while in the SHU,
for having pills that were given to me for my sciatica
nerve or having law library materials or because I
was still eating my breakfast after I was asked to
complete it.
Although I had a long history of serious mental
illness, the Office of Mental Health (OMH) has me

My life was ruined and it has been horrible ever
since then. It has been a constant nightmare. I was
physically abused in county jail and then at Rikers by
staff. After I came into the prison system, I continued
to face abuse. A lot of atrocities take place here
behind the walls. I was first in a medium security
prison. They found unauthorized medications in
my cell and they punished me with two months
in solitary confinement. I was assaulted at that
other prison while being called [the n-word] and a
slew of other epithets. I had swelling to the head
from the beating, but I was then denied medical
treatment. While I was in the box, I hung myself and
an officer cut me down. I was taken to an outside
medical hospital, then sent to a mental health crisis
observation unit at another prison, and then sent
right back to solitary where I received more tickets.

“Although I had a long history of
serious mental illness, the Office
of Mental Health (OMH) has me
listed as having an adjustment
disorder and so I was able to be
held in the SHU. . . . I attempted
suicide at least five times during
this time period. I didn’t want to
live. The SHU really brings out the
worst in me.”
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Solitary at Southport

listed as having an adjustment disorder and so I was
able to be held in the SHU. I even initially was given
an OMH Level 3 despite the fact that my case was
in mental health court. My OMH level has changed
numerous times; I have been a Level 3, a 2, a 6, and
a 1. But I have never been given an S-designation.
So I spent those more than six months straight in
the SHU.

Attacks by staff happen throughout the Department.
When I was in the observation cell at Great Meadow,
there was a patient from the Behavioral Health
Unit (BHU) who was assaulted to the point that
he suffered a fractured leg and lacerations that
required over 20 stitches. He had a mental illness
so he kept trying to cut himself to get proper medical
attention but was denied going to an outside
hospital. Similarly, another person brought to the
observation cell from the Great Meadow BHU, who
had autism, was beaten by COs while I was there.

I attempted suicide at least five times during
this time period. I didn’t want to live. The SHU
really brings out the worst in me. I hung myself
innumerable times. Each time I hung myself with
sheets, someone alerted staff to cut me down. Even
while in a preventive suicide unit, I hung myself
by a towel. Other times, I swallowed my inhaler,
paperclips, and zippers. I have been sent to the
mental health crisis observation units numerous
times, including multiple times at Great Meadow
and from the Southport SHU.

Southport is not much different and is also very
depressing. The COs are always trying to beat
someone. I really constantly tried to avoid all contact
with security staff. Southport takes your manhood
away. I didn’t receive any educational programs or
materials. You are handcuffed to go to the shower,
and only go twice a week for five minutes. Also at
Southport, the medical staff have extremely poor
attitudes. Where in this country can medical staff
talk to a patient in an abusive way or ignore patients
like they do here? It is next to a miracle to be able
to see a doctor. Moreover, staff were not even
permitting me to maintain basic human hygiene at
Southport. Plus, I lost contact with my family. They
tampered with my mail, and only a limited number
of family were attempting to write to me because
some of my family are unable to write.

Solitary is terrible. And Great Meadow and Southport
are the worst of the SHUs. Staff treat you real bad.
There are severe obstacles we encounter when we
try to go to recreation, including that you are still
locked down and that staff are always looking to
beat you. So I decided it is not worth going. As a
result, I am locked down all of the time. And officers
are always looking to beat you. They’ll take you to
the blind spots and beat you. I’ve been called [the
n-word] more times on this bid than I have in my
entire life. By people who work for the government.
COs called me a no good [n-word] slave. It has been
a constant struggle, with a large fear of retaliation,
not knowing what’s coming and how it’s coming. I
have written many people about these problems, but
there is still no hope. There is a stigma associated
with incarceration that allows it to be completely
acceptable to beat incarcerated people within an
inch of their lives and to continue to have a job.
They can call you monkey [n-word] on a constant
basis, and attack anyone at any given moment they
feel warranted without reason or justified cause.
Someone who has a comfortable pension shouldn’t
call you [n-word] and beat you.
25

Solitary at Southport

As a result of being in the box at Southport and other prisons, I couldn’t sleep. I was nervous all the time. I
had involuntary muscle twitching. My hope was transformed to despair by the SHU. I had a lack of interest
in everything. I talked to myself. I had nightmares and ill feelings. I felt constant stress and suicidality. I
frequently had thoughts of hurting myself and often acted on them. Also, because of the lack of exercise in
the SHU, my body ached. I suffered from severe headaches and had spine pain. I had trouble coping with
activities of daily living. I often felt restlessness, distraught, and isolated.
Luckily, I was transferred from Southport SHU, but I am still being held in keeplock at my new facility. I still
remain under a lot of stress. And it doesn’t help not being able to be in touch with the people you love. It
is a constant struggle not receiving my proper mental health services and having my mental health needs
untreated. Too many times I have been interrupted from taking my life when they cut me down from my cell.
I am facing all of this abuse in maximum security prisons and solitary confinement for allegedly stealing five
cologne bottles with a retail value of $276.
There is no more in life to be lost in the world than freedom. I
know and fully understand the 13th Amendment. But now,
to have to put up with racial slurs, beatings, unjustified
assaults, violating searches, and harassment. If
you’re treated like an animal, that’s what you
may become. Some people will become tired of
being beaten and have nothing to lose.
Here I am David without a slingshot. I am
trying to get the help to acquire the justice
that is needed. But sometimes, I feel it is
in vain. I feel powerless and overwhelmed.
I am suffering in fear, not knowing what
next evil they will concoct.
Staff tries to silence our voices with
threats of retaliation by planting weapons.
For grievances I filed, I have received
disciplinary tickets or been denied recreation
and showers. There is really no way to protect
yourself against the system. I need to know
how I can defend myself against such a powerful
entity. But my voice is not to be muted. I exist to
right wrongs. I feel I have a chosen duty to advocate
and shed light and go against the very abomination and
cruelty of DOCCS.
I am a political activist and I believe no injustices should be overlooked. I believe being a Black youth in America,
my justice has been stolen and the current prison system is just a continuation of the rape, murder, and
genocide of my ancestors from the slave ships, replaced now by slave bricks made to keep you captured like
working mules. I believe in true freedom, justice and equality to all the human families of the planet earth.
26

Solitary at Southport

“I thought only weak people would lose their
minds and attempt suicide, but getting sent
back [to solitary] pushed me over the edge.”
THE WALLS ARE CLOSING IN ON ME
depressed. I am paranoid most of the time because
of my long stints in the box. I don’t like to be around
people. I now find it hard to sleep. My body aches
most of the day from sitting in one spot. I can’t
speak to my family – the COs have even taken away
my visits. All because I have a drug problem. And
they don’t try to help me with this problem. They
just punish and torture me.

I tried to kill myself twice last year within a short
time. I had just finished a more than four year
SHU sentence, and I was being brought back to
Elmira prison. Somebody asked me to pass over a
wick (a piece of string used to light cigarettes) to
the next guy. I tossed it over and a guard saw me
throw something. We both got searched, they found
nothing on me, but they discovered a marijuana
cigarette on the guy I was passing the wick to. They
believed that I was the one who passed him the pot,
and I got sent back to the SHU for another eight
months. I also lost a year of visitation and a year
of good time. So I never made it back to general
population and now, I have done almost five straight
years in the box.

When I first started experiencing adverse mental
health effects, I was panicked and didn’t know what
to do. People just want out of solitary and for good
reason. I respond to the dark phases I go through
sometimes by keeping to myself and sometimes by
trying to connect with other incarcerated people. I
am a mental health Level 3 patient. I am medicated
for my depression. But, OMH is not helpful. They
don’t really care. When I get called out for a mental
health one-on-one session, the mental health staff
person just asks me: do you feel suicidal? Are you
taking your meds? How are you responding to them?
And that is it. It typically last 10 minutes. Then when
I need to meet with the psychiatrist, it is through
a teleconference. I have a real problem with this
psychiatrist; everyone does. I was recently taken
off my meds because I missed four sessions with
him. I didn’t go because he asks me questions like,
“what’s suboxone going for in there? What was your
arrest for? Was it drug related?” I am a recovering
addict; I don’t want to hear about this.

I was just about to leave solitary, and instead I was
immediately sent right back over a piece of string. I
am in my early thirties right now. I consider myself a
strong individual. Not a quitter. I thought only weak
people would lose their minds and attempt suicide,
but getting sent back so quickly pushed me over the
edge.
Being in solitary is like sitting in your bathroom for
almost 24 hours a day for years straight. You are
stuck here. You start hearing voices and you argue
more easily. You go crazy like an animal in a cage.
This place really is like a dog kennel but for humans.
Some people lose it and start throwing feces. We
say ‘they’re boxed out,’ meaning they lost their
mind. It’s torture.

I also messed up my arm recently. They did an X-ray
but not an MRI and I was just given ibuprofen rather
than any real treatment. I have back pain that stems
from bad arthritis. The doctor told me, “oh, we all have

I often feel extremely enclosed, as if the walls are
closing in on me, suffocating me. I am constantly
27

Solitary at Southport

a little arthritis,” and did not treat me. The nurses
even told me that it wasn’t worth getting treatment
in DOCCS because it is not effective. They said, “just
wait until you get out for treatment, because the
treatment here just makes it worse.”

was sent to my first youth facility at age 13. I ended
up doing robberies to pay for my addiction. That’s
what led me to prison, my drug addiction.

If you think being sent to the SHU helps people with
drug addiction, you couldn’t be more wrong. Being
The COs can do anything they want to anyone. They
constantly locked in a tiny room with nothing to do
have access to your food, your mail, and have total
just makes me want to take drugs even more. In the
control over your life. When they found me after my
SHU, there are no rehabilitation programs, which you
suicide attempt, a group of COs came in to my cell and
need to one day receive a conditional release. Twice
beat me up. They slapped and kicked me like they do
since my attempted suicide, my urine came back
with almost anyone who attempts suicide because
dirty because of pot. I received another 16 months
there are no cameras in our cells and if anyone tries
SHU time, another 12 months loss of visits, and
to report them, they retaliate.
another 12 months loss of good
time. After all I have been through,
“If
you
think
being
sent
to
the
Even coming down to the visiting
when someone offered me pot, is
room to talk with the Correctional
it really a wonder that I broke down
SHU helps people with drug
Association, the officer who was
and said “yes”? I am a recovering
addiction, you couldn’t be more
escorting us started harassing an
addict, who just attempted suicide,
wrong.
Being
constantly
locked
old timer because he wanted to
couldn’t see or talk to my family,
in
a
tiny
room
with
nothing
to
talk to your organization. The CO
and was locked in a tiny room with
threatened to confiscate the old
nothing
to do and no access to
do just makes me want to take
man’s shoes, claiming they were
any type of treatment programs for
drugs
even
more.”
contraband. The old guy had been
many years. Anything would have
wearing those shoes for around a
seemed like a welcome escape.
decade. After making a big show of running them
through the metal detector, the CO finally gave them
There are no benefits to punitive segregation. It is
back. But he made sure to call us all snitches before
damaging to all who are subjected to it. It damages
we left.
us all slowly. DOCCS knows but they don’t care.
They don’t want these prisons to close down or jobs
I am a porter and I hand out food. In some ways that
to be lost. You have people like myself who have
is lucky for me because if I wasn’t a porter, I would
a drug addiction problem and need drug therapy,
be in my cell almost 24 hours a day every day; I rarely
yet all they continue to do is give punishment in
go out to recreation particularly when it is cold. On
the SHU. I have served years and years in the SHU
the other hand, sometimes some trays of food are
– all for drug tickets, and I have yet to get into any
missing items and do not have the proper food for
DOCCS substance abuse treatment program. Why?
people who have dietary restrictions and needs. I
Because they keep placing me on the waiting list.
will tell the CO and the CO will say, “well deal with
Then they force me to double bunk with whomever
it.” This leaves me with a choice: who do I give the
they want, forcing us into altercations, and when
trays with missing food? This automatically creates
fights ensue, they penalize us heavily with large
tensions between me and the other incarcerated
amounts of SHU time. It is all a big scam. But nobody
people. I get threats from this. My solution is just to
would believe us because no one gives us in here
give myself the worst tray.
an ear or hears the voices of the ones who are truly
being oppressed in manners some out there would
I grew up in a good family. I just started hanging with
not even begin to comprehend.
the wrong crowd and got badly addicted to drugs. I
28

Solitary at Southport

STAFF NEED TO RESPECT US AS PEOPLE
I have spent almost ten years in solitary confinement during my incarceration, including three years straight
the last time. I have been denied parole release from prison while in solitary. Most of my misbehavior reports
are non-violent so I don’t feel I deserved to be in the box for all these years for things so small. I did not hurt
or assault anyone.
Solitary is very stressful. I suffer from depression
and anxiety. I’ve also become very paranoid in
solitary, and I have hallucinations while I’m here.
Sometimes, I even hear voices. In addition, I suffer
from claustrophobia and have suicidal thoughts, all
of which are made worse by solitary. I have received
mental health treatment since I was in my early teens.
I spent several months in Bellevue Hospital as an
early teenager because I was hearing voices telling
me to kill someone. Since I have been in prison, I have
been on the Office of Mental Health (OMH) caseload
for several years. At one time, I was an OMH Level
1 patient for a couple of years, though now I am a
Level 3 patient. I am not sure what my diagnosis is.
I have attempted to harm myself multiple times and
have been sent to the observation cells around 10
times.

Even with so few opportunities for
physical interactions between staff
and incarcerated people at Southport
because people are in their cells 23-24
hours a day, roughly

84% of

survey respondents reported
they frequently hear about
staff physical confrontations,
and nearly half reported they

The mental health services in solitary are not very
good. They do not really help you. I had problems
with mental health staff at Southport. When I first
had personally experienced a
came to Southport, a physician took me off of my
physical confrontation with staff at
mental health medications and mental health staff
would not discuss it with me at all, even though I
Southport.
wanted to remain on my medications. One time I told
my social worker that I was having problems with the
security staff and that they were abusing me. The
social worker told the COs what I had said, and they
made fun of me. I wrote to the OMH unit chief and people in the central office of OMH, but nothing was done.
Another time, I wrote up a different mental health provider because she was being disrespectful, wouldn’t
answer my questions, and would order me to leave the room whenever she felt she was done with a session
with me.
I also suffer from a chronic medical condition that causes problems with my lungs, skin, and eyes. The
medications I take keep the condition stable. I did participate in cell study at Southport, though I often
wouldn’t see any staff for long periods of time. In the month before I took a test to get my high school
equivalency, I didn’t see any staff.

29

Solitary at Southport

I actually did well when I first got to Southport – in
about three weeks I got to Level 3 privileges and
received a 60-day time cut. It wasn’t enough for
the many years of solitary remaining, but it was
something. But after a while, I began having more
problems at Southport. Specifically, my personal
mail wasn’t going out to my family. I can’t honestly
say that these problems were because of my contact
with outside groups, but I have been locked up 18
years and been in a lot of prisons and never had
problems with my mail going out to my family before.
Also, COs kept coming into my cell and throwing my
stuff away, and didn’t even leave a search sheet.
Plus, there were ants all over my cell and staff
wouldn’t come to spray. I just stayed in my cell as
much as possible to avoid contact with the COs
because they were still beating people up and doing
anything they want. I was afraid they would set me
up with a weapon.

The worst part of being in solitary is that it plays
with your manhood. Solitary also makes me
argumentative because I am stressed out, and I end
up taking it out on my family members – who are not
responsible for me being in solitary. Fortunately, for
a while anyway, I was able to write to my family and
received letters back from them. But I haven’t seen
my family in years and wish that I could because I
think that the visits would help me.
The staff at Southport only make things worse.
COs took my property on multiple occasions and
several irreplaceable photographs were lost. Staff
threw away books that I and others had in our cells.
Also, while in solitary at Southport, I didn’t come
out of my cell for fear of being assaulted by staff.
In my first few months at the prison, three people
on my block were beaten by staff. I was afraid to
go to recreation. Every time you come out of your
cell – for recreation, visits, legal visits, or a call out
– you are always cuffed and your cuffs are attached
to a waist chain. Probably only about a quarter of
people in my block at Southport went to recreation
regularly. Everyone else was also afraid to go to
recreation for fear of being assaulted by staff.

Staff personalize problems with the population
and abuse them. New COs who come to the facility
frequently become out of control and disrespectful.
Eventually I couldn’t take being at Southport
anymore and I tried to kill myself once again in the
30

Solitary at Southport

fall of 2015. I took over 60 pills of all kinds – I don’t even know the names of them. I was taken to the hospital
and had my stomach pumped. I was sent to an OMH unit at another prison. Once I got there, I refused to
eat for a week. I was told that if I ate, they would get me out of Southport, which is how I ended up at Great
Meadow. I also was made an OMH Level 1 patient again. However, I’m still in SHU – just at another prison.
The way to reduce staff abuses is for people to simply respect one another inside. If the staff could simply
respect the people who are incarcerated as people, the whole situation could be much improved. I have
no problem being of assistance to support change. Even if I die in the process, at least I can help the other
brothers and sisters in the struggle so they won’t have to go through all of the pain and suffering I had to over
the last two decades of my imprisonment.

SOLITARY DESTROYS PEOPLE
My safety, security, and life are in danger here at
Southport. I have been in solitary confinement for
the last three and a half years since I was a teenager,
and now I am in my early twenties. I still have
years of additional SHU time. I have substantially
deteriorated mentally and emotionally. I have lost
contact with family and friends. I have developed a
mental illness. And I have lost weight.
And now, I have been assaulted twice, threatened,
deprived medical care, food, property, toilet paper,
and mental health services, all in less than 60 days.
I have filed grievances, spoken to the captain, deputy
superintendent for security, and the superintendent
about being assaulted, but I have gotten no help.
Most recently, I have been assaulted again by staff
here at Southport for filing a grievance about the
first assault. I was having a mental health crisis. I
asked the sergeant to contact mental health staff
as soon as possible. The sergeant stated, “I am
not calling mental health staff unless you say that
you want to kill yourself.” I then said “I want to kill
myself.” The sergeant made a call for mental health
staff. Meanwhile, officers conducting showers at
the time stopped to see what was going on. Then
the sergeant and an officer came to my cell and the
sergeant said, “I heard you filed a complaint on one
of my COs.” When I asked what that had to do with
31

Solitary at Southport

my mental health, the CO said they were about to show me why I shouldn’t file complaints. The sergeant
then said “we are going in his cell.” I moved to the back of my cell, the gate opened, and the sergeant and
multiple COs entered the cell. One CO grabbed me by my neck and pushed me to the ground. Another officer
began kicking me in my lower back area several times. While I was laying down, an officer bent down and
started to squeeze me around my neck with his hands. I tried to say “I can’t breathe.” The other officers were
kicking me in my back at the time. As he was choking me, I passed out for lack of oxygen. When I regained
consciousness, I was being carried out of my cell. I was ordered by the sergeant to walk on the gallery. The
sergeant then smacked me on my face and said, “now you can see mental health, b*tch.” I spoke to mental
health staff, then asked for medical treatment. They took pictures of my injuries, but though I complained
that my neck and back were in pain to the nurse, I got no medical treatment. The motive behind this
malicious and brutal assault was because I filed a grievance on a friend of the sergeant’s for an assault the
previous month.
The initial misbehavior report that placed me in SHU was for refusing to give a urine sample for a drug test.
I was very young at that time. SHU is supposed to be correcting people that break prison rules, but at the
same time it breaks human beings down in the process. I have long ago corrected my wrongful behavior. I
do not wish to break any more facility rules. I am not a threat to the safety or security of the facility. I would
like to return back to general population, so I can complete my needed programs, get back in contact
with my family, and hopefully make my conditional release date. I’m sure you know the effects of solitary
confinement. It destroys people.

“One CO grabbed me by my
neck and pushed me to the
ground. Another officer began
kicking me in my lower back
area several times. While I
was laying down, an officer
bent down and started to
squeeze me around my neck
with his hands. I tried to say
“I can’t breathe.” The other
officers were kicking me in
my back at the time. As he
was choking me, I passed out
for lack of oxygen.”
32

Solitary at Southport

4

PERVASIVE STAFF BRUTALITY, RACISM, AND ABUSE IN THE BOX

People incarcerated at Southport reported that the
facility is a “hands on” prison, where individuals
face widespread and horrific staff brutality, racism,
and abuse. Numerous people reported specific
incidents in which they had been physically
beaten by staff. As one person – representative of
many others – described, “I have been punched,
smacked, and struck by officers.” Another reported
that a “correctional officer . . . punched me in my
face and he and his coworker threw me down the
stairs. They wrote me up and went out on workers’
compensation.”

squeeze balls.” Another reported that “going to
recreation here means having my private parts hit,
pushed against the wall, and buttocks swiped down
the middle.” In addition people reported sexual
harassment. For example, one person reported
that “the urinalysis officer here at this facility makes
sexual comments to us, comments on the size of
sexual organs and things of that nature . . . It’s
uncomfortable.” Some people also reported specific
sexual assaults by staff, including staff touching
people’s private parts and forcing their own onto
incarcerated individuals. For example, one person
wrote that he has experienced, “tight handcuffs,
extreme pat frisks [and] putting my hands through
the cell slot backwards to be cuffed and an officer
putting his private parts there.” Roughly 23% of
survey respondents reported that sexual abuse
other than pat frisks occurs frequently at Southport,
and an additional 33% reported it occurs once in
a while, ranking Southport in the worst sixth of CAvisited SHUs.

Survey responses from people incarcerated in
Southport’s SHU ranked the prison as one of the
worst CA-visited SHU units across New York State
on various indicators of staff brutality. Roughly 84%
of survey respondents reported that they frequently
hear about staff physical confrontations with
people incarcerated at Southport, and nearly half
of all survey respondents reported that they had
personally experienced a physical confrontation
with staff at Southport, ranking Southport in the
worst 10% of all CA-visited SHU units. As one person
reported “while I was handcuffed, shackled, and in
a waistchain, I was punched in my face and mouth
numerous times, and picked up and slammed into
the ground face first.” Multiple people reported that
COs often beat people in the showers.

In light of the physical brutality and other abuses
people described, 73% of survey respondents
reported that they frequently feel unsafe at
Southport, ranking Southport as the worst CAvisited SHU. When asked how unsafe they feel, 64%
reported that they feel very unsafe and an additional
29% reported feeling somewhat unsafe, ranking
Southport in the worst seventh of CA-visited SHUs.
Over 78% reported that there were bad relations
between staff and incarcerated people (57.6% said
relations were very bad and 20.7% said they were
somewhat bad).

People also reported sexual abuse by staff. The most
common form of sexual abuse residents reported
was abusive pat frisks. Roughly 63% of survey
respondents reported that abusive pat frisks occur
frequently at Southport, and over 72% reported
that they had personally experienced abusive pat
frisks, both ranking Southport in the worst sixth of
CA-visited SHUs. People described “extreme” and
“overaggressive” pat frisks. For example, one person
reported that “when getting searched, they tend to

Looking at DOCCS’ own data: despite the infrequent
opportunities for interaction between staff and
incarcerated people at Southport because people
are locked in their cell all day, Southport had
high rates of staff use-of-force Unusual Incident
33

Solitary at Southport

73% of survey respondents reported that they frequently feel unsafe at Southport, ranking Southport as the worst
CA-visited SHU.
Nearly 90% of people in the SHU at Southport are Black (62%) or Latino (27%).
Only 2% of Correctional Officers (COs) at Southport are Black (1.4%) or Latino (0.7%).
Of all people who were held at Southport for the entirety of 2015, 76% were Black people.
Over 86% of survey respondents reported that racial tension contributes to other staff abuse at Southport.

Reports (UIR) and assault-on-staff UIRs, an
indicator of physical confrontations between staff
and incarcerated people and often an indicator
of staff assaulting incarcerated people and
reporting it as an assault-on-staff. During 2015
and 2016, Southport had the second highest rate
of assault-on-staff Unusual Incidents of all DOCCS
prisons. Similarly, during the same two-year period,
Southport had the fifth highest rate of staff uses-offorce against a resident during an Unusual Incident
of all DOCCS prisons. Unsurprisingly, Southport
had one of the lowest rates of assaults between
incarcerated people of all DOCCS prisons

SHU (indicating they are people being subjected to
the longest periods of solitary confinement at the
prison), 76% were Black people. That means that
Black people are being held in long-term solitary
confinement at Southport at a rate nearly six times
their proportion of the state population, leaving no
question as to the racially driven infliction of solitary
confinement.
These racial disparities unsurprisingly translate into
severe racial tension and staff abuse. Roughly 70%
of survey respondents reported that racial tension
was at least fairly common at Southport which,
compared to the general prison population surveys
across CA-visited prisons, ranks Southport as one
of the worst few prisons. Moreover, over 86% of
survey respondents reported that racial tension
contributes to other staff abuse at Southport, again
ranking Southport among the worst CA-visited
prisons. Numerous people reported that COs
repeatedly used racial slurs, particularly against
Black people, though also Muslim and Latino
people, including calling people the n-word, sp*c,
“Trayvon Martin,”“monkeys,” and other racially
bigoted names. As one person reported, “going to
recreation, the CO makes racist remarks. He calls
Black [people] monkeys and [the n-word] in a cage.
The Superintendent laughs at the remarks made.”
Another person stated that “an officer asked me if
I have sex with a camel by myself or does my wife

In addition to physical brutality, many incarcerated
people reported other forms of staff abuse at
Southport. Numerous people reported that racial
harassment and racism are pervasive at Southport
and infuse all of the other abuses taking place.
Nearly 90% of people held in the SHU at Southport
are Black (62%) or Latino (27%), while only 2% of
Correctional Officers at Southport are Black (1.4%)
or Latino (0.7%). The percentage of Black people
in Southport’s SHU is extremely disproportionate,
given that Black people represent only 13% of all
people in New York State, and already represent
a vastly disproportionate 50% of people in prison
and over 60% of people in long term solitary units
across the state. Even worse, looking at all people
who spent the entire year of 2015 in Southport’s
34

Solitary at Southport

participate . . . I guess he asked because my wife
and I are both Muslim and in her photos she was
wearing an hijab.”

the person speak with medical staff. They could
even batter and assault this [person].”
Moreover, for all of the abuses people at Southport –
as across the system – reported, it is quite disturbing
that there is a lack of meaningful accountability
or oversight of the staff repeatedly accused of
misconduct by Southport residents. Many people
reported that if they raise complaints through the
grievance system or otherwise, nothing positive
happens and often they face retaliation. According
to DOCCS’ data from 2013 and 2014, after medical,
staff conduct was by far the next most grieved
area, with internal block affairs (including issues
such as escorts, cell searches, showers, books,
etc.), correspondence, and property the next most
grieved areas. Roughtly 84% of survey respondents
reported that the grievance system is poor and
nearly 70% reported that they personally had faced
retaliation for filing a grievance, ranking Southport in
the bottom half of CA-visited SHUs. People reported
that they had experienced forms of retaliation
such as physical abuse, verbal harassment, stolen
property, false tickets, cell searches, threats, and
denial of recreation, showers, meals, medical care,
mail, and/or other essential services. As one person
reported, for example, staff “come to your cell and
tell you to sign off [on your grievance] or they will
beat you up.” Another person reported that “I was
called into a room and told to stop complaining
before I got something to complain about.” People
also described instances in which they filed a
grievance, and as a result, staff encouraged them
to harm themselves. As one person stated, “I was
told to tie a sheet around my neck and kill myself
after [raising a complaint] to the Superintendent.”

More generally, nearly 90% of survey respondents
reported that verbal harassment frequently occurs
at Southport, and nearly 90% reported that
they personally had been verbally harassed at
Southport, ranking the prison in the worst fifth of
CA-visited prisons. People reported that staff called
them names, used explitives, made sexually explicit
comments, and issued threats. For example, one
person reported that “I was told to shut the f*ck up
or I will get beaten again like last time” and another
said, “I asked an officer what time it was, and his
reply was ‘it’s time to go f*ck’ yourself.” Someone
else reported that staff “start calling people
‘ret*rded” and say ‘where’s your husband?’, which I
can deal with. But when they start saying how they
had sex with my wife and that I am too ‘ret*rded’
to have a wife, [that is too much].” Ultimately,
people described how the verbal harassment was
reflective of staff’s dehumanizing attitude toward
incarcerated people. For example, one person
lamented that “we were called ‘untamed animals.’
I don’t feel like a mammal anymore or a human. I
feel like a thing.”
In addition, many people reported that officers
would tamper with their food or deny them meals,
denied people recreation and showers, issued
false disciplinary tickets, stole their property, and
carried out other abuses. For example, over 48% of
survey respondents reported that staff had stolen
or destroyed their property at Southport, ranking
the prison among the worst few CA-visited SHUs.
Moreover, people reported that if a CO or COs have
targeted you for whatever reason, they may inflict a
variety of forms of abuse. For example, one person
reported that if someone is dropped from a higher
level to Level 1 privileges because of some alleged
misbehavior, “COs often will not feed him. They will
often place him in a cell with no bedding, no linen,
no clothes, or personal property. They can turn off
the water and lights, and sometimes won’t even let

Further compounding the lack of accountability for
abuse, over 68% of respondents reported that the
Southport administration does not prevent staff
abuse at all, and an additional 23% reported that
the administration does very little to prevent abuse.
Many people reported that the administration
condones staff abuse. As one person stated, “the
[administration] encourages this type of behavior
35

Solitary at Southport

and allows employees to file false misbehavior reports.” Also, 70% of survey respondents reported that
having additional cameras at Southport would help address abuse, indicating a further lack of oversight
over abuse at the prison. People described how all of the retaliation and lack of accountability leads to
feelings of hopelessness in the face of abuse to themselves or others. As one person described, two officers
“were beating on another [incarcerated person] and I was at my cell gate. Both COs told me to go sit down
and mind my business or I would be next.”
Ultimately, people feel that there is nothing that can be done to protect them. As one person wrote,“you are
subjected to so much mental, emotional, and physical abuse by the staff at Southport that it can drive the
strongest minded person crazy and make them hurt themselves or someone else. And there is no one here
to help because most people don’t know or care enough about an [incarcerated person] as a person to help
no matter how bad we are assaulted. Nothing ever happens to the officers that assault us.”

36

Solitary at Southport

The following narratives detail horrific accounts of the devastating staff brutality and abuse
people have faced and continue to face at Southport.

I GOTTA STAY STRONG
and received one year in the box. Since that time, I
have been back and forth to Southport over a half
dozen times, all for smoking weed. I have spent over
five years total in solitary confinement, including
the last year. The last time I left Southport, I was in
general population for a few months, then caught
another dirty urine ticket and was sent back to
Southport. I don’t think anyone should be in the box
for smoking weed.

I have been incarcerated on this sentence since I
was a teenager, and I am serving a sentence of life
without parole.
My Mother had me when she was 14, and I am the
oldest of nine kids. I’m from the streets. My Mother
started smoking crack when I was young, and I had
to hustle to make sure I could eat. I was in a group
home by the age of 16 and I had my son when I
was that age, and three daughters after that. I had
to do what I had to do to support my family and
selling drugs became my method. I got caught up
in a bad situation, and I killed someone. I had an
ego. I didn’t think of the consequences, and I threw
everyone’s life away: the man who died, my own and
my family’s.

Solitary is definitely taking its toll. I do a lot of reading
and I work out to try to stay strong. I gotta stay strong.
I still got my family. I like reading autobiographies.
Mostly of guys who’ve been locked up. Like Nelson
Mandela. I also write to my daughters and sisters.
I write a lot to my family to keep myself relevant.
Otherwise, people tend to leave you behind. My
family has stayed with me; they haven’t left me
behind. My youngest daughter – now a teenager
– makes sure that her mother brings her here to
visit me now. I tell my children that I live vicariously
through them. I try not to let the situation break me.
I remain strong.

I have now spent the last 15 years in prison, and
unless something changes, I will spend the rest of
my life in prison. For the first several years of my
sentence, I remained in general population, never
had any disciplinary tickets, was participating in
family reunion program visits, and didn’t have any
difficulties. Then, I got a dirty urine ticket for weed
37

Solitary at Southport

“For the first several years of my sentence, I remained in general population, never had any disciplinary
tickets, was participating in family reunion program visits, and didn’t have any difficulties. Then, I got a
dirty urine ticket for weed and received one year in the box. Since that time, I have been back and forth
to Southport over a half dozen times, all for smoking weed. I have spent over five years total in solitary
confinement, including the last year.”
draft room, there were six COs there with riot gear
on – black suits, helmets, and gloves. Meanwhile, I
am shackled at the legs, waist, and hands, and have
a black box over the shackles. One of the COs gets
into the van in front of me and tells me to get out. As
I turn, he punches me in the mouth. A different CO
then drags my shirt and another grabs my shackles
and they take me out of the van and put me on the
ground, lying face down with my mouth bleeding
from the punch. One CO gets on my back, places his
arm on the back of my neck, and starts punching
me in the side of my face. He says “stop resisting”
while I am not moving at all.

But I see solitary having effects. Whenever I go
to general population, I don’t want to be around
nobody. I want to be in my cell, by myself, with the
lights off. I just want to be isolated now. I used to
be very talkative, going outside everyday when in
general population. Now even in general population,
I sit in my cell for months. The SHU makes me antisocial. It makes me have a real messed up attitude
– I can’t tolerate a lot of stuff. Any little thing sets
me off. A little while back, my daughter said to me:
“what’s wrong with you?” It looks like I’m mad at
something. It takes its toll.
I also suffer from panic attacks. It makes me feel
like I can’t breathe. I start dripping with sweat even
though I am outside in the winter. Sometimes I start
talking to myself. I don’t know why I do it. A couple
months ago I experienced it again and it happens
to me every couple of months. Sometimes, I talk
to myself like I’m back in the streets. Sometimes, I
talk to my Dad. He’s telling me to stay strong. I last
saw my Dad in 2010. My Dad did a lot of time – he
was in Attica at the time of the rebellion – and he
didn’t like to come to the prisons to visit because
he had spent so much time inside.

The COs then pick me up into a standing position and
bring me into the draft room and then to a holding
cage. One CO takes my head and rams my face
into the wall. He tells me to stop trying to turn my
head. And he rams my face into the wall again, even
though I am not saying or doing anything. Another
CO then starts twisting the waist chain around my
ribs – trying to bruise or break them. He tells me
to breathe – so that my ribs will break – but I don’t.
A CO comes and cuts off all of my clothes. I am
standing there buck naked. I just have the chains
around me. They put a black mesh spit bag over my
face. I wasn’t spitting, but my face was bleeding.
Again a CO smashes my face into the corner of the
wall. He grabs my neck and starts grinding my face
into the wall. He tells me to stop trying to turn, and
he grinds my face into the wall again. Someone says
I am trying to kick him, even though my legs are still
shackled together. So several COs pick me up so
that my feet are off the floor and they try to slam
me to the ground. While I’m on my stomach on the

Last summer, my Dad passed away. I was able to
attend his funeral and got to see my sisters, one of
my daughters who I hadn’t seen in many years, my
Mother, and many other relatives. As we were leaving,
the COs were saying things that were inappropriate
and harassing to me and my family, and I said to
them that they were being disrespectful. I don’t
know if that is the reason, but when we returned
to Southport, there were COs standing there with
guns pointed at the van. When we pulled up to the
38

Solitary at Southport

ground, a CO takes my left ankle and twists it and
another CO kicks me in the balls.

in the box. I had come to Southport with six months
of SHU time and I was supposed to be getting out
of Southport many months ago, but then I got this
additional year.

There were two nurses there the entire time this is
happening. They don’t do anything to stop it, but
they do give me an examination and document
that my lip was messed up, I had a missing tooth,
bruises on my face, bruises and cuts on my knee,
ankle, and wrists, and a swollen ankle. The officers
drag me to a cell and threaten that if I spit they
will knock all my teeth out. When I am in my cell, I
tell the COs that I am going to kill myself and that
I want to see a mental health counselor. When the
counselor came, I told her what had happened, how
I had just come from a funeral and they had beaten
me up, and that I wanted to kill myself. I decided
to go on a hunger strike and didn’t eat anything for
several days, refusing all food. I did not feel safe
and needed to get out of there. These people don’t
respect anything – sometimes you gotta do things
to get people’s attention. I had to get people to
see me outside of solitary. They put me on suicide
watch there at Southport and then sent me out to
an observation cell. After only two days, I was back
to Southport solitary confinement. I remained on
the OMH caseload for several weeks because I
continued to have panic attacks. But I refused to
take medication, so they took me off of the caseload.

The officers beat up people and call it use of force
and then they cover up the misconduct by giving us
false prison violations. The medical staff are in on
the cover up. It’s crazy how these people get away
with this because a lot of us do not have people to
help us litigate or hold these people accountable
for their actions. I was beaten while I was bound by
chains and I did not cause this to happen, and yet
there is no accountability.

“The only thing that could help to stop these abuses
is to shut this place down. But people are having their
rights violated throughout the prison system, not just
at Southport.”
I remain afraid for my life because I continue to see
the same officers involved in the assault. I have
trouble sleeping at night because of the nightmares
I am having where I keep seeing officers dressed in
black. Though no matter what, I’m never gonna be
broken. I’m too strong. I am trying to be safe here
and do my time. Although I see the officers involved
in the assault, I don’t say anything. It is a lose-lose
situation for me. Nothing good could come out of
raising anything with them. I haven’t had any other
incidents since the assault, and I’ve been able to
continue to have non-contact visits with my family.

The DOCCS Inspector General (IG) did come to see
me several months later about the assault and he
had pictures of my injuries, but I have never heard
anything more from the IG. I filed a grievance about
the assault and it was denied, but in Albany they
granted it in part and said the incident was being
investigated by the Office of Special Investigation.
But it has now been several months and I have not
heard anything more since then.

Meanwhile, I hope that people reading this account
take it seriously. The only thing that could help to
stop these abuses is to shut this place down. But
people are having their rights violated throughout
the prison system, not just at Southport. People
in prison need an outside voice to stop the abuse
by staff and the false reports they write to justify
their misconduct. People who are active in the
protests related to Eric Garner’s death and all of the
other incidents of police brutality need to become
active in the campaigns to stop the same brutality
happening in here.

Meanwhile, they gave me three tickets for this
incident, claiming assault on staff, attempted
assault on staff, refusing a direct order, creating a
disturbance, unhygienic act, violent conduct, and
threats for things I allegedly said at the funeral. I
was found guilty of all charges except threats and
violent conduct and received an additional one year
39

Solitary at Southport

LIKE A SLAVE
Within the first couple of months at Southport, I had already
been beaten by COs, set up with false tickets, and given more
SHU time on top of the time I already had.
One day, the officers did a gallery search and got in my cell. A
sergeant stopped me and asked if I had anything on me while
a CO searched me with a metal detector wand. They told me I
was smiling and ordered me to open my mouth. The sergeant
said he saw something and then multiple COs started beating
me down. They hit me with a baton on my back and my spinal
cord. I was cuffed in the back the whole time and was unable
to assault anyone, like they later claimed. I was beat down for
several minutes. My wrists, arms, and ankles were so swollen I
couldn’t feel my arms. The sergeant was there the whole time
and didn’t do anything to stop it. They then put me into ankle
shackles that were so excessively tight I couldn’t move or walk.
They threw me into the shower for what felt like 30-45 minutes.
A sergeant came with a camera to escort me from the shower.
I could barely stand up. I asked the Sergeant to loosen my
restraints, but he said, “No, why should I have sympathy when
you just used force against staff?” I struggled to get up, so they
dragged me like I was a slave. I screamed continuously for help,
cuffed in the back with one officer on both sides, cuffs ripping
the skin on my wrists. I never endured that kind of pain before.
The nurses saw my swollen body, bruises, and exposed flesh
but didn’t give me treatment. I put in for sick call every day and
finally got an exam. The COs had tried to paralyze me with a
baton, but the nurses didn’t even stitch my wounds. They didn’t
treat me or give me anything for swelling. They just put me in a
cell with no light switch – in D block they keep the bright lights
on in the cell all day.
I overheard the sergeant telling staff how to put the ticket
together. I read it and it said I was found with a piece of mirror
in my mouth and diabetic pill I supposedly spit out. I told the
Captain I didn’t have anything, and he said I was not guilty of
the diabetic pill but guilty of the mirror. How could I be guilty
of one and not another? That’s how I know this whole place is
corrupt.
I asked for x-rays for my spinal cord and ribs, but the nurse
put me down for chest and ribs. When I went down they only
x-rayed my chest. The staff here look out for each other.
40

“I struggled to get up, so they
dragged me like I was a slave.
I screamed continuously for
help, cuffed in the back with
one officer on both sides,
cuffs ripping the skin on my
wrists. I never endured that
kind of pain before.”

Solitary at Southport

I ultimately received tickets for
violent conduct, contraband,
and smuggling, and received an
additional six months in the SHU.

“The CO I had grieved punched me in the face, and then he
and other COs started beating me. I was covering up as best
I could. But I ended up with a busted lip, a cut on my thumb,
and marks on my wrist.”

Since the time I was beaten up,
I’ve frequently seen people beaten
in D-block at Southport. I see COs
provoke people all day. They play
games. That’s what they do. On shower day, we have to be on the gate with a towel around our necks, and if
we are not in that position, they can say we refused. They did that to an old man on the company, saying he
refused to shower twice in one week. So he became stressed and started yelling to speak to mental health.
It’s messed up all around. I pray to God every night that things will be better. This place is terrible. Racist.
They play with your mail and your food. When I went to my hearing, the officer escorting me made noises
like I made when I was in pain as a way to make fun of me. Plus they give you more time in the box for silly
stuff. I stay quiet and don’t mess with anybody. I believe that because Southport has empty cells, they try
to set people up with tickets. Like the way they set me up. And there is abusive, excessive use of force –
at Southport and also other prisons across the state. I’ve been jumped four to five times since I’ve been
incarcerated.
The box weighs on you. You have to control it. I have been in the SHU for over a year this time. When I start
stressing out, I start working out. I try to clear my mind and organize my thoughts to stay focused. I go to
sleep, meditate, and work out. Movement is limited, so I try to get out to recreation two to three times a week.
I write letters to home. Certain people don’t do anything in their cells and become mentally unbalanced. I’m
at a place for people who have really lost their mind. That’s why people do stupid stuff, like taking a bunch of
pills. That’s the tactic staff use to keep people victims in these conditions. I do my best in the circumstances.
They provoke you, but I remain firm and strong and hold it down.
HARD FOR ME TO SMILE
I spent over two years in the Southport SHU the last time. I came to Southport then because of a dirty urine
but early on in my time here I got beaten badly twice and ended up with assault on staff charges and ended
up being here for years.
The first assault happened because I wrote a grievance about a CO. One day after I wrote the grievance, I was
coming out for recreation, and the CO tells me, “Yo, your name is familiar.” I turned and the CO grabbed my
head and said he owed me one. He let me go to rec but during the pat frisk before I went out to rec, the COs
claimed they found a small piece of mirror and sent me back to my cell. When I got back to the cell, a few COs
followed me into the cell. The CO I had grieved punched me in the face, and then he and other COs started
beating me. I was covering up as best I could. But I ended up with a busted lip, a cut on my thumb, and marks
on my wrist. The sergeant came and they brought me to the nurse, but then made me walk barefoot and in
just my boxers in a waist chain, shackles, and cuffs from C-block to A-block. I had major headaches from the
assault, but I never got to see the doctor, and the nurse just gave me ibuprofen. Medical in general is poor
41

Solitary at Southport

at Southport because by the time they get around
to really doing something, a person with a serious
medical condition could have died by then.

chin and my eyebrow. I tried to grieve this incident
and took it all the way to Albany, but it was denied.
And that’s how I ended up staying at Southport for so
long. I stayed in my cell 24 hours a day the majority
of the time and didn’t go out to rec. I was trying to
avoid being harassed in any way possible. The cell
study was a joke – they just come to the cell, bring
you materials, and then it’s on you to understand. A
teacher will spend 15 minutes doing 21 cells.

Almost two weeks later when I went to the hearing
for assault on staff charges, the hearing officer kept
cutting me off and not letting me say things on the
record. Eventually he cut the tape off and said to me,
“Listen you little f*ck. I run this hearing, not you.” An
escort CO then came over and grabbed my neck. He
punched me in the face and then grabbed me by
the arm and removed me from the hearing room.
Then another officer grabbed me and brought me
to a corner away from any cameras. A CO punched
me in the face. They brought me back to my cell and
told me they would be back. Some officers came
back and told me to stand against the back wall
before they came in. I tried to cover up as best as
I could. But they slammed me on the ground and
started beating me. They brought me to the shower
and a CO started slamming my face against the
walls of the shower. I was already bleeding from
my face at the time, and they still kicked me in the
face. They finally stopped and I was lying in a pool of
my own blood in the shower. When they came back,
my knees kept buckling as they cut my clothes and
finally they gave out. The nurse there said that I was
about to pass out. They brought a gurney to bring
me to the clinic. After the nurse examined me, I was
taken to an outside hospital. I got stitches in my

I have mood swings randomly and find myself
acting out in ways I never did before, like arguing
with other incarcerated people for little things that
under different circumstances would not bother me.
It’s like we take our frustration out on each other
because there’s no other way around it.
My main thing, though, was that every time I heard
COs with chains at Southport, I thought they were
coming for me. I felt a lot of stress and depression. I
wasn’t hearing from my family. They said they were
writing me but I wasn’t getting the mail. I wrote to
mental health requesting services at Southport
numerous times. But I was denied services. They
just told me to meditate and exercise. I eventually
got out of Southport, but in 2016 I ended up back
here again. In the end, I usually keep a smile on my
face. But it’s hard for me to smile under these types
of abusive conditions.

42

Solitary at Southport

“It is driving me crazy that I
could be sexually assaulted by
a male CO while handcuffed
and chained and given more
SHU time. Making it even worse
is then being told that I will be
assaulted again by the COs if I
reported the abuse.”

NO ONE TO TURN TO
I have spent over four straight years in the SHU and a total of over six years in the SHU since I was incarcerated
– about half of my imprisonment. I have also been to Southport multiple times during my incarceration, and
this time I have now been here well over a year. From being in solitary, I have suffered anxiety, and depression.
I’ve lost 20 pounds and have difficulties sleeping. Unfortunately, I have received multiple additional tickets
and more SHU time since being in solitary at Southport. Shortly after I arrived at the prison this time in 2015,
an officer came to my cell during the Sabbath and ordered me to provide a urine sample. Because I am
Jewish and very observant of my religious tenants, I refused the urine test at that time. For the refusal, they
gave me nine more months in the SHU. Another time they sent me to the hospital because they thought I was
under the influence of drugs, but the urine analysis was negative for all substances. They were so angered
by this that when I returned from the hospital, they had searched my cell while I was gone and “found”
marijuana, which had been planted there. I received a ticket for these drugs and they lowered me from a SHU
Level 3 to Level 1, which resulted in me losing privileges.
The worst abuse I have faced here at Southport, though, was in 2015 when a CO sexually and physically
assaulted me while I was handcuffed. That day, COs brought me out for a urine analysis. While I was
handcuffed, one CO grabbed me and a second CO touched my testicles and tried to masturbate me. When I
didn’t get an erection, the CO hit me in the face and told me that the next time he tells me to get it up for him
I better do so. The CO who tried to sexually assault me had previously come to my cell on multiple occasions
and asked me to expose myself.
I filed a grievance about the incident and filed a complaint with the Inspector General’s office (IG). As
retaliation, a CO came to my cell and called me a “b*tch” and told me that my grievance was going to go
43

Solitary at Southport

nowhere but that I was going to get “f*cked.” The
next day, I received a fabricated misbehavior report
for allegedly threatening to throw feces at staff and
was sentenced to an additional three months in
SHU. They also then placed a plexiglass cell-shield
over my cell, which caused my cell to get very hot
and prevented any meaningful air circulation.

It is driving me crazy that I could be sexually
assaulted by a male CO while handcuffed and
chained and given more SHU time. Making it even
worse is then being told that I will be assaulted again

“The mental health staff cannot be trusted
to protect a patient’s confidentiality. Several
people have been assaulted and/or disciplined
by COs for what they have said in private to
mental health staff. And many people who
have been sent to a mental health crisis
observation cell have been assaulted by staff.”

Staff continued to threaten me afterward. I did not
shower or go to recreation for months because I
was concerned that COs would assault me. I simply
refused to come out of my cell to avoid giving them
an opportunity to fake a physical confrontation with
me. Beat-ups happen at Southport weekly. There
are no video cameras in most of Southport to record
the assaults and abuse by the COs, allowing staff to
cover up for one another’s actions.

by the COs if I reported the abuse. This abuse and
threats have caused me real emotional problems
and severe anxiety. There is no one to turn to for
help. I have not been able to get any assistance
from the Office of Mental health (OMH). OMH staff
are so unresponsive and uncaring of people in SHU
that when someone in SHU is in a real bad place,
other people will throw feces on that person’s
window to force OMH staff to attend to the person
they have been ignoring. I was on the OMH caseload
several years ago but have not been on it for some
time. The mental health staff cannot be trusted to
protect a patient’s confidentiality. Several people
have been assaulted and/or disciplined by COs for
what they have said in private to mental health staff.
And many people who have been sent to a mental
health crisis observation cell have been assaulted
by staff. As a result, those patients are scared and
refuse to complain, out of fear of retaliation. Mental
health staff are also coercing people into signing
off that they received treatment when they had not
been fully provided the services. For example, the
OMH staff threaten people that they will not get
time cuts unless they acknowledge that they have
received mental health services. Similarly, OMH
staff threaten people in SHU with stopping their
mental health medications if they do not sign off on
other OMH services they did not receive.

The IG and grievance systems do not work, and
there is no accountability for staff abuse. I’ve
written to everyone about these problems: DOCCS,
Albany, even the state supreme court. But staff
have repeatedly interfered with my ability to raise
complaints. For example, I learned that staff sent
the letter that the state court wrote to me, back to
the court. I discovered this when I later received a
large envelope from the court and inside was the
original letter from the court stamped “Return to
Sender”. The staff have also been messing with my
mail to my daughter. I received a Christmas letter
from her and based on what she was saying in the
letter, it was clear to me that she had written me
previous letters that I did not receive
When the IG did come to interview me about the
sexual assault, I refused to come out of my cell
because the COs were going to jump me if I went
to the interview. One CO had told me ahead of time
that other COs were going to jump me if I spoke to
the IG, and afterward, a CO came by and told me I
did the right thing by not coming out. I wrote to the
IG explaining why I did not come for the interview
and told the IG I would speak to him if he came to
my cell. I never received any further response from
the IG.
44

Solitary at Southport

Medical staff is not much better than the OMH staff. The Southport doctor took me off of medications
without even seeing me. I have some structural back and leg issues and I haven’t been able to see a doctor.
Medical staff have refused to do any follow-up care from my last prison, and they refuse to address my
serious medical needs, disregarding MRI and other findings. All the results from the tests that they have
given me – an MRI, a Bone Density Test, and an EMG – were not accurately reported to me, so they could
deny me medication and care. Plus, sick call is conducted cell side in the presence of COs, so there is no
confidentiality and everyone hears and knows everyone’s medical conditions. The medical staff also tell COs
everything about our conditions. Most upsetting, medical staff will cover up the assaults and injuries caused
by COs.
We need to bring these abuses to the public’s attention because they should not be happening. I wish for
everyone on the outside to take good care of yourselves and others, now and always.
PLEASE, WE NEED HELP
I have been at Southport for almost three years and have more than a year to go before I will be released
from solitary. I have received numerous tickets since being at Southport and accumulated additional years
of SHU time while here. I try to survive by not focusing on how long I will be here and by reading and keeping
in contact with family and friends by mail.
I have a history of a heart-related illness and was
having chest pains in the spring of 2015. I always
get nervous when I have a medical problem because
making the choice to ask for help from the nurse
puts me in danger of being assaulted by a CO. That’s
exactly what happened this time. When the nurse
came to take my blood pressure, the CO told her to
take me to the infirmary, which was unusual. She
could have taken my blood pressure while I was still
on the unit, but the CO would not let her. The nurses
are intimidated by the COs and will do what they are
told by security staff. On the way to the infirmary, in
the main corridor, another CO and a sergeant met
up with us. The sergeant does not like me because
I had filed a grievance against him. He had been
involved in an incident at another prison when I was
assaulted by staff and broke my rib.

“I always get nervous when I have a
medical problem because making
the choice to ask for help from the
nurse puts me in danger of being
assaulted by a CO.”

This time, once in the corridor, the COs and sergeant
pushed me against the wall and told me to put my
hands on the wall. Then one of the COs began to
choke me. This CO is known for this type of stuff.
He loves to fight with people who are incarcerated
and give them an opportunity to fight him one-on45

Solitary at Southport

one, but if he is not winning, other COs will jump in
because they are usually watching the fight. I fell to
the ground while this CO was choking me and they
put me in full restraints, cuffing my hands behind my
back and shackling my legs. When they put us in full
shackles, they order us to do stuff like turn around or
move in a certain way, which is sometimes difficult to
do, and when we can’t precisely follow their orders,
they use it as an excuse to assault us. This is what
happened to me. They said they felt threatened by
my movements, but if I am in full restraints, how
could I be threatening toward them? One of the COs
that was choking me, pulled my cuffed hands up
behind my back, and while doing this, he stepped on
the leg shackles. This hurt so much that I screamed
in pain. The sergeant then shoved me against the
wall, and I fell down again. They all started laughing
at me and mocking me. They picked me up off the
ground and starting beating me again. I fell to the
ground again and blacked out. When I came to, they
were dragging me across the ground commenting
on how I was too heavy to be pulled by my leg
shackles to the infirmary. They then put me on a
push cart used for transporting food and took me
to the infirmary.

they threw me on the infirmary bed. I blacked out
again because of the pain. When I woke up four COs
and a sergeant were in my room yelling at me to
get up because they were going to take pictures of
my injuries. I couldn’t get up because I was sore all
over. I told them that I was hurting everywhere and
that I couldn’t get out of the bed. They said that if I
can’t get up, they would report that I had nothing to
report. They turned around and walked out of the
room. On the third day after the incident, I saw a
doctor, who took a video and pictures of my injuries.
Although I tried to request these medical records,
I was told the video does not exist, and I am still
waiting for copies of the pictures.
After I recovered somewhat from the assault, I
ordered the video of events on my housing unit and
in the facility from that day but have experienced
several difficulties in getting the tape from the
facility FOIL office. I asked for a video for 6:00 to
9:00 pm, but though the incident happened in the
evening they gave me a video for 6:00 to 9:00 am. I
renewed the request, but they said the tape I want
is no longer available. They tried to charge me more
than $150 for the tape, when the cost should only
be less than two dollars for every hour requested. I
contacted the DOCCS Office of Special Investigations
(formerly the IG), and they came to visit me. I gave
them a statement and filled out another FOIL
request for the OSI report, but was informed that
the documents could not be produced because the
investigation was not completed. My grievances and
statements have been disregarded and nothing has
come of my efforts to bring this event to light, except
for me being at more of a risk to further retaliation.
The grievance system is almost useless; you write a
grievance and nothing happens. My grievances never
got processed, and though I wrote to mental health,
OSI, and other officials, no investigation was done.
The memories of this beat-up are really intense. I try
not to think about it because re-experiencing it can
overwhelm me.

When I got to the infirmary, the nurse attached me
to an EKG to assess my heart condition. I told the
nurse that my neck was really hurting me. One of
the COs than grabbed my neck and started shaking
me. The nurse just stood there and showed no
concern for my wellbeing. My heart was beating out
of control, and I could feel that my blood pressure
was off. The nurse looked at the EKG records and
told me that my heart was fine. I told the nurse that
there is no way my heart was OK. Then she told me
that I wouldn’t be able to see a doctor until at least
the next day. I wanted to leave the infirmary right
then because I was scared of being assaulted again,
but the nurse would not let me go. I was in the
infirmary for the next two days fully shackled and
still never saw a doctor. After the nurse completed
her examination, I was taken by the COs to a room
in the infirmary. I was still fully shackled at this
time, and they lifted the chains up over my head
and violently pushed my arms and legs up while

I’m not the only one they beat up. I saw staff jump on
somebody and beat that person in their cell for no
reason. I was banging on the gate to get the person
46

Solitary at Southport

“The grievance system is almost useless; you write a grievance and
nothing happens. My grievances never got processed, and though I
wrote to mental health, OSI, and other officials, no investigation was
done. The memories of this beat-up are really intense. I try not to think
about it because re-experiencing it can overwhelm me.”

some medical attention. The person was saying that
his arm was broken, but no one was helping him
even though the nurses and COs were outside of
his cell laughing. Despite his pleas, the medical and
security staff went in the bubble on the unit where
staff sit. I then started banging louder and calling
for help. In response to my efforts, I received a
ticket and was given 6 months SHU time. The man’s
shoulder and fingers were fractured in the incident.

concerns or complaints, or ask mental health staff
to intervene. It doesn’t make any sense because
their actions just lead to further frustration and
anger for all of us. It is clear we are not people to
them, and they feel no obligation to treat us fairly or
address any of our needs except to abuse us when
they are frustrated or angry.
For me, the majority of the time my emotional state
is good, but sometimes I get very stressed and
depressed. I have to constantly worry about being
jumped by COs and that creates general anxiety.
Even when the physical abuse by staff is being done
to other people, it is traumatic to bear witness to.
I get nervous when I am around other people and
staff, especially when there are no cameras. My
symptoms have become more intense since I’ve
been in solitary. I only go to recreation once in a
while, and I only had one visit in the last year, though
I don’t like visits. I used to be on the Office of Mental
Health (OMH) caseload, and in the past I went to
the mental health crisis units numerous times. But
the mental health staff are very condescending and
disrespectful, and so I decided to stop taking my
medications in order to get off the caseload. Also,
there is no confidentiality, and COs will make fun
of people with mental illness and make sick jokes
about people.

Southport is a very hands-on environment. There
is a lot of staff abuse, especially in the 3:00 pm
to 11:00 pm shift. COs constantly harass people
and make racist comments. They have denied
me showers, destroyed my medications, carried
out abusive cell searches, destroyed pictures and
letters and other property of mine, and of course,
carried out physical assaults against me and
others. The COs are able to do anything. Even for
the COs who aren’t bad, they stay silent or turn a
blind eye on the abuses. The staff have no ability
to resolve conflicts in any manner other than being
abusive, especially when dealing with people who
have some mental health issues. There are some
guys in here who are really messed up. They are
loud and screaming all the time because the box is
driving them crazy. When this happens, it becomes
contagious and others on the unit start making
noise. In response, housing staff turn on all the
fans on the unit, even in the winter, to drown out
the sound. The unit becomes freezing and all of us
are made to suffer even if only a few people are
being disruptive. Staff make no efforts to speak
with the persons yelling, attempt to address their

I remain concerned about being abused by staff and
so I only want to stay on a unit with video cameras.
But no one is safe here, and things must drastically
change to end the abuse by staff. I and others need
help. Please.
47

Solitary at Southport

5

MINOR CONDUCT RESULTING IN LONG-TERM SOLITARY

People spend months and years in solitary at
Southport. Overall, although international standards
state that more than 15 consecutive days in solitary
amounts to torture, DOCCS reports that the average
length of stay in Southport’s SHU is 7.6 months.
People come in to Southport with already long SHU
sentences, and many people receive additional
disciplinary tickets and SHU time while they are at
Southport, prolonging the amount of time they have
to spend in solitary. Numerous people interviewed
reported that Southport was a place that you can
get trapped in because you continue to accumulate
additional SHU time resulting from staff-issued
misbehavior reports. Southport officials estimated
that between 40% and 50% of all people in the SHU
at Southport receive additional tickets while there.

Southport consistently issues a large number
of tickets and imposes excessively long SHU
sentences. Particularly disturbing is the increase in
punishment during the last two years. In 2016 there
were more hearings then 2015 (814 versus 643),
and more individuals had multiple hearings and
higher aggregate sentences, particularly for those
receiving six month to multiple-year sentences. In
2016, 41% of the individuals receiving a ticket had
two or more hearings, compared to 33% in 2015. In
2016, seven persons had more than 10 hearings,
with one individual receiving 23 hearings during
the year; in contrast, in 2015, no one had more
than 10 hearings. In 2016, 24 persons had six or
more hearings, while only 12 residents in 2015 had
six or more hearings.

Analyzing DOCCS disciplinary data from 2015
and 2016 reveals that most residents are given
additional SHU time and that during the last two
years there has been a significant increase in
disciplinary actions. In 2015 approximately 57%
(315 residents) of the average annual population
at Southport received at least one disciplinary
ticket; that rate increased to 77% (379 persons) in
2016. For Black people, 64% of the 2015 residents
had received at least one disciplinary ticket at
Southport (no racial data is available for 2016),
a rate much higher than for other persons in the
SHU and another indicator of the racist infliction of
solitary. Particularly given that people in the SHU
at Southport do not have any interaction with other
incarcerated people and very little interaction with
staff, the high number of tickets issued is disturbing,
especially considering the racial disparity.

Moreover, in 2015 and 2016 more than 98% of
all tickets resulted in guilty findings at Southport
(through the internal DOCCS disciplinary system),
even higher rates than the extremely high rates in
the rest of the state prison system. In turn, people
receive a large amount of additional SHU time
while at Southport. Fifty percent of all people found
guilty of a rule violation at Southport received an
additional 60 days or more in solitary in 2015, and
that increased to 75 days or more in 2016. The
percentage of persons receiving an additional six
months or more was 21% in 2015 and increased to
32% in 2016. The number of longer SHU sentences
also expanded in 2016. Forty-six persons received
a year or more of solitary time in 2016 compared
to 22 in 2015. Fourteen 2016 residents were
sentenced to an additional two or more years in
solitary compared to six in 2015. Seven 2016
residents received three or more years of solitary
time compared to two 2015 residents. Again racially
disproportionate, Black people represented 67%
of all people at Southport in 2015 who received
48

Solitary at Southport

an additional 60 days or more in solitary. These
extreme additional months and years of solitary
time added on to people’s sentences while they are
already in solitary at Southport is unconscionable.

Discipline has increased in
Southport - 57% of the average
annual population in 2015 received
a disciplinary ticket and that
expanded to 77% for 2016 annual
residents, with 41% of 2016
persons who received a ticket
getting at least two. In 2015, 64%
of Black people received one
ticket, a rate much higher than the
rest of the SHU population.

Among survey respondents, the median length
of time people had already been in the SHU at
Southport at the time of the survey was six months,
and some people reported they had been at
Southport for many years. Similarly, several people
we interviewed reported that they had spent years
in the SHU at Southport. Looking at people’s time
in solitary beyond just how long they had been held
in Southport, the median length of time already in
SHU at the time of the survey was 11 months, with
some people again having spent years in the SHU
and upwards of over a decade. In addition, people
reported extreme lengths of additional time received
at Southport. The median length of additional SHU
time survey respondents had received while at
Southport was five and a half months, and some
people had received years of additional SHU time,
upwards of over three additional years.

Roughly 98% of all tier II and tier
III tickets result in guilty findings
at Southport.

Moreover, many people reported much of the
additional SHU time was for false or frivolous tickets.
People reported receiving additional tickets for such
reasons as having postage stamps they shouldn’t
have, innocuous letters or photos that are deemed
gang material, or being beaten by staff and given an
assault-on-staff ticket as a means of cover-up. As
one person reported for example, “I was assaulted
again in the staircase while fully restrained. Every
week in Southport, there is at least someone
getting assaulted and getting more SHU time for it.”
Similarly, another person documented that “staff
constantly assault [incarcerated people] and say
that [incarcerated people] assault them, in order to
keep individuals in here. They falsify misbehavior
reports to keep individuals here as well, and should
be investigated.”

Although international standards
state that no person should be
held in solitary for more than 15
consecutive days, the average
length of stay in Southport’s SHU is
7.6 months, and people often have
spent more time in solitary before
and/or after Southport.
Some people the CA interviewed
had spent over four years in SHU
at Southport, and a total of over 10
years in SHU.

People described how the box does nothing to
help address the underlying reasons that lead
them to receive the tickets and causes people to
spend not only more time in solitary, but also in
49

Solitary at Southport

prison altogether. Additional tickets and additional time in solitary, as well as the inability to participate in
mandatory programs, make it more likely that someone will be denied release by the Parole Board. Only
3% of people in the SHU at Southport who went to the Parole Board from 2012-2014 were granted parole,
much lower than the already very low rates of release across the prison system. Everyone else, although
they had already completed at least their minimum prison sentence, were held in prison for at least one to
two more years before being allowed another hearing. Among the 31% of survey respondents at Southport
who had already been denied parole, nearly half had been denied multiple times. One person, for instance,
had already been to the Board five times when he had a clean disciplinary record and was very discouraged
that the outcome would unlikely be different his next time since he was now in Southport. A few people had
been denied parole seven or eight times when they completed the survey.
As one person who received numerous tickets for using marijuana stated, “ASAT teaches that addiction is
a disease. But DOCCS punishes us for a disease and now I’m gonna get hit by the Board. I’m not in for a
violent crime and I have never had any violent tickets since I have been incarcerated. Instead of giving us
programs that will help us, they leave us in the box. I have a drug problem. I smoke weed. When I’m dealing
with family issues or other issues, I don’t act out or hurt anyone; I just smoke weed. I have 10 drug tickets
and was never allowed a drug program.”
In contrast to all of the additional SHU time people receive at Southport, people reported that there were
very limited time cuts given at Southport to reduce the amount of time they had in solitary. The median
total time survey respondents had taken away from their SHU sentence at the time of the survey was 14
days. Some people had received longer time cuts, with 13 survey respondents receiving a total of more
than 30 days, including seven who reported they received a total amount of time cuts of more than 100
days. However, the vast majority of people received little to no time cuts, and even for these individuals who
received somewhat longer time cuts, 30 days or 100 days cut from SHU sentences is small compared to the
additional several months and years that people receive from new disciplinary tickets.

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Solitary at Southport

The following narratives detail the frequency of false or frivolous tickets
at Southport, the resultant additional SHU time, the failure of the box to
provide any rehabilitative or therapeutic support, and the harm caused
by all of the additional longer periods of time in solitary.

I WOULDN’T WISH SOLITARY ON MY WORST ENEMY
I wouldn’t wish solitary confinement on my worst
enemy. You can’t walk more than ten steps. I
recently spent several months in solitary. It lives up
to its name – solitary confinement. You can talk to
your neighbor every now and then, but then you’ll
get into an argument. Nights are hard to sleep. Your
family doesn’t know too much. You’re cut off from
everything.

still wasn’t salted. When I raised a complaint about
it, staff told me to “take a sheet and hang myself.”
I filed a grievance about the situation, and the
sergeant tried to get me to withdraw the grievance.
I didn’t withdraw the grievance, and soon after that,
I was given a ticket for allegedly having two pair of
pants and having braids in my hair. They gave me
150 days in the box that time. That was similar to
another time at a different facility when a CO tried
to dissuade me from testifying against another CO
and then gave me a ticket for 90 days in the box
after I testified.

Nobody knows what it’s like. They tell you when to
lock in, when to go to sleep, when to eat, when to
shut up. One time, I went a whole week and a half
without getting a shower. You have to eat what they
give you and they starve you. I call it scraps. I lost
20 pounds at Southport. There were times when I
would starve myself the whole day so that I could
save the food from breakfast and lunch just to have
a nice meal at night. For recreation, all you see are
cages. I don’t remember the last time I saw a tree, or
a bird. You’re supposed to put down for recreation
and then get to go out. I put down every day, but
they let me out only three or four times a week. Plus
most issues with COs happen when we’re going out
for recreation.

At Southport, they are always giving out tickets.
Right after I first came to Southport, I got 30 days
of keeplock time for having three postage stamps
that I had bought at my previous prison. Someone I
knew went to the box for six months for a letter from
his brother. They said it was gang material but then
they didn’t produce any material. It makes me want
to rip up my letters because who knows what they’ll
say, which is bad because letters are like fresh air in
a place where you always feel suffocated. Especially
a letter from my mother.

In 2015, when I was in the SHU at Southport,
COs gave me a false ticket because I had raised
complaints. One day, in the middle of winter, I went
out to recreation and while shackled, I slipped and
fell because the ground hadn’t been salted. After
deciding not to come out for recreation for two
weeks after that, I came out again and the ground

My mother came to see me when I was in the
box elsewhere and at Southport. She was crying
because I was like a test animal. It’s a cage. All we
could touch were hands. I saw my daughter too,
which was the first time since my father’s funeral. I
couldn’t embrace her. I couldn’t touch her. I could
only touch her little hand.
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Solitary at Southport

And the security staff just make it all worse – even more than the tickets. At another prison, one time after I
was restrained for a fight, an officer stomped on my head and chipped my tooth. At Southport, one time one
of the sergeants became verbally abusive and started pushing me. I responded back to him that he was just
doing this to me because I was shackled and the sergeant went for his baton. Luckily another CO stopped
him. But you hear all the time about security staff beating people up at Southport – in your cell or after they
drag you to the showers. It makes your spine tingle.
I was constantly harassed by the officers at Southport
and made fun of because of my mental disability. I
am currently on the mental health caseload. I have
been a mental health Level 1 patient before and
even an S-designated patient in the past. Currently,
I am a Level 3 patient. My diagnosis includes PTSD,
depression, and a mood disorder. I was on the mental
health caseload before I came to solitary. I also
have been sent to the observation cells on multiple
occasions after harming myself. I have been on all
types of medications. Sometimes they help, but they
don’t really work all the time. I try to exercise to get
myself together. At Southport, the mental health
social worker was pretty good but the doctor wasn’t
helpful.
Despite my mental health needs, I was held for
several months in solitary. When I was in solitary, I
often would wake up questioning my purpose, crying
at night, and missing my daughter and mother.
Luckily, I was able to get out of Southport and back
into the general population at another prison. I can’t
believe I made it. There are times when I didn’t think
I would. But I have a daughter. And so I had to get
through it for her.

“I’m getting out of prison this
year. I’m kind of scared of
what life is going to be like
when I get out, especially
because solitary has taken
its toll on me. I don’t feel
normal anymore. I can’t have
people too close to me. I’m
kind of paranoid. But my Mom
is pushing me to go back to
school when I get out. And I
try to focus on my daughter
and my Mom.”

I’m getting out of prison this year. I’m kind of scared of
what life is going to be like when I get out, especially
because solitary has taken its toll on me. I don’t feel
normal anymore. I can’t have people too close to me. I’m kind of paranoid. But my Mom is pushing me to go
back to school when I get out. And I try to focus on my daughter and my Mom.
But just because I am going home is not going to stop me from speaking out. The harassment and abuse
I’ve gone through has to stop. No one should have as much power over a person as the COs do at Southport
and other prisons. I want to speak up without any more repercussions or consequences. I’m tired of living in
fear in DOCCS’ prisons.

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Solitary at Southport

POLICE ABUSE IN THE STREETS? JUST IMAGINE IN HERE.
I generally feel like life ain’t worth living. I’m no longer as ambitious as I once was. I don’t talk as much. I
absolutely hate some COs now more than ever. I lost all contact with 99% of my family and more. Solitary
confinement and staff brutality does all of that to you.
I have been incarcerated since the late 1990s when I was 18-years-old (I was arrested on my 18th birthday),
and I first went to the box in the early 2000s. Since then, I constantly have been in and out of the box.
Once since that time I was in general population for 11 months, and other than that, the longest I’ve been
in general population has never been more than six months. I have been in nearly every box in the state,
sometimes for stretches of more than three years at a time. Every year I have been in the box at some point,
and I have spent a total of at least over 10 years in solitary. I have now been at Southport for over two years
and have at least another several months left. None of my tickets are for violent acts, and yet I keep getting
more SHU time.
Many of the tickets that have landed me in the box have been alleged gang related tickets. Once you
are labeled a gang member, everything you do becomes “gang related.” You say “what’s up? Or what’s
happening?” and they say it is gang related. The gang tickets are BS – the COs don’t understand our culture
and take things out of context. One of my tickets at Southport, for example, was for a photograph I received
where the woman who sent the photo signed
off on it as “Pink Barbie Guerilla.” That is the
name she called herself but because the word
guerilla was on the photograph, I received six
Only 3% of people in the SHU at
months of SHU time. Another ticket I received
Southport who went to the Parole Board
at Southport was for a letter I sent to a person
of Cuban descent who was anti-Castro. In my
from 2012-2014 were granted parole.
letter, I explained the good things that Castro
and Che Gueverra had tried to do, and I also
53

Solitary at Southport

said something about a range rover. For using the
terms “Che Gueverra” and “range rover” I received
an additional six months SHU time.

“In 2015, COs assaulted me while being
escorted from a meeting for a lawsuit I
had filed against some COs at another
facility. I was handcuffed and shackled
to the waist. They waited until I got out
of view of any camera. I was standing
outside my cell, waiting for them to
take the lock off the chains to then go
into my cell. Instead, they pushed me
into the cell and started assaulting
me. One CO held me up and another
CO started punching me in the ribs.
Then one yelled “get him down” and
one CO punched me and then another
squeezed my testicles to take me down
to the floor.”

I came into Southport with a nine month SHU sentence,
but because of new tickets, I have already been here
for about two years and have another year to go. In
addition to the gang related tickets mentioned above,
I have received a number of other tickets. In 2015,
I was in the visiting area eating potato chips and
talking to my visitor. I started choking on one of the
chips and another incarcerated person came over
and gave me the Heimlich maneuver and the chip
popped out. The CO there at the time congratulated
the other guy for saving me, saying if it wasn’t for
him I might not have made it. Yet, 45 minutes later,
COs came and got both of us and said I was trying to
smuggle drugs. In their view, the other guy couldn’t
have been trying to help me – we must have been
passing drugs. They cancelled my visit and searched
my visitor, and they searched me. They didn’t find any
drugs. They took me to an isolation room and held me
there for nine days, with the lights on 24 hours a day.
I had a gown on and when I had to defecate, I had to
squat over a basin with a plastic bag over it with the
CO watching. Then I had to pass the stool to the CO
and they searched it. They say that you have to give
them “two significant stools” but they determine if it
is “significant.” I defecated seven times in nine days.
They continued to just say “insignificant, insignificant.”
They found nothing in any of my samples. But after
the nine days, they searched my isolation cell and
falsely claimed they found two empty balloons. I
received 150 days of new box time.

I always like to say that solitary has no impact on me. That I am strong and can handle it. But if I really am
honest, it does have an impact on me. I have started having hallucinations since I’ve been in the box. Out of
nowhere I will hear: the pop, pop, pop sound of gunshots, or all of a sudden I feel like I am actually in a car
crash. It has happened at least 15 or 20 times.For a split second, it all feels very real.
I have seen mental health staff on and off since being in solitary, but I am not on the caseload. Their way of
dealing with everything is medication. I see what it does to people and I don’t want to take it. I do sometimes
meet with them, though, to express what I am thinking and feeling, but then everything I tell the mental
health staff, they tell security staff. All the employees here are afraid of security staff and are forced or
pressured by COs to act the way they do.
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Solitary at Southport

I also am definitely depressed a lot. I used to be the most optimistic person in the world. Now I just don’t
care anymore. I’m withdrawn. I don’t find life exciting. I don’t care what happens. I don’t care what food we’re
gonna get. I don’t care. And I can’t hold my attention any more. I used to read books all the time. I can’t
remember the last time I finished reading a book. I just jump from one to another. I can’t complete a task. I
must have nine books I’ve started right now. I also used to write books. I just can’t do it anymore. I haven’t
written in years. They are keeping me trapped inside these boxes for years for little things here and there.
In 2015, COs assaulted me while being escorted from a meeting for a lawsuit I had filed against some
COs at another facility. I was handcuffed and shackled to the waist. They waited until I got out of view of
any camera. I was standing outside my cell, waiting
for them to take the lock off the chains to then go
into my cell. Instead, they pushed me into the cell
and started assaulting me. One CO held me up and
another CO started punching me in the ribs. Then
one yelled “get him down” and one CO punched me
and then another squeezed my testicles to take me
down to the floor. Once I was flat on the floor, they
“Society must no longer aid and abet
stomped on me and were kicking me. Then I heard,
“get his pants down.” They started pulling down my
these corrupt and unscrupulous officers
pants and tried to pull down my boxers. I rolled over
onto my side. They were stomping and kicking me
and repressive department by remaining
in the back. One CO then pushed the baton against
my boxers into my rectum. The COs started laughing.
silent and/or ignorant to what is taking
A number of other COs then rushed to the cell,
shackled my feet and pulled me to the shower. When
they came to take me out of the shower, I refused
place within the confines of New York’s
until there was a camera or a supervisor. They finally
came with a camera and a nurse, who said to me
prison system.”
“you don’t look like you’re injured; they should have
done a better job.” The pictures later showed that my
face was real huge and swollen, but the nurse wrote
down that I had no injuries.

“Well, society?”

As they were escorting me out, I was shackled at the
hands and ankles, and with a waist chain. They put
the cuffs on my ankles really tight, so that they were
cutting my skin and making it hard to walk. After
unsuccessfully asking multiple times for them to
loosen the ankle shackles, I finally just stopped and
tried to drop to the floor. Two COs on both sides of
me were holding me up, and the nurse came from
behind, said he was going to look at my ankles, and
then grabbed my neck, so I started yelling at him.
They never ended up bringing me to the infirmary,
and I had pain in my ribs for several weeks. They
55

Solitary at Southport

were clearly bruised at least, and maybe broken.
Worse still, I was emotionally destroyed after the
sexual assault, but the mental health staff didn’t do
anything to help me.

things like “I’ve got a new baton you might want to
check out.” One CO, after I filed a grievance against
him, came into my cell and dumped all my legal
papers all over the place. Thousands of pages were
just thrown everywhere. He also dumped my photos
all over, including in the toilet. Including pictures of
my mother. I showed the sergeant and the captain
and the captain said, well what did you do? This is
not a proper cell search, but these higher ups did
nothing.

In the end, DOCCS never issued a use-of-force
report for the COs beating me up, and I received
three tickets: attempted assault on staff, refusal
of a direct order to come out of the shower, and
threats on the nurse. It is almost impossible for
incarcerated persons to physically assault COs at
Southport because we are always shackled – so
they just say “attempted assault.” Perhaps one of
the most absurd aspects, the nurse claimed he was
holding my neck so I would not hit my head on the
floor or the wall. I got six months more SHU time.
I filed a grievance and a PREA complaint, but my
complaints were determined to be unfounded.

In the middle and end of 2015, I did go on a good
stretch at Southport where I did not receive any
tickets for over six months. I made it to Level 3
privileges and stayed there for five months. Yet, they
didn’t give me any time cuts for all of that time. And
as my lawsuit has progressed, the COs have been
messing with me again, with many unnecessary
cell searches and ultimately another recent series
of incidents. First, a CO gave me a frivolous ticket
for having water drop off of my bars. It was a tier II
ticket and they gave me 15 days of keeplock and

Because I filed these and other complaints, the
COs have just gone after me more. Some COs still
harass me about the sexual assault itself saying
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Solitary at Southport

moved me to Level 1. The same gang intelligence
CO who has given me almost all of my tickets at
Southport searched my cell and destroyed a bunch
of my property, including a book I had written, an
envelope of poems I had written, an address book,
another envelope with addresses in it, and business
plans I had developed over years of time.

looked upon as “inmate lovers.” These people are
not going to reprimand each other. The COs will tell
you to grieve them because they know that nothing
will come of it. It is impossible to have a fair and
impartial investigation in that context.
You see what police are doing to unarmed minorities
in the street and getting away with? Just imagine
what they are doing and getting away with here
behind closed walls. Who will believe a person
convicted of a violent felony who accuses a CO of
brutally beating him for no reason? We are on our
own, and we are being victimized time after time
with absolutely no outside help. The IG’s office is
not in the business of helping assault victims of
COs. They show up, write a statement, and you’ll
never hear from them again.

I filed a grievance and a complaint to the
Superintendent, but the sergeant who investigated
lied and said my property was found and placed
inside the property bin. I never received the property.
I wrote a complaint about that investigation. Then
COs did a cell search in my new cell and again over
twenty envelopes with legal work – involving around
1,000 pages for several different legal actions –
were all dumped out and scrambled around. One
day the executive team was walking the tier, and I
complained that the cell search was in retaliation
for me filing complaints. The Superintendent
asked me what I wanted him to do, and the Deputy
Superintendent of Security then gave an order to
send me to D-block.

“The abuse and corruption that goes on here
is systemic. The COs have carte blanche to
do as they will. It is like what happened in the
Stanford Prison Experiment, but only worse.
The COs are empowered to oppress us and do
whatever they want.”

D-block is the torture chamber at Southport. The
bright lights are on all day. The cells are filthy.
Typically, you are sent there for discipline. Though I
didn’t do anything wrong or get any ticket, they still
sent me to D-block for no good reason. I really can’t
take it anymore. It is painful to be in D-block, and
I have to get out of here. COs tell me that if I stop
raising complaints, then I’ll be able to move.

I have recently overheard some COs talking about the
lawsuit settlement regarding solitary confinement.
They were talking about how they thought it meant
the system was becoming so weak and would be
treating incarcerated people like babies. They dislike
that there would be programs, a step-down system,
and reductions in some SHU sentences. Solitary
confinement is internationally recognized as torture.
Plus, everyone who leaves the SHU comes back, so
clearly people aren’t learning anything by being put
in solitary.

But it is not just me. The abuse and corruption
that goes on here is systemic. The COs have carte
blanche to do as they will. It is like what happened in
the Stanford Prison Experiment but only worse. The
COs are empowered to oppress us and do whatever
they want. They operate like a gang here.
When COs assault incarcerated persons, guess
who does the investigations? Their friends the sergeants, lieutenants, and captains. The
supervisors will never penalize a CO for violating an
incarcerated person because they do not want to be

I have a few more years before I go to my first Parole
Board. But I have life on the back end of my sentence.
The Board will see all of these tickets and won’t take
the time to look under them. They’ll just see a lot of
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Solitary at Southport

box time. I am not innocent of all of the tickets, but most
of them are either completely false or exaggerated. A lot
of these COs are not “fit for society” but the Board is
going to say that I am not fit for society because of these
tickets.
My mother recently passed away. Now I have nobody left,
except for two little nieces and nephews. I want to get
out there in the world and prove something to them, to
others, and to myself. I want to make something of my
life. I don’t want to allow this place to take my mind from
me. I want to do something in society that is beneficial to
society. I don’t want my story to end here.
I came into prison without being able to read or write. I
made it to 9th grade in the street, but I really only had
a 3rd grade reading level. After I was incarcerated, I
studied and passed my GED in the late 1990s. I have
also been forced to learn the law in here. Now, I always
teach others what I have learned. I am a Sagittarius so I
am always teaching.
You all out in society can do one thing for me: don’t
forget. Expose this abuse and all that is going on. People
on the outside need to take a look at the prisons. We
who are incarcerated may have committed crimes, but
we still have human rights. You see what’s going on in
the streets with police? Just imagine here. COs will often
say to me: “no one gives a f*ck about you. You can write
all the complaints you want, but society doesn’t care. It
doesn’t matter.”
Society must no longer aid and abet these corrupt and
unscrupulous officers and repressive department by
remaining silent and/or ignorant to what is taking place
within the confines of New York’s prison system. The
citizens of society must not be so naïve to believe that
those who put on the uniform of an officer will not use
that uniform to abuse the authority given to them by
using it as a means to carry out nefarious and/or racist
agendas. For that reason, officers must not be exempt
from being scrutinized and held accountable whenever
there is evidence that they abused the authority given to
them. Their uniform should not be mistaken for a shield.
Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.
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Solitary at Southport

WHEN WILL I FINALLY GET THE HELP I NEED?
I have a drug addiction and mental health needs,
and being in the SHU is not helping either one. I
am from Puerto Rico and I did three bids in juvenile,
youth, and adult facilities there. I came to New
York to be with family and to seek drug treatment.
Instead, I have gone in and out of the prison system
for a little over a decade. I am currently on a short
bid and will go home in a few months. But I have
spent most of my time in the box – all for drugrelated issues.

had my visits restored. And then, one of the COs
at Southport started harassing me. This CO has it
out for me. Shortly before receiving these tickets,
my Mom sent me sneakers, which I was allowed
because I was on Level 3. Instead of giving them to
me, the CO improperly put them in the property bin.
When I asked for the sneakers, he refused to give
them to me and we ended up getting into a verbal
confrontation about it. Ultimately, I said: fine, just
give them to your kids. A couple days later, I was
on a call-out to see the mental health psychiatrist.
When I came back, instead of going to my cell I
was taken to the shower and then sent to D-Block.
When I asked why, they just said I would find out.
Someone from the Inspector General’s office then
came to ask me about a torn sheet I had in my cell
and asked if I was trying to escape from the prison.
The IG also asked me about a book I had called
“Camouflage.” He then threatened that I could get
a new charge for all of this. Following this threat he
then asked me if I knew about weapons or drugs
that other people on the gallery had. They were
trying to give me a false ticket, threaten me with a
new charge, and then they wanted me to give them
information?

They never put me in substance abuse treatment
(ASAT) when I was in general population, even when
I had less than six months to my conditional release
date. I was denied parole two times during this bid,
in large part because of my failure to complete ASAT.
I came to jail because of drugs and can’t even do
ASAT, especially because they have given me so
much time in the box.
On this bid, I first got 90 days in the SHU and loss of
all visits for a drug ticket a couple years ago. While in
the SHU, I got another four months box time. When
I came out of the SHU that time in 2014, I spent
three months in general population before getting
another six month SHU sentence for drug use, and
that’s when I was sent to Southport at the end of
2014. I have been here ever since and got several
more tickets while inside Southport. First, I received
several tickets related to drug use that led to another
two years of SHU time. From these drug tickets, I
ended up with more SHU time remaining than my
maximum release date from prison, and none of
these sanctions were for violent offenses. They all
were drug use or drug possession related, and yet
DOCCS will max me out of the box and release me
directly from solitary to the street because of them.
Making matters worse, I again just recently got
additional bogus disciplinary tickets at the end
of 2015. I had been here over six months without
any tickets or problems. I had moved up to Level 3
privileges and had remained there for all of those
months. Yet, I hadn’t received any time cuts or

Apparently, the CO who had been harassing me had
searched my cell when I was at the mental health
teleconference. I did have a ripped sheet in my cell;
I used it as a clothesline to dry my clothes. I had this
sheet up for several months, had my cell searched
multiple times since it had been up, and COs never
said anything about it. There are many incarcerated
people who have sheets up like that. Yet, now they
were claiming that I was using this sheet as a rope
and trying to escape. They gave me disciplinary
tickets for weapons, escape paraphernalia, and
other issues I can’t remember. I am supposed to go
home in a few months; why would I try to escape?
This CO was just out to get me. I am currently awaiting
the hearing and don’t know what will happen.

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Solitary at Southport

“I have been diagnosed with schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, and ADD. From being in the SHU, I
also suffer an anxiety disorder and paranoia. I have had panic attacks and have difficulty sleeping. I sometimes hear voices or echoes in my head. I sweat a lot and get cold while I’m sweating too. Plus the SHU has
made me antisocial and afraid of officers. I used to be an OMH Level 1 patient and was diagnosed with
schizophrenia at the time. I was even in a residential mental health unit (ICP) in a prison several years ago
on a previous bid. But OMH dropped me to a Level 3 because I stopped taking my medications.”

Southport is horrible. There is no accountability.
The COs do and say whatever they want. Then it is
your word against theirs, and who are the hearing
officers going to believe? Many people who come
to Southport get stuck here, because they just get
more tickets and many of the staff lie. So, I am
most likely going to get hit with more box time, even
though I already have more time in SHU than my
maximum release date from prison. These tickets
are hard to beat.

All that I am facing sometimes leads me to attempt
self-harm. In 2015, I took a bunch of pills because
they took away my visits for over a year and I wouldn’t
be able to see my family. I got real messed up in
my cell for several days, but I didn’t say anything to
the COs about it. In part because the year before
at another prison, the COs there found a pill on me
and pounded me and messed me up badly. Then
they told me to shut up or face consequences. I
have tried to cut myself other times too. A few years
ago, when I was close to going home on a previous
bid, I tried to kill myself and was sent to the hospital.
I had no programs, nothing going on, and I was
scared of going home. I got high, and I tried to kill
myself. Self-harm happens regularly at Southport.
Everyone wants to get out of here, however they can.
When people attempt suicide, the COs make jokes
about people “hanging up.”

A lot of us in the SHU are strong minded. I don’t
know how some people do it. People who have life
sentences, for instance, and might seem to have
nothing to live for, but are still going strong. Even for
me, all the time in the box has certainly impacted
my mental health. I have been diagnosed with
schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, and
ADD. From being in the SHU, I also suffer an anxiety
disorder and paranoia. I have had panic attacks and
have difficulty sleeping. I sometimes hear voices or
echoes in my head. I sweat a lot and get cold while I’m
sweating too. Plus the SHU has made me antisocial
and afraid of officers. I used to be an OMH Level 1
patient and was diagnosed with schizophrenia at the
time. I was even in a residential mental health unit
(ICP) in a prison several years ago on a previous bid.
But OMH dropped me to a Level 3 because I stopped
taking my medications. Currently I am a Level 2
patient. The mental health treatment I receive is
that I see a mental health staff person about once
every two months, and when I do, I see staff through
a screen and they don’t pay attention. When I go to
the teleconference with the psychiatrists, they ask
me strange questions about why I am in the box and
how much it costs to pay for suboxone. Why are they
asking that? Then they ask if I hear voices and when
I say no, then the interview is over.

I also have serious chronic medical issues. When I
first came to Southport, they took me off medications
I take for nerve damage for over a month for no
reason, but eventually gave them back to me. I
grieved the doctor, and he made me wait longer to
get my medications as retaliation. Also, there is no
confidentiality when we have a medical encounter.
Medical staff talk about your case and COs are right
there and can hear everything.
A lot of abuse takes place at Southport. And here
everyone is afraid to grieve any issues because they
know the COs will then beat them up. The worst
place of all the prisons is Attica. I spent nearly a year
in keeplock at Attica. There are lots of abusive pat
frisks there. You put your hands on the wall, and they
often beat you up. “Assault on staff” means they beat
you up. I was beat up twice at Attica. I also ended up
in the mental health observation unit at Attica.

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Solitary at Southport

Though not as bad as Attica, the COs are still abusive at
Southport. My neighbor got beat up recently because a CO
claimed he saw a letter on his desk saying he was in a gang
called the Crips. Like anyone’s going to have a letter saying he’s
a Crip. Some of the same COs gave me some of my tickets and
have been messing with my mail.
I have problems with the COs at Southport, especially because of
my anxiety disorder. Officers often make fun of me and deny me
recreation and even showers. Recently, some COs kept making
fun of me when I put my hands out to get cuffed for recreation.
My hands were shaking, and they called me “crackhead” and
didn’t let me go to recreation. Most of the time, I don’t go to
recreation– it’s better not to go because you can get set up.

“Southport is
horrible. There is no
accountability. The COs
do and say whatever
they want. Then it is
your word against
theirs, and who are the
hearing officers going
to believe? “

So I generally spend 24 hours a day in my cell with nothing to
do. I waited almost a year to even get any kind of cell study
program. Even for the ASAT workbook, you have to wait until
you are on Level 3 privileges before you can even request
the program, and then you have to wait longer to actually get
the workbook. I made it onto Level 3 in the summer of 2015,
requested the ASAT workbook at that time, and then waited
approximately another three months to get the workbook. Then,
all that happened was they gave me some papers and told me
to fill them in. It was pointless – there was no value in it. It
deflated my hopes for actually getting treatment. I clearly have
problems with drugs, and I’m worried because I won’t be able to
complete ASAT before my max out date. My life and my freedom
are in jeopardy. I thought that prison is supposed to include
rehabilitation. When you are sick with an addiction, then you
are going to use drugs even though you know that you are going
to lose visits or be sent to the box. They need realistic programs
that will actually impact people and help them to overcome
their addictions.
I will be going home very soon, again directly from solitary to the
outside community. On the positive side, someone from mental
health did talk to me about trying to connect me to recovery and
mental health programs in the community. But I haven’t gotten
any programming or treatment for my drug addiction while I
have been incarcerated all these years. I also haven’t gotten
proper medical or mental health care. I have just been in a box.
I came to New York and hoped I would receive substance abuse
treatment here that would help me. Over a decade later, I still
haven’t gotten the help I need.
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Solitary at Southport

6

YOUNG PEOPLE GROWING UP IN PRISON AND SOLITARY

There are many young people incarcerated at Southport, and many people who ended up at Southport after
growing up in New York adult and youth prisons.
In January 2016, looking at DOCCS data for Southport (not including “Youthful Offenders (YOs)” and thus
undercounting the number of young people), the median age of people incarcerated in Southport’s SHU
was 32 years old, substantially less than the median age of 37 years old across the system. Around 17%
of people held in Southport’s SHU were under the age of 25 and almost 6% were 21 or younger (again not
including YOs and thus undercounting). There were people who were still teenagers, as well as people as
old as their mid-60s (7% of people were age 50 or over).
Many people in Southport’s SHU described the difficulties they faced during their childhood in the outside
community and inside the adult and youth prison systems. Many young people also described growing up
in the prison system and the challenges associated with being away from their family, as well as those
associated with trying to survive as a young person in adult prisons, both of which are compounded by being
in solitary. As one person described, “I lost touch with how to interact with people. I feel angry a lot. I feel
abandoned, isolated, and alone in life. I feel cut off from the friends and family that support positive change
and don’t want anyone to come on this very depressing visit room floor.” Another person lamented, “I tend
to wake up questioning my purpose and crying at night, as well as missing my daughter and mother.”
Indicating how many young people had grown up in prison and in solitary: among survey respondents, the
median age of arrest on their current prison sentence was 23-years-old, with 12.5% of people arrested
when they were under 18 and 41% arrested at age 21 or younger. Similarly, the median age of survey
respondents being admitted to DOCCS on their current prison sentence was 24-years-old, with 5% entering
DOCCS when they were under age 18 and 39% at age 21 or younger. Also showing the linkages between the
difficulties people faced as children and their resultant time in prison and in solitary confinement, roughly
53% of all survey respondents reported that they had been in a youth prison during their childhood.
Moreover, 30 survey respondents were still 25 years old or younger at the time of the survey. Even more
disproportionate than the racist imposition of solitary as a whole, over 90% of these young people were
Black or Latino. Thirteen were under 19 when they were arrested and 73% were under 21 when they came
into DOCCS, further showing how many children are growing up in prison and ending up in solitary. Also
of serious concern, a much higher percentage of these young people had mental health needs than the
overall population: 72% sought, received or were recommended for mental health care in DOCCS, 58% had
been or currently were on the OMH caseload, 20% had engaged in self-harm while at Southport, and a third
had been to the RCTP in DOCCS. Also worse than the horrible findings regarding the population as a whole,
72% of these young people said their relationships with staff was very bad, 54% had been in some physical
confrontation with staff, 78% frequently felt unsafe in Southport and 54% said they feel very unsafe in the
prison. The harm to young people growing up in prison and in solitary, including at Southport, can not be
overstated and is devastating.
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The following narratives describe people’s experiences growing up
in New York’s prison system and growing up in solitary confinement,
including at Southport.

I AM TIRED OF BEING BEATEN DOWN
I came into prison a year and a half ago when I was
still a teenager. At the time I was arrested, I was
going to school and getting ready to go to college
for engineering. I was working doing janitorial work
at a YMCA, but I needed money to go to school. So I
tried to steal some money to help pay for school and
wound up in prison.

I have been assaulted by COs two times since I have
been in Southport, and I have been harassed by
a sergeant and two COs. Last year, I was on my
way back from the showers with my hands cuffed
behind my back. Another incarcerated person said
something to me so I turned my head. A CO who was
escorting me immediately punched me in the head
for no reason. I hit the wall and fell to the ground.
Then additional officers came and started beating
me further. I ended up with swollen eyes, a gash in
my eyebrow, and all bruised up.

Right away, I had problems with COs. After only a
couple of months while still in the reception facility,
one day I asked a CO a question about why he was
taking chairs away from the day room and that set
him off. That CO and a number of other COs beat
me up. When I spat blood out at a sergeant after
being beaten, other COs beat me up even more.
They gave me tickets for assault on staff, disobeying
direct orders, and inciting a riot, and I’ve been in the
SHU ever since.

Over half of all survey respondents
in Southport’s SHU reported they
had been in a youth prison during
their childhood.

It didn’t get any better for me when they sent me to
Southport over a year ago. The COs in Southport are
very disrespectful and aggressive. They antagonize
us. They talk to you any kind of way. I understand
I’m an incarcerated person but still treat me like a
man. Talk to me like a man. I talk to you like a man. I
try to keep my cool. It’s just not fair. They think we’re
nothing; we’re below them. They think they can do
anything they want to us. When we break a rule they
jump on us, write us up, or refuse our showers. But
when they do wrong, nothing happens to them and
we are made to suffer.

Then just a few months ago, there was a CO who was
harassing me and threatening me and I didn’t know
why. I wrote a grievance because of his threats. One
day when I returned from the shower, the CO was
there searching my cell. The CO pushed me against
the wall and slapped me. It was definitely retaliation
for the grievance I wrote. After the incident, I refused
to eat for five days. The only way I could get away
from the CO was to threaten to harm myself. They put
me on a suicide watch in a different unit at Southport.
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“When we break a rule they jump on us,
write us up, or refuse our showers. But
when they do wrong, nothing happens
to them and we are made to suffer.”

I am on the mental health caseload as an OMH Level 2 patient. I came to DOCCS with a mental health disorder
of anxiety and mood disorder. Being in prison and in the box has led me to have more paranoia, especially
because COs assaulted me three times since I have been in prison. I think COs are always out to get me. I am
constantly scared of retaliation.
The SHU is very stressful. You always have to be in cuffs when you leave your cell. COs jump on people
even though they are in restraints. They jumped on someone a couple of days ago for no reason. You’re in
cuffs when they attack you so what can you do? I try to avoid dealing with COs because I know there are
consequences for saying or doing the wrong thing, but they still mess with you.
Sometimes the mail gets delayed. That stresses me out more. I want to know what’s going on with my
family. It also makes me more paranoid that they are messing with me. Earlier this year, they denied me the
opportunity to go to my father’s funeral. My mother called the facility to let them know my father had passed
away, but they didn’t tell me until a week later, and I wasn’t able to attend the funeral. I grew up with both of
my parents and that was very hard to have to miss my father’s funeral.
Being in the SHU has changed my attitude. It has made me more violent. I usually am a calm person who
doesn’t cause problems. But the SHU has made me more angry, causing me to flip out on people.
My earliest release date is this year and I max out the following year. I came in to DOCCS as a teenager and
will go out in my mid-twenties, having spent most of my time in the box. I try to do what I can while inside. I am
enrolled in cell study in a pre-High School Equivalency class. But I only see a teacher for about 15 minutes
once a week, and I don’t like that they don’t let me test when I’m supposed to. Also, I try to go to recreation
to work out. But it is just an empty cage outside. And I don’t like to interact with the COs so I don’t always go.
Overall, I’m tired of getting beaten up and cuffed. Since I’ve been in DOCCs I have had all these problems.
They need to change the use of force policies – COs should not be allowed to ever use any unnecessary or
excessive force because they take advantage of every opportunity to beat us down. I’ve been beaten up
three times. I am tired of it.
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RAISED IN THE BOX
Like so many Black kids from my neighborhood, I came from a broken family and abusive home. I was the
youngest boy. Before I turned two-years-old, children’s services came and took me away for abuse and
neglect because my Mom was said to be smoking crack. First I went to foster care and then to my father’s
aunt because my father didn’t want to take me. My father’s aunt raised me as a single Mom. It was an
abusive situation with my extended family. I saw some
messed up things, and we were poor. By the time I
was seven, I decided I wanted to gang bang. I was
first sent to a youth facility at age 11, and between
age 11 and 16, I was in and out of different youth
facilities – for scratching a car, robbery, assault, and
other related charges.
I was first sent to an adult jail when I was 17-yearsold and incarcerated again on my current sentence
at age 18. After going to a DOCCS prison, when I
was 19 an older person incarcerated in the prison
cut me in the face with a scalpel. I have no idea why
the person did it. It was someone I didn’t even know.
But I knew from then on, I wasn’t going to be caught
without protection again. There is nothing safe about
prison. There is nothing about rehabilitation. I have
been in the box on and off since then over the past
six years – all for weapons or fights. That’s my habit.
You are caught with a weapon (ticket and box time)
or without it (being hurt by others), so I have been
caught with it and sent to the box.
After spending my childhood in youth facilities, I have
spent my late teens and early twenties in maximum
security prisons and solitary confinement. I got
tickets for fights and weapons at Clinton, Elmira,
Upstate, and Five Points.

“Sometimes I feel short of breath
and/or like the walls are closing in.
This happens off and on. During the
last panic attack I had, I couldn’t
breathe. My whole body was
dripping sweat. I got a headache
and felt dizzy. While at Southport,
I also had a break-down.”

I have now spent the last nearly three years in the
box at Southport. Solitary is detrimental to a person’s
mental state. It eats at a person’s mind. The walls
can talk. The corner of the cell can take on different personalities of you. It dissects different parts of who
you are and then these thoughts run over and over in your mind. It is like different parts of you are talking
to yourself through the walls. All the things that have led to you being there are played over and over in your
mind like a movie reel. Your own voice calling you a punk, a wuss.
Sometimes I feel short of breath and/or like the walls are closing in. This happens off and on. During the
last panic attack I had, I couldn’t breathe. My whole body was dripping sweat. I got a headache and felt dizzy.
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While at Southport, I also had a break-down. I cried
a lot at night because I’m left alone to deal with the
traumas and problems from my childhood. I suffer
from depression. I have trouble sleeping. I get only
two to three hours a night. And I just started crying. I
got to the point with everything going on, the stress,
the inability to get to anybody beyond the gate, that
all I could do was cry. I suffered some real traumatic
things as a kid – the results of which are what led
me here and are also what make solitary so hard.

go to recreation at Southport because when you
leave your cell, the correction officers set people up
to get new tickets or outside charges so we will have
to stay in SHU or keeplock or prison longer. The
administration allows the COs to jump on people
and cause physical injuries. The COs do it just for
their own fun and enjoyment. I have been beat up;
threatened; had my water and lights turned off;
been denied showers, food, and medical care; and
had my property destroyed and degraded.

I have long had mental health issues that are
only exacerbated by being in the box. Ever since I
was seven years old, I was diagnosed with bipolar
disorder, as well as chronic depression and ADHD.
When I was at Rikers Island and when I first came
into state DOCCS, I had those same diagnoses
and was given a “1S” mental health designation
– meaning I had the most serious mental illness.
However, they changed my diagnosis to antisocial disorder, borderline personality disorder,
and chronic depression. First they took away my
S-designation, and then they took me off of the
OMH caseload completely.

I finally was able to leave Southport recently after
almost three years, and for now I am in general
population. The transition has been really hard. I
still talk to myself. I still don’t talk to people. Luckily,
I have not had a panic attack since being out of
the box. But it still sucks. It is like being a fish out
of water. I thought I would max out from that box
at Southport. I am still trying to get used to free
movement. In the mess hall, there are hundreds
of guys moving at the same time, and at yard and
rec, I am surrounded by people. I am not used to
dealing with that. Even now that I am in general
population, because of past tickets I still don’t get
phone calls, packages, or commissary until later in
2016. I haven’t had a phone call in years – I did not
have one phone call during all my time at Southport.

While I was at Southport, I got back on the mental
health caseload. I reached a point where I said I was
going to kill myself and was taken to an observation
cell. I just couldn’t take it anymore. I missed being
home. I missed my family. They put me back on the
OMH caseload as a Level 2 patient, but they didn’t
give me an S-designation, saying I had a diagnosis
of adjustment disorder and anti-social personality
disorder. I went back and forth to observation cells
multiple times while I was at Southport. If you don’t
end up being sent out to a mental health crisis unit
from Southport, then something must be really
wrong with you. Just recently, someone committed
suicide at Southport.

I have just a few years left before I max out and go
home. I’ll have spent my teens and the entirety of my
twenties inside. I did get my GED while incarcerated,
though I haven’t been able to take other programs
like ART or ASAT because I have spent so much
time in the box, and they won’t let me into a college
program. They don’t really offer things to help us. I
don’t know what will happen next to me, but I know
something has got to change in here for me and for
others.

I also suffer from paranoia and feel that people are
always conspiring against me. It comes partially
from being in the box. But it also comes because the
threats and abuses are real. Southport is terrible.
The people who are sworn to protect you mistreat
you. They whoop you and take your property. I didn’t
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“Starting at eight years old I was prescribed a
bunch of psychotropic meds . . . I first went
into a juvenile facility when I was a young
teenager. Then, as a late teenager, I was
arrested and sent into the adult prison system.
. . . Despite my long history of taking mental
health medications, the majority of my time in
prison has been in the box.”

FLOATING AROUND THE SYSTEM
When I was young, my siblings and I got taken away from my Mom. They split the four of us up into pairs.
After a while, we were split up individually. Everybody eventually got their acts together, except for me. I just
couldn’t get right and I floated around the system.
As a child I was in and out of psychiatric hospitals. Starting at eight years old I was prescribed a bunch of
psychotropic meds: from Seroquel, to Abilify, to Thorazine. I am well aware of how serious these medications
are. I’m surprised I’m not mentally gone. I’m a little gone, just not all the way though. I first went into a
juvenile facility when I was a young teenager and spent time in three different youth facilities. Then, as a late
teenager, I was arrested and sent into the adult prison system. I am now in my early twenties and have been
incarcerated for about five years.
Despite my long history of taking mental health medications, the majority of my time in prison has been in
the box. I am at Southport this time because I was beaten up by staff at my last prison. At the time, I was
in keeplock and had been there for about a month. One day, I asked a CO about shower time that I was not
given on a Wednesday. That Friday came around and I was again not offered a shower that I was scheduled
to have. I was mad that I did not get the showers that I had a right to and got into a verbal altercation with
the CO. The next time I was permitted to take a shower the CO came into the shower within two minutes. He
started yelling at me and shoved me against the wall. Soon after multiple COs came in and beat me up while
I was handcuffed. They kicked, shoved and punched me.
As a result of being beaten up, they gave me disciplinary tickets for violent conduct, assault on staff, and
disobeying a direct order, gave me two years in the Box, and transferred me to Southport. This is my second
time at Southport.
When I first came into the box, I thought I was going to lose it. I felt caged in. It was really, really difficult. In the
box I am locked in my cell 24 hours per day every day, with the exception of an occasional shower. I get three
showers per week, 2-5 minutes each to bathe and shave. I usually don’t go to recreation. Either because of
the harsh weather or to avoid contact with the COs. Even if you want to go, often they’ll find any little reason to
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not let you out for rec. And the food, don’t let the
official DOCCS menu fool you. The food is terrible
and has only gotten worse over time.

POSSIBLE CHOCOLATE OR CO ABUSE
The worst part of life in solitary at Southport is the
COs, but the best part is the chocolate. Starting
with the worst part: the COs. They are always trying
to get you to say or do the wrong thing. Soon after
I first got here, I was told to backup out of my cell.
I didn’t know that you’re not allowed to turn your
head while you walk backwards out of the cell. So
the COs choked me. Once, my shirt was untucked,
so they choked me. If asked what happened, they
will always say that you assaulted an officer.

Solitary has caused me to have mood swings and
suffer from depression. Some days I try and am
able to hang in there. But other days are really
tough. I have no social interaction. I try not to
think too much. I am not currently taking any
medication. Mental health here is terrible. They
think that everyone is faking it. They say, “you’re
good, you just don’t want to be here.” I don’t trust
any prison employees. A couple years ago, I had
a staph infection and medical told me that it was
a spider bite. As a result, I filed a grievance and
finally saw the doctor three weeks later. The doctor
told me that the infection could have killed me.

I saw the COs tell this one guy to go to the shower.
The guy knew it wasn’t his shower time, but you’re
not allowed to ignore an order from a CO. When
he went to the shower, the COs used it as their
excuse to beat him up. A CO turned toward the
people in their cells (including me) and told us to
stop watching and that we didn’t see anything. I
also saw a CO push a guy who had his hands and
feet bound down the stairs. If I said something,
I would lose my visitation privileges for months,
receive deprivation orders, and would probably
get a beat down in my cell as well.

I have also encountered a lot of racism and
verbal abuse in the system. One day, at a former
prison, I was on the catwalk and the CO threw me
against the wall and called me a “f*cking sp*c.”
At Southport I have heard COs call someone
a “[n-word] rapist.” Another CO screamed at
me once saying, “shut the f*ck up,” and asked,
“you think you’re a tough guy?” after I got into a
disagreement with another incarcerated person. I
just keep a low profile and try to keep my distance.

I once brought a cup to my cell, and when they
found it, the CO said that next time they’re going
to teach me a lesson – not a write-up – another
way. Even saying the wrong joke or not giving the
correct response to a CO’s joke can lead to a beat
down. You learn to completely avoid talking at all
to certain COs.

I am really trying hard to create boundaries and
control my rage and anger. I am currently enrolled
in cell study. Two times per week someone comes
around with different magazines and books. I get
“How to Write a Business Plan” and materials on
Puerto Rican History. I also like listening to music.
I no longer communicate with my Mom or Dad, and
my sister does not write me that much. My brother
just returned home from prison. I have nowhere
to go when I get out. I want to be a barber when
I go home. I have less than a year before I am
released. I have grown up in the system; in youth
facilities, in prisons, and in solitary confinement.
Now I’ll be sent back out into the world after
facing all this abuse and neglect, without having
had any rehabilitation.

In addition to the beat downs, the prison doesn’t
care about our health. Once I saw a guy having
a seizure in the SHU. We all started screaming
for a CO. No one came for over a half hour. We
finally were able to send a message to a person
imprisoned on the floor below us, and he was able
to get the attention of his CO. Forty minutes after
he started seizing an unkempt looking CO showed
up with his shirt un-tucked to see what was going
on. If we walked around looking the way that CO
did, we would get a beat down. Eventually he got
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the nurse, which took another ten minutes, and finally the man received some care. The whole time though,
the guy kept having seizure after seizure. Everyone who wrote grievances about that incident was threatened
and not allowed to shower.
Another time, they brought a guy into our wing who was leaking this really foul smelling liquid out of his head.
The COs kept trying to have him clean it because it was stinking up the place, but the smell wouldn’t go away
because the guy had MRSA – a contagious disease. They didn’t move him out until we all filed grievances
If you don’t get into trouble, you can make it to PIMS Level 3. At Level 3, once a month, you get a chocolate
bar. Now for the best part: chocolate. Originally, I would eat the candy bar straight, but now I make it into a
pie. How can you make a pie without an oven or even a microwave? I wondered the same thing when I got
here. You’ll need to be able to make a purchase from the commissary (which you can do only at PIMS Level
3) to buy candy bars. Then you need some sugar, milk, water, peanut butter, and little cakes, which you can
take from your lunch and dinner trays and save them. You crumble the bread and mix it with the sugar, milk,
and water. Then you flatten it. You make pie filling by mixing chocolate and peanut butter. Wrap it up and let
it dry. Then you got yourself a pie.
I came to prison and to
Southport while I was
still a teenager. When I
“I have grown up in prison and in solitary. Before I came here,
was younger, I got pulled
into a bad crowd when
I was interested in things like basketball, landscaping, origami,
my Mom died. I was
and shopping. I like reading books about psychology, as well as
sent to multiple youth
facilities starting when I
about stocks and political science. In solitary, all I can do is read,
was 14-years-old. I was
sent to prison while I was
write, sleep, eat, and maybe make prison pies.”
still a teenager. Then
after going to a different
prison, this guy who was
also imprisoned there started messing with me; I tried to defend myself, we fought, and I got sent to the
SHU for nine months and lost all phone calls, packages, and commissary. I was an OMH Level 2 patient in
the past. I voluntarily closed my case, but I want it reopened. I have seen people try to hang themselves in
solitary, and could use someone to talk to.
I have grown up in prison and in solitary. Before I came here, I was interested in things like basketball,
landscaping, origami, and shopping. I like reading books about psychology, as well as about stocks and
political science. In solitary, all I can do is read, write, sleep, eat, and maybe make prison pies.

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GROWING UP IN PRISON
I was arrested at 18 years old and sent to Rikers
and then to the state prison system. I’ve been to
eleven different prisons over the past 20 years,
working my way closer to home with each transfer.
I had been doing a lot to improve myself and help
other incarcerated persons. I’ve been the president
and previously the vice president of an NAACP group,
a teacher’s aide, a nurse’s aide for patients in the
mental health unit, a general and law library clerk,
and an Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) trainer,
and I worked the lawns and grounds. I have an HIV/
AIDS Education certificate and a barber vocational
certificate. I was doing well before the incident that
sent me back to Southport.

join gangs or try to impress a young woman, and
that’s what gets them in trouble and sent to prison
in the first place. There’s a survival mechanism that
kicks in when you’re between a rock and a hard place.
These young guys get pressured by a perception,
and sometimes the reality, that they have to act a
certain way to survive, and consequently, they end
up getting in trouble while inside. I try to give back
and be a mentor to the younger guys. I follow Eddie
Ellis’s philosophy of Each One, Teach One. That’s
what I’m trying to do with these young guys. In fact,
two days before the incident that got me sent back
to solitary, I even spoke at an anti-violence seminar,
“Justice by the Pen.”

When I first got to prison, the COs were older than
me. Now, they’re my age or younger. I am more
mature than my younger self. When I first got in, I
was fortunate because some older incarcerated
guys helped me out and didn’t take advantage of
me. That’s what I’m trying to do for the younger guys
I see coming in now. I feel sorry for the younger guys
because this – living in prison – is shaping their
mindsets. Growing up in an inner city makes these
guys feel like they have to prove themselves. They

It had been 14 years since the last and only other
time that I was in solitary. I did 9 months in solitary
that time. I am currently serving a seven year SHU
sentence at Southport. I have already been in the
SHU for about a year and a half so far. I feel really
badly about the incident that got me sent here. It
started on the visit floor at another prison at the
end of 2014. I hadn’t seen my family in several
years, so I was already feeling anxious. This was the
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first time I had been on the visit floor in a long time,
and it was a lot quieter than I remembered. My
sister, aunt and niece and nephew came to visit me.
This was the first time I was meeting my niece and
nephew. I only got to spend 1-2 hours with them
because my family was late coming to visit, which
made me a little frustrated. But I made the most of
it, still enjoyed my time with them, and had a good
visit overall. During our visit, another incarcerated
person acted in an inappropriate manner with my
family and made my family very uncomfortable.
I wanted to confront him peacefully about it, and
tried not to worry about it too much. I still had a
good visit, and we even took pictures.

sleep. I don’t know if that’s a sign of depression, and
I’m not on the mental health caseload. I also don’t
know if I ever experienced panic attacks. I’m not
sure if it’s adrenaline or nervousness, but I need to
be in an open area and walk around sometimes. It’s
hard to do that in solitary. There is also not much
for me to do in solitary. I have been in the Southport
SHU for almost a year and a half but am still on the
Aggression Replacement Training (ART) waitlist. I
already got my GED at another prison. So instead,
I read a lot of self-help books. I’m looking at books
that will help me with things that I can do in society.
I also like historical novels. I also work out five days
a week in my cell.

The next morning at recreation, I found out this guy
was in prison for serial rape. I needed to calm down,
so I went for early go-back to my cell, but ran into
him on my way back. He acted very aggressively
when he saw me and put his fists up. I felt that I
had no choice but to defend myself. He suffered
injuries requiring surgery, which is why I got such
a long solitary sentence, but I don’t know what
happened to him after that. I feel really bad about
what happened. I’m losing sleep because I don’t
know what happened to him – I don’t know if he’s
okay or not. I heard a rumor that he was better,
but I don’t know exactly how he is doing. Months
later, I learned that he has mental health issues. If I
knew that then, I would have handled the situation
differently. I’m proud of myself for having stayed out
of the box for 14 years before this incident. I wish I
could take this back.

I can do the box time, but I wonder sometimes. There
are still a lot of negative impacts of being in the SHU.
Before this incident that landed me in the SHU, I
was doing really good. I volunteered and had a lot of
jobs. I’m remorseful for what I did, but I accept my
sentence. If anything, the culture in here needs to
change, but I understand it. Years ago, there was a
more professional attitude in interactions between
staff and incarcerated people. It was less personal;
officers had a job to do and people incarcerated
had time to do. I don’t want to get my hopes up too
high, but I just keep a positive attitude. I won’t get
to my first parole board until I’m over 50 years old,
but I don’t think I’ll have any trouble transitioning to
society once I do get out, because I have support
from my family. My uncle was a principal for the NY
Board of Education and my Mom has been a school
teacher for many years. When I get out, I want to
be a prison advocate. I want to spread Eddie Ellis’s
philosophy. I think prison advocacy is coming back.
There are many heroes out there trying to make
positive change.

In solitary, I generally spend 24 hours a day in the
box. I never go out to recreation because I don’t want
the COs touching me. I always analyze myself. I’m
critical of my behavior. And I’ve always been anxious.
My Mom took me to a psychiatrist when I was a
teenager because I couldn’t deal with loud noises. I
use headphones to block out loud noise, and I used
ear plugs when I was in general population. But it
is so noisy in here. Solitude doesn’t bother me as
long as I can read, but I can’t read when it’s loud.
So instead, when I get stressed out in here, I go to
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“Being in the SHU is mentally
exhausting. Just in a cell all day long.
Like a caged animal. You feel all
alone. You want to stay in bed zoned
out. You get frustrated a lot and you
become sensitive. The guy singing for
four hours starts to really get to you.
I keep a blanket blocking my gate
because I don’t like to see anyone
looking at me in my cell as if I was a
wild animal in the zoo.”

LIKE A GERBIL IN A WHEEL
frustrated a lot and you become sensitive. The guy
singing for four hours starts to really get to you. I
keep a blanket blocking my gate because I don’t
like to see anyone looking at me in my cell as if I
was a wild animal in the zoo. The blanket keeps my
cell dark and thus I become sensitive to the light.
You have to squint when you leave because it’s hard
to see in the light when you spend all your time in
the dark.

I have almost no contact with my old community
because I’ve been in prison in upstate New York for
so long. I was sent up here for a crime I committed
10 years ago, when I was 16.
Since then, I have grown up in prison. I learned
how to behave by observing others in prison and
imitating the strategies that seem to work. You force
a laugh whenever the COs make a joke even though
you are depressed on the inside.

My emotions are a roller coaster. I can’t always
control them. I don’t like interacting with people. I
can’t trust anyone because they might be trying to
manipulate me. Prison hasn’t broken me, but I do
have many dents in my armor. I used to be on the
mental health caseload, but they took me off and
stopped seeing me.

I have spent over seven years of that time in
solitary confinement. I got sent to the SHU this time
because someone else who I was in prison with told
a CO I wanted to assault someone. They also found
a weapon in my cell which anybody had access to.
That’s all it takes in prison to get sent to the SHU:
someone else’s word and barely any investigation.

So many people are warehoused in prison, and
there are so few slots available in good programs
that you need a completely pristine record to get
into one of those programs. You are lucky if you get

Being in the SHU is mentally exhausting. Just in a
cell all day long. Like a caged animal. You feel all
alone. You want to stay in bed zoned out. You get
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a full hour a day for “rec,” which is just being brought outside to another cage next to a whole lot of other
cages. I feel like a gerbil in a wheel, except I don’t even have a wheel, just a tiny cage. It’s that feeling that
makes me skip rec all together on many days.
Most of the time we have a forced cordiality between us and the guards, but every so often the guards will
do something just to remind you how much they hate you. They like to push you down while you’re taking off
shoes. I’ve seen people in handcuffs beat up by guards in the shower or beat up when coming back from
rec. They will threaten you with how they are “going to f*ck you up.” Then they won’t do anything until a few
weeks later when the officers will push you down in your cell and start hitting you. Even the decent ones will
kick your butt.
If you try to file a grievance against a CO, it always comes back unsubstantiated, and they retaliate. They write
you a BS ticket, take away your privileges, deprive you of food for a week, and deprive you of showers and
rec for a month. Of course your grievance will come back unsubstantiated because there are no cameras in
here. This place needs cameras in the gallery, and every CO should have a body camera.
On really bad days I like to look at pictures of Israel in this book I have. Before I got to prison, I once had a
Jewish girlfriend and she used to take me to temple with her on Saturday mornings. I felt something there
that I never really felt before. Here in prison, you have a lot of time to read. Reading the Jewish bible has
given me a lot of comfort. When I get out of prison, I plan on seeing a Rabbi to officially convert to Judaism,
and move to Israel. When things are terrible here, I like to imagine that I’m far away in Israel.

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7

PEOPLE RELEASED DIRECTLY FROM SOLITARY TO THE OUTSIDE COMMUNITY

More than 90 people per year, on average, are released directly from solitary at Southport to the
outside community. These individuals are held in their cells 23 to 24 hours a day without any
meaningful human contact or programs until the day they are released. Moreover, the prison system
fails to provide any transitional support to people who are being released directly from solitary.
For transitional services, staff reported that all they do for people returning directly from solitary
at Southport to the community is: a) help people in the SHU get birth certificates and applications
for social security; b) potentially provide people going home soon with some printed resources that
they could look at; and c) provide people 30 days prior to release with a booklet called “living on the
outside,” which just asks a series of questions for people to fill in on their own.
In turn, many people incarcerated at Southport expressed concerns about how the negative impact
of solitary would affect their ability to be successful upon their return to the outside community.
Many people expressed how difficult it had been for them at times when they had to transition just
to the general prison population without any transitional support, let alone the outside community.
People also expressed specific concerns about how they would do upon returning to the outside
community if they continued to remain in isolation and without proper support. As an example, one
person reported that “I get depressed and want to hurt myself sometimes. I also feel frustrated
being closed in. I do not want to interact with any of the other [incarcerated people] and I am afraid
that I may be affected upon my release. I may not know how to interact with people in the outside
world and become anti-social.”

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The following narratives describe the difficulties people face in preparation for leaving
the prison system directly from solitary at Southport and the additional challenges upon
returning to the outside community directly from solitary.

FROM SOLITARY DIRECTLY TO THE COMMUNITY
I was recently released directly from the Southport
SHU to the outside community after doing almost a
year and a half straight in solitary confinement and
a total of around six years in the box – about twothirds of my time in prison.

not-for-profits, business, and Spanish. The teachers
were okay, but the information was outdated. And
the library services were terrible – the books were
in bad shape and outdated.

The worst part about the SHU is the mental stress
of being in solitary. Solitary made me become more
aggressive and sometimes overwhelmed. I generally
was doing okay, but I realized I was easily getting
angry and upset, and stopped talking to others.
These feelings sometimes caused me, and others,
to act out. I was on the mental health caseload a
few years ago, and spent some time in the mental
health crisis observation cells and the Central New
York Psychiatric Center (CNYPC). But I have been
doing okay more recently.

“I was recently released directly from the
Southport SHU to the outside community after
doing almost a year and a half straight in solitary
confinement and a total of around six years in the
box – about two thirds of my time in prison.”

The SHU is extreme isolation and people mentally
defeat themselves while inside. I kept myself busy
by reading and trying to exercise, and that helped
me to make it through.

Typically when I was at Southport, I went to recreation
one or two times per week. I did not like to go when I
was on the lowest privilege Level 1 because I would
have to be handcuffed during recreation. I also didn’t
go to recreation much in the winter because it was
too cold and the jackets we had were not sufficient to
withstand the cold. So I was very often in my cell 24
hours a day. The last couple of months at Southport
I just tried to keep my head down. I only left my cell
for sick call and showers twice a week.

But Southport is a whole different animal. During the
last couple months I spent at Southport, I became
aware of a young man on my unit in his early twenties
who had mental health needs. One day, I overheard
COs telling him that he couldn’t go to the yard. The
kid reacted by throwing a tantrum. The next day the
COs took him out of his cell and jumped him. Several
days later, the kid asked for mental health help but
instead the COs jumped him again.

I did participate in the cell study program while at
Southport – where I could read about African culture,
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Before I came home, I barely received any discharge planning.
There are no transitional services at Southport. I brought it up with
my counselor numerous times but basically nothing happened.
The reply from my counselor and my teachers were that they were
not obligated to assist me with discharge planning.
More specifically, I asked my counselor on multiple occasions for
information about agencies and their addresses so that I could
write to them to see if they would be suitable discharge locations
for me. But the counselor refused to provide any information. The
counselor also failed to do the basics of his job to help me obtain
a social security number, a birth certificate, and other basic things.

“Before I came home, I barely received
any discharge planning. There are no
transitional services at Southport. I
brought it up with my counselor numerous
times but basically nothing happened. The
reply from my counselor and my teachers
were that they were not obligated to
assist me with discharge planning.”

When I then criticized the counselor, I was retaliated against.
A correction officer confided in me that he was facing a lot of
pressure to give me a disciplinary ticket. The officer said he had to give me some ticket, and so he searched
my cell and gave me the minimal ticket of excessive property. The officer acknowledged that I get along with
everyone and was not a problem for the staff, and that he felt bad about giving me the ticket. I understood
and appreciated that the CO was being straight with me about why things were happening. But I still got the
ticket and 30 days keeplock. And I still didn’t get the reentry resources I needed.
I spent almost a decade in prison and that is a long time to be on the inside. I no longer know the world now.
And I knew I needed help to prepare for coming back to the outside community. But I didn’t get any significant
help with my release planning. Luckily, I switched housing areas toward the end of my time at Southport and
got a new counselor, who did provide me a little bit of information about housing, a food pantry, and resume
writing and interviewing. But I left prison without a social security card or a birth certificate, let alone Medicaid
or a place to live. It was stressful that I didn’t receive any help securing healthcare while I was at Southport.
But I did make it out, and I am doing whatever I can to succeed out here. I am currently living in a threequarters house, with four guys sharing one room. I am in the process of looking for other housing and
securing a job. Right now, though, I have to focus on getting my life together. But I do want to speak out about
the torture of solitary and other abuses inside the prisons because people need to know.
I WANT TO BE A GOOD FATHER
It is hard being a father, especially when you are in prison. I was first incarcerated almost ten years ago when
I was 19 years old. Now I am almost 30; I have spent every second of my 20s inside. I want to be a good
father; I have been locked up for most of my daughter’s life. My dad wasn’t around while I was growing up
either. It was my step-father who taught me everything I know, and I’m close with my sister who says that I
am a softie for reading “Twilight.” My visits from my family are the most important moments in prison for me.
It was what happened during one of these visits that first landed me in the SHU.
During one of these visits from my family, there was this CO standing guard, who treated everyone like an
adolescent. My very young daughter was a little hyperactive due to the excitement of the visit. That CO began
angrily screaming at her. I confronted the CO and told him not to scream at her. She’s my daughter; if she
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“I was first incarcerated almost
ten years ago when I was 19
years old. Now I am almost 30;
I have spent every second of my
20s inside. I want to be a good
father; I have been locked up for
most of my daughter’s life. My
dad wasn’t around while I was
growing up either.”

was misbehaving, please tell me, and I can handle
it. Well, he didn’t like that response.

The one thing that kept me going, my family, I see
even less. I have no interaction with the outside
world. Inside, the conditions are horrible. Many
of the COs see us as the scum of the earth. The
COs are constantly attacking people in full body
restraints for no reason. They grab your private
parts while making sexual comments. It feels like
they would kill us if they had the chance.

As I was leaving the visit, the same CO who I
confronted claimed that he saw my wife slip
something to me and that I had stuck it up my
anus. After already making me humiliate myself by
showing him my behind, he began to claim that he
needed to reach deep into my behind to find it. I
tried to protect myself and stop him from sexually
assaulting me, but that was just the excuse he was
looking for to call in his buddies, the other COs, and
they all beat me up. They dragged me butt naked
through the prison to the SHU. They then searched
my cell, and claimed to find weapons there, which in
reality they planted.

People are constantly setup here at Southport. Most
recently, a CO asked me “If given the chance, would
you have sex with Katy Perry?” “Yeah,” I responded.
He shot back, “she wouldn’t f*ck a [n-word] like
you.” Yeah, you’re probably right, I thought to myself.
“Why aren’t you responding?” he pressed. “I wouldn’t
respond to a sh*t bag like you,” I answered him.

That was over eight years and countless tickets ago.
I have been in solitary confinement or alternative
mental health isolated confinement units ever
since. I have been here in the box at Southport for
over three years. The only thing that has changed
in all these years is now we are given headphones
as soon as we enter and there has been a little
more cell study. Besides that, the COs still get away
with physical and verbal abuse and there is still
no human interaction. And the racism has never
stopped. The COs will still say things to me like, “F
you [n-word].” They don’t get in trouble for it, so why
would they stop?

I was then beat up and ticketed again. I then
threatened to kill myself and was taken to the
observation cells. Reporting misconduct leads only
to more BS tickets in retaliation. The COs brag to you
about beating up your buddies like it is some sort
of accomplishment beating someone up when you
outnumber them and they are in full body restraints.
It’s part of their strategy to provoke and agitate you,
so they can give you more tickets. Every time you
get a ticket, your time in the SHU is extended and
basic necessities like food, showers, and cleaning
supplies are withheld from you, often for weeks.
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Solitary at Southport

The worst part of being in the SHU is being in
this cage, closed in, 23 or 24 hours a day with
no interactions with other people or society. It is
horrible – it has been so long that I have been in
here with no meaningful contact with the world. In
the SHU, you are broken down every way: physically,
emotionally, and mentally - there is no stimulation.
The SHU is not a place for human beings. You are
surrounded by mentally ill people, some who are
constantly screaming and throwing urine and feces.
I myself am on the mental health caseload, currently
as a Level 3 patient. I used to be considered to
have serious mental illness, and I spent years in the
Behavioral Health Unit (BHU) at Great Meadow and
the Residential Mental Health Unit (RMHU) at Marcy
– only for people who have an S-designation and
have to be removed from the SHU because of their
serious mental illness. I was last in the RMHU in
2011. But then they changed my mental health level,
and then they took me entirely off the caseload. I
was put back on the caseload just recently after my
latest trip to the observation cells.

“I have harmed myself multiple times
since I have been here at Southport.
Each time, I was sent to an observation
cell. … Then it was right back here to
Southport. People threaten to hang up
here and the COs just say, ‘We don’t
give a f*ck, one less [n-word] we got
to deal with.’”

I hurt myself so that the guards don’t hurt me. I
have harmed myself multiple times since I have
been here at Southport. Each time, I was sent to
an observation cell. It was an empty cell, except
for the bed, in a different facility. I would only be
there for a couple days each time, but it felt like a
vacation because I was away from those guards and
away from the SHU. Then it was right back here to
Southport. People threaten to hang up here and the
COs just say, “We don’t give a f*ck, one less n-word
we got to deal with.”
Right now, I feel emotionally depressed. I try to
work through my issues, but it is not easy in this
environment. Mental health staff don’t care. I see
someone from mental health once a month for
about five minutes. I receive better therapy from
other guys on my gallery than from the professionals.
I try to read, listen to music, and write.
My maximum release date from prison is 2016. I
am worried, excited and anxious about getting out.
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I just want to touch an iPhone. I’d like to get connected to the Fortune Society. And I don’t want to be another
statistic who recidivates. The prison has done nothing to prepare me for my release. Because of my tickets, I
have no access to any of the programs. I was a teenager when I got here. I spent almost a decade in solitary
confinement. Soon, I’ll need to know how to really be a father and provide for my family. Right now though, I just
want to be far away from the prison guards, and to try to help my community, even if I don’t have any success.

“The prison has done nothing to prepare me for
my release. Because of my tickets, I have no
access to any of the programs. I was a teenager
when I got here. I spent almost a decade in
solitary confinement. Soon, I’ll need to know how
to really be a father and provide for my family.
Right now though, I just want to be far away
from the prison guards, and to try to help my
community, even if I don’t have any success.”

GOING HOME FROM SOLITARY WITH MY MENTAL HEALTH DETERIORATED
I never really had a steady home life. My father died when I was very young, and I ended up losing contact
with my mother and step-father. I eventually found myself in foster care. I never expected it to happen, but I
got adopted when I was in my teens and for a time that turned my whole life around. I graduated high school
and found a good job. But then I hit a rough patch. My adoptive parents got divorced, one of my best friends
died, I went off my medication, and I ended up losing my job. I picked up my last paycheck and got on a bus
to get away from it all, but I ran out of money and had to hitchhike back. I ended up burgling a house, and
the homeowner got back while I was still there. I forgot my wallet with my driver’s license and social security
card in the house – I’m not much of a criminal. I’m really not a bad a person; I was just going through a rough
time and made a mistake.
This was the only time I have been incarcerated and I was initially sent to a Shock program. I stayed there for
a little while and then was transferred to a different Shock facility. It was an okay program, but I was having
a really hard time with it, so I requested a mental health discharge partway through. I am a mental health
patient with a diagnosis of PTSD and ADHD.
I was sent to another prison and things were okay for almost a year until staff assaulted me, but gave me a
ticket for assault on staff. I saw some COs picking on another incarcerated person and making inappropriate
sexual remarks. It wasn’t right, so I spoke up on that man’s behalf. I also got into an argument because COs
told me I couldn’t take food back even though it is allowed. One of the COs punched me and several COs
jumped me. I only weighed around 140 pounds at the time. I ended up with a broken nose, two ribs I believe
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were cracked, and a visible shoe print on my arm from when one of the COs stomped on me. Yet, I didn’t get
any medical treatment other than ibuprofen. When I did have an X-ray done, I could see on the screen what
looked like two cracks in my ribs. I could not breathe without it hurting. Although staff assaulted me and
broke my nose and ribs, they gave me a disciplinary ticket for “assault on staff” from this incident and sent
me to SHU. I got a year in the box, which was beyond my maximum release date.
A couple of days after I was beaten, I was in a bad state and cut myself. As a result, I was put in the RCTP. It
was the second time I had been placed in an RCTP, and it was frigidly cold. After spending a few days in the
RCTP, I was sent back to the SHU and eventually sent to Southport.
The SHU was pretty horrible. The living conditions were bad, and the COs treated you badly. I got to listen
to the radio, but there were no selections. Our mail would usually be tampered with and delivered almost a
week late. I could shower only twice a week, and the shower facilities weren’t even clean. There would be
food missing from my meal tray half the time. There was nothing to do, so I slept a lot of the time. I was on
cell study, but I am already a high school graduate, so the material was inadequate for me. They said I might
be able to do an Aggression Replacement Training (ART) workbook by myself in my cell if I wanted to, but it
was almost impossible to get access to the program. I could get one hour of recreation, but it was just like
being walked from one cage to another. There was nothing to do except stand around in a cage under brutal
conditions. I also received various deprivation orders for multiple weeks while in the SHU. They took away my
showers, recreation time, haircuts, and cell cleaning – meaning I was denied all cleaning supplies, including
a toilet brush and germicide spray.
The COs didn’t make it any easier, as they were constantly disrespectful. They made fun of my body weight,
facial hair, skin tone, and the way I talk. You can’t do anything because the COs will set you up or beat you up
in the stairwell – that’s the number one thing they’ll do. When I first got to Southport, the COs were messing
with the food of a guy I came in with. Once, I saw them pull him out of his cell and could hear them hitting
him. Sometimes, the COs would also go on the intercom and say things about the people in SHU, calling
them “rape-o” or “snitch.” I even remember hearing about a CO from another facility who basically watched
someone kill himself and did nothing to stop him. Some guys filed grievances or lawsuits, but a lot of guys
were scared to raise complaints.
Taken all together, the SHU caused my mental health to deteriorate. My weight was down and I suffered from
anxiety and depression. When I first got to SHU, I already had a PTSD diagnosis, and I just got more PTSD in
the SHU. At one point, I had been an OMH Level 3 patient. Isolation and the way the COs treated us just made
my condition worse. I left Southport as an OMH Level 1 patient. The SHU worsened my mental health condition.
Fortunately, I was recently released from prison and able to go home. I went directly from solitary to the street.
I hope to open my own company. And since I have never had a steady home life, my main hope is to settle
down and start a family. I also am really interested in educating people about what goes on in prison. Lots
of people in prison aren’t bad people; just people who made mistakes. That’s one of the misunderstandings
about people in prison. COs make commercials that make incarcerated people out to be bad people. It’s
false advertising, and it – plus all of the abuses and isolation we experience inside – makes it harder for us
when we get out.

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8

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The powerful narratives from people incarcerated
in Southport’s SHU, coupled with the CA’s data
analysis and assessments, highlight the urgent
need for New York State to: A) end the torture of
solitary confinement for all people; B) stop staff
brutality, racism, and abuse; and C) reduce the
number of people incarcerated at Southport and
across the prison system.

Recommendation 1:
End the torture of solitary confinement for all people.
HALT would ensure that no person is subjected to
the torture of solitary confinement beyond 15 days.
HALT would also ensure that no person is held in
solitary for more than 20 days total in any 60 day
period to prevent cycling in and out of solitary.
Moreover, even in those shorter periods of solitary,
HALT would require that people have at least four
hours per day out-of-cell time, including at least one
hour of congregate recreation.

A) END THE TORTURE OF SOLITARY CONFINEMENT
There is a growing trend and consensus around
the country and internationally toward ending the
torture of solitary confinement that is taking place
at Southport and across the New York prison
system. President Obama, Supreme Court Justice
Kennedy, and the Pope have all strongly denounced
the use of solitary confinement. The Mandela Rules
– recently adopted by the entire United Nations
General Assembly, supported by a US delegation
consisting of corrections administrators, and voted
for by the US government – place a prohibition
on solitary confinement beyond 15 consecutive
days. The rules reflect and indicate the growing
international consensus that solitary confinement
beyond 15 consecutive days amounts to torture
and should be banned for all people. Yet, in New
York State, thousands of people continue to spend
months and years in solitary, and some people have
even spent decades, including upwards of 30 years.
New York State must end this torturous practice
at Southport and across the prison system.
Policy-makers should pass and implement the
Humane Alternatives to Long Term (HALT) Solitary
Confinement Act, A. 3080 / S. 4784. Other
legislation, such as A. 1905A / S. 5241 would also
take important steps to reduce the use of solitary
in New York. Legislators, the Governor, the DOCCS
Commissioner, and other state policy-makers must:

Recommendation 2:
Create more humane and effective alternatives. For
any person that needs to be separated from the
general prison population for more than 15 days,
HALT would create separate, secure, rehabilitative
and therapeutic units providing programs, therapy,
and support to address underlying needs and
causes of problematic behavior. These alternative
units would have at least seven hours out-of-cell
time per day consisting of six hours of out-of-cell
programming and one hour of out-of-cell recreation.
Recommendation 3:
Further protect people from solitary or other forms
of separation. HALT would also restrict the criteria
for placement in solitary or alternative units to
the most egregious conduct to ensure separation
happens only for true safety reasons and for people
who are in need of an intenstive rehabilitative and
therapeutic intervention. HALT would also ban the
use of solitary for people particularly vulnerable to
its damaging effects or additional abuse in solitary,
such as young or elderly people, people with mental
illness or disabilities, pregnant women, and new
mothers. Moreover, HALT expands staff training,
procedural protections, transparency, and oversight.

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The use of solitary confinement traumatizes the
person being isolated and the corrections staff
assigned to solitary units. It negatively impacts
prison and community safety and has led our state
into an urgent human rights crisis. The Governor
and legislature must HALT solitary confinement
in New York State and end this torture for people
incarcerated at Southport and across the prison
system.

„Implement
„
racial and ethnic impact statements
on incarceration-related policies and practices
(including imposition of disciplinary tickets and
solitary confinement time), and prohibit any and
all policies that exacerbate racial disparities.
„Reverse
„
racial disparities at all stages of the
incarceration process from arrests, prosecutions,
and sentencing to treatment of people while
incarcerated and imposing disciplinary tickets
and solitary confinement.

B) STOP STAFF BRUTALITY, RACISM, AND ABUSE
In addition to ending the torture of solitary
confinement, New York must end staff brutality,
racism, and abuse at Southport and across the
prison system. So long as New York continues to
confine people at Southport, as well as at other
prisons, the State must create mechanisms to end
staff violence and abuse, including through a broad
package aimed at transforming the entrenched
racist and punitive culture of the prison system.
Legislators, the Governor, the DOCCS Commissioner,
and other state policy-makers must:

„Enhance
„
staff recruitment, incentives for hiring,
qualifications, and training in order to recruit a
more qualified and racially, culturally, gender,
and gender identity diverse staff.
„Adopt
„
staff recruitment, training, and approaches
focused on communication, crisis intervention,
trauma-informed care, de-escalation, empathy,
and anti-oppression/racism.
„Expand
„
programs aimed at transformation,
growth, autonomy, self-expression, peer support,
and exploring trauma, including substance abuse
treatment, anti-violence training, programs for
people convicted of sex offences, general and
higher education programs (including passing
A. 3995 / S. 3735 to restore Tuition Assistance
Program eligibility), and vocational and reentry
services at Southport and all NYS prisons.

Recommendation 4:
Stop staff brutality, end systemic racism, and
transform the culture. New York must replace
a culture and environment of brutality, violence,
excessive punishment, dehumanization, intimidation,
fear, and abuse with a culture that prioritizes
mutual respect and communication between
staff and incarcerated persons; conflict resolution,
transformation, and de-escalation; and individual
autonomy, support, programs, empowerment,
and personal growth for incarcerated persons.
Specifically New York must, among other changes:

Recommendation 5:
Expand transparency, oversight, investigations,
and accountability. The longstanding and ongoing
brutality, torture, and abuse at Southport and
across New York State prisons demands that DOCCS
can no longer police itself and that the legislature
and Governor must make bold fundamental
changes to greatly expand transparency, oversight,
and accountability at Southport and all prisons.
Specifically New York must, among other changes:

„Effectively
„
implement a no tolerance policy for
improper or excessive use of force, including
absolute prohibitions of certain types of force
(such as blows to the head) and strengthened
prohibitions against any use of force other than
in exceptional circumstances in response to
imminent violence or harm.

„Expand
„
public oversight and transparency,
by expanding media and community access,
augmenting the CA’s authority, and enhance
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mandatory periodic public reporting by DOCCS,
OMH, and other state agencies.

ensure that no children are held in adult prisons
and jails. Young people in New York State should
not be growing up in youth and adult prisons, let
alone in solitary confinement.

„Create
„
independent State oversight and
investigations of Southport and all NY prisons,
including by creating a correctional Ombudsman,
A. 1904.

„Release
„
aging people and all people who have
demonstrated their low risk to society, growth
and transformation while incarcerated, and/or
readiness for return to the outside community,
including by passing the SAFE Parole Act, A.
4353 / S. 3095A, as well as presumptive parole,
bill, A. 7546, A. 1909 and A. 2619A.

„Overhaul
„
the disciplinary systems for both
incarcerated people and staff.
„Welcome
„
investigations and accountability –
at Southport and all prisons – independent
of NY State, including through a system-wide
investigation by the federal Department of
Justice, as well as granting access to the UN
Special Rapporteur on Torture.

„End
„
life without parole, overall reduce sentence
lengths for people currently incarcerated and
facing incarceration, and promote alternatives
to incarceration and other more effective
interventions aimed at addressing people’s
underlying needs and behaviors.

C) REDUCE THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE INCARCERATED
As seen through the narratives shared in this
report, incarceration itself is inherently violent,
counterproductive, and fueled by systemic racism.
New York continues to incarcerate far too many
people for far too long. Legislators, the Governor,
the DOCCS Commissioner, and other state policymakers must:

Overall as seen throughout the above narratives
and report, solitary confinement is torture and
must end in New York State. At the same time, the
use of solitary is interconnected with other abuses
of incarcerated people taking place inside of NY’s
prisons, including not only physical brutality, but also
repeated denials of parole release, incarcerating
children in adult prisons and jails, and inadequate
access to medical care, mental health services,
and program and rehabilitative opportunities.
Solitary confinement is but one severe component
of a broader abusive system of incarceration, racial
injustice, and a paradigm of punishment over
rehabilitation and treatment.

Recommendation 6:
Fully implement Raise the Age, release paroleready people, and reduce the number of all people
in prison. New York must undertake substantial
efforts to reduce the number of people incarcerated,
including by reducing the number of people arrested
and prosecuted, reducing the lengths of sentences
people receive, better prepare people to return
home while they are incarcerated, and release
people who have demonstrated their readiness
for release. As an initial start most relevant to the
narratives in this report, New York must, among
other changes:

The fundamental transformation necessary for
ending the torture of solitary confinement should
be applied to a myriad of other policies and
practices. In the same way that New York must
take action to reduce the use of solitary and create
more humane and effective alternatives, New York
must also act at Southport and across the prison
system to, for example, end staff brutality, promote
the release of more people on parole who have
demonstrated their rehabilitation and low risk to

„Fully
„
implement and adequately fund the Raise
the Age law enacted in 2017, which will divert
most 16- and 17-year olds to Family Court, and
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society, reduce incarceration sentence lengths, foster alternatives to incarceration and the use of restorative
and transformative justice, and restore access to higher education to people who are incarcerated and who
come home. Ultimately, New York must begin a process of decarceration, racial justice through healing
and community empowerment, and a paradigm shift from punishment, warehousing, and the infliction of
harm toward rehabilitation, treatment, and empowerment. It can start by ending brutality and the torture of
solitary confinement at Southport and across New York prisons.

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DEFINITION OF TERMS

Aggression Replacement Training (ART) – an 8 to 16 week class (32 sessions) facilitated by Transitional
Services that teaches alternative ways of managing thoughts and behaviors through skits, role plays, and
demonstrations.
Alcohol and Substance Abuse Treatment (ASAT) – a 6-month or longer program designed as a therapeutic
community model to aid participants in recovery from addiction.
Behavioral Health Unit (BHU) – a disciplinary residential mental health treatment unit at Great Meadow that
is recognized as an alternative to SHU under the SHU Exclusion Law for individuals diagnosed with serious
mental illness who have received disciplinary infractions leading to SHU time. Unlike other alternative units
under the SHU Exclusion Law, BHUs require participants to receive only two hours a day, five days a week, of
programming outside of their cells.
Bid – a prison sentence.
Bill A. 1905A / S. 5241– proposed legislation in the New York Legislature that would, among other things,
prohibit solitary confinement for all people with mental illness, people with a permanent physical disability,
and any person under the age of 21, as well as requiring public reporting and that solitary be used for the
minimum period necessary for the maintenance of order or discipline.
Bill A. 2619A / S. 4518 – proposed legislation in the New York Legislature that would, among other things,
mandate that the commissioners on the Parole Board reflect the prison population in terms of race, ethnicity,
age, and geographic area of residence, and that at least one-third of commissioners have at least five years
of experience in social work or reentry work.
Bill A. 1909 – proposed legislation in the New York Legislature that would, among other things, clarify that
the Parole Board must base its decisions on risk and needs principles measuring people’s rehabilitation.
Bill A. 7546 – proposed legislation in the New York Legislature that would, among other things, require the
state board of parole to find that an incarcerated person presents an unreasonable current public safety risk
to deny discretionary release to parole and provide that if parole is denied that release shall be presumed at
subsequent hearings absent a preponderance of evidence that the person presents an unreasonable public
safety risk.
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Cell Shield – A thick transparent cell cover issued to people in solitary confinement at the discretion of
security staff for alleged infractions such as throwing or spitting fluids out of the cell, disrupting the general
order of the unit, or refusing to keep arms and hands inside the cell.
Central New York Pyschiatric Center (CNYPC) – psychiatric hospital in Marcy, NY with a limited number of
available beds for incarcerated persons to provide inpatient psychiatric care and treatment.
Commissary – location in the prison where people in the general prison population may generally purchase
food, toiletries, tobacco products, electronics, and other personal items. People in solitary confinement are
limited in commissary purchases to writing and mail materials, hygiene products, one deck of playing cards,
and possibly batteries.
Count – A practice to account for each person in a prison conducted by Correctional Officers multiple times
every day.
Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) – the New York State public prison agency
that operates all New York prisons and “is responsible for the confinement and habilitation” of all people
who are incarcerated in the New York State prison system.
Deprivation Order – order issued to people in solitary at the discretion of security staff limiting access to even
the most basic services, such as limitation on food, showers, recreation, haircuts, water, lighting or bedding
.
Disciplinary Ticket / Misbehavior Report – a notice issued to incarcerated people by any DOCCS staff for an
alleged violation of a prison rule. There are three tiers of tickets I, II, and III, and tier II or III tickets can result
in sentences to solitary confinement as well as a mandatory $5 surcharge and other losses of “privileges.”
Disciplinary Hearing – internal DOCCS process overseen by a DOCCS employee to resolve disciplinary tickets
issued to incarcerated people. Incarcerated people are not allowed to be represented at the hearings, but
may testify and call certain witnesses.
Double Bunking – the practice of placing two incarcerated people in one single cell.
Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) – legislation that guarantees the rights of people in New York to obtain
records of public agencies in the state.
Grievance – a complaint filed by a person who is incarcerated about “the substance or application of any
written or unwritten policy, directive, procedure, or rule of DOCCS or any of its program units…”
HALT Solitary Confinement Act,A. 3080 / S. 4784 – proposed legislation in the New York Legislature that
would, among other things, prohibit more than 15 consecutive days in solitary confinement for any person,
create rehabilitative and therapeutic alternatives to solitary, restrict the criteria that can result in solitary or
alternative units, ban even one day of solitary for certain categories of people, and require training, public
reporting, and outside oversight.

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Keeplock (KL) – a form of solitary confinement during which incarcerated persons are either kept in their own
cell or moved to a separate cellblock, and held on 23 to 24-hour a day lock down, generally with access to
their property.
Loaf – a particularly harsh deprivation order in which people were placed on a restricted diet where all meals
consisted of what is known as “the loaf,” a dense, binding, tasteless, one pound loaf of mixed ingredients
with a side of raw cabbage. Under the Peoples settlement, DOCCS was required by July 1, 2016 to replace
the Loaf with a new special management meal composed of “a nutritious, calorie-sufficient, and palatable
meal composed of regular food items.”
Office of Mental Health (OMH) – the Department responsible for providing mental health care for incarcerated
people throughout the state prison system. Upon entering the prison system, individuals are assessed on a
scale of one to six for severity of mental illness by OMH and subsequently designated to a facility capable of
providing for their needs, with people who are Level 1 requiring the most intense mental health services and
people who are Level 6 do not require mental health care.
Office of Special Investigations (OSI) – internal DOCCS investigative body, formerly known as the DOCCS’
Inspector General (IG), with a mandate to “investigate allegations of criminal activity related to DOCCS or any
other wrongdoing within DOCCS.”
Ombudsman Bill, A. 1904 – proposed legislation in the New York Legislature that would, among other things,
create an independent public oversight agency to monitor New York prisons, investigate complaints, and
bring transparency and accountability.

Peoples v. Annucci – lawsuit that was settled in 2016 that placed some limitations on the use of disciplinary
solitary confinement in New York prisons including by, among other things, providing sentencing guidelines
for the use of solitary, mandating the future creation of a limited number of alternative-to-SHU units, and
expanding some of the most basic minimal protections for people in solitary.
Progressive Inmate Movement System (PIMS) – a system for individuals who are in solitary confinement to have
certain restrictions removed or basic “privileges” earned, such as an additional shower or less restraints, if
they progress from PIMS Level 1 to Level 3.
Raise the Age – a law that raised the age of criminal responsibility in New York State from 16 to 18 as of 2019
for certain crimes and will require 16- and 17-year-olds who are incarcerated to be held in facilities that are
only for people in this age group and do not hold adults.
Residential Crisis Treatment Program (RCTP) – an inpatient emergency assessment and evaluation unit
operated by OMH for incarcerated persons exhibiting suicidal tendencies, or who are otherwise in psychiatric
crisis.
Residential Mental Health Unit (RMHU) – a disciplinary residential mental health treatment unit at Marcy, Five
Points, and Attica that is recognized as an alternative to SHU under the SHU Exclusion Law for individuals
diagnosed with serious mental illness who have received disciplinary infractions leading to SHU time. RMHUs
require participants to receive four hours a day, five days a week, of programming outside of their cells.
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Residential Mental Health Treatment Units – mental health units within DOCCS prisons that include the
disciplinary alternative-to-SHU (RMHUs, BHU, and a Therapeutic Behavioral Unit (TBU) for women at Bedford
Hills), as well as non-disciplinary residential mental health units called Intermediate Care Programs (ICP)
and one Intensive Intermediate Care Program (IICP).
SAFE Parole Act, A. 4353 / S. 3095A – proposed legislation in the New York Legislature that would, among
other things, require the Parole Board to base its decisions on applicants’ readiness for reentry, specify
what an applicant who has been denied can do to be released, and grant release to those who complete the
requirements and demonstrate their readiness to safely return to their communities.
S-Designation – a designation statutorily defined by the SHU Exclusion Law meaning that a person has a
serious mental illness and has to be diverted from SHU or a separate keeplock unit to a residential mental
health treatment unit.
Shock Program – an intensive boot camp style treatment program that emphasizes substance abuse
treatment, military style discipline, fitness, life skills, and education in a therapeutic community setting.
Special Housing Unit (SHU) – often referred to as “solitary confinement” or “the box.” The SHU is a disciplinary
unit where individuals spend 23 to 24 hours a day in the cells with the possibility of one hour of optional
recreation. People in SHU are allowed the bare minimum of personal property including medical devices, a
maximum of five books, letter writing supplies, and religious materials. The cell typically consists of a steel
framed bed, sink, and toilet.
Special Housing Unit (SHU) Exclusion Law – law passed in 2008 and into full effect in 2011 that requires that
any individual who suffers from a serious mental illness (with a so-called “S-designation”) and faces a period
of disciplinary confinement that could exceed 30 days must be diverted from a SHU or separate keeplock
unit to a Residential Mental Health Treatment Unit (RMHTU), except in “exceptional circumstances.”
Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) restoration, A. 3995 / S. 3735 – proposed legislation in the New York
Legislature that would, among other things, restore the eligibility of people who are incarcerated to receive
financial aid to attend college.

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SOLITARY AT SOUTHPORT

Correctional Association of New York
22 Cortlandt Street, 33rd Floor
New York, NY 10007
t: 212-254-5700
f: 212-473-2807
www.correctionalassociation.org

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