Star-Gazette Albany Bureau

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ALBANY --

Gov. Eliot Spitzer and state lawmakers announced Monday that
they have agreed on a compromise bill to ban solitary confinement for
seriously mentally ill prison inmates because legislation passed this
session faced a certain veto by the executive.
The Senate passed the bill unanimously during a special session Monday,
and the Assembly is scheduled to vote on the measure when it returns to
Albany later this year. The legislation would require the state
Department of Correctional Services to set up residential treatment
units for inmates with serious mental illnesses. Prisoners would be
offered at least four hours a day, five days a week, of therapeutic
programming and/or treatment out of their cell.
Senate Crime Victims, Crime and Corrections Committee Chairman Michael
Nozzolio, R-Fayette, Seneca County, said the bill is a "landmark
legislative measure, fully agreed upon with the Assembly and the
governor" that "encourages, establishes and requires the different
treatment of the mentally ill who are incarcerated."
Correction officers would receive special training on how to work with
this population, and the state Commission on Quality of Care and
Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities would monitor the program on
behalf of inmates.
"This legislation will make our prisons safer, will make our prisons
more humane," Nozzolio said.
Mental Health Alternatives to Solitary Confinement, a coalition of
groups that favor the legislation, have opposed solitary confinement --
also known as the box -- for seriously mentally ill prisoners because
members believe it exacerbates inmates' conditions. Cells in the box
are 6-feet-by-9-feet, and occupants eat what's known as the loaf, made
from bread and cabbage, as punishment. The agreed-upon legislation
ensures that would no longer happen in most cases.
"We know that people who are very sick are not going to be stuck in the
toxic environment of special housing, where they're only going to get
worse," said Bob Corliss of the Mental Health Association of New York.
About 12 percent of the prison population in New York, or some 8,000
inmates, has serious psychiatric disabilities, according to the bill's
sponsors.
The bill would not ban solitary confinement entirely for this
population.
According to advocates, state officials have estimated the legislation
could result in spending another $60 million and diverting hundreds
more prisoners than expected when the governor put about $60 million in
the state budget in anticipation of the court settlement.
The state will have to hire additional treatment staff, require
training for department staff and retrofit existing correctional
facilities or construct new ones.
It would take several years for all the new units to be operational.
The Legislature passed similar legislation in 2006, but former Gov.
George Pataki vetoed it.