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NJ Prisons Violate State Solitary Confinement Restrictions, Report Says

In 2019, the state passed a law restricting how long prisons can hold people in isolation. But, according to a new report, people still say they’re being isolated for weeks and even months.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy
New Jersey Gov. Phil MurphyPhil Murphy for Governor via Flickr

New Jersey prison officials continue to violate the state’s law restricting the use of long-term solitary confinement, according to a new report out today.

In 2019, Governor Phil Murphy signed the Isolated Confinement Restriction Act (ICRA), which caps how long a person can be held in isolation—no longer than 20 consecutive days or a total of 30 days during a 60-day period, except during a facility-wide lockdown. In the statute, “isolated confinement” is defined as confinement “in a cell or similarly confined holding or living space, alone or with other inmates, for approximately 20 hours or more per day.” When the law was passed, commentators lauded the state and said the act was one of the most progressive reforms to solitary confinement in the country.

But, according to surveys conducted by the advocacy group New Jersey Prison Justice Watch, change has not taken hold. Respondents reported that they have been held in isolation for weeks or months at a time. Ten people said they had been in isolation every day for the past four years. 

Of the 50 people who responded to a question about out-of-cell time, the average time reported was 70 minutes each day even though ICRA directs corrections officials to provide “as appropriate, access to recreation, education, clinically appropriate treatment therapies, skill-building activities, and social interaction with staff and other inmates.”

“There are certain facilities that are trying to keep up as best they can with the statutory obligations,” Amos Caley, an organizer with New Jersey Prison Justice Watch, told The Appeal. “But that’s one of the problems. The state has left it in the hands of each facility to come up with their own regulations on how ICRA is implemented. And what that ultimately means is that there is no across-the-board continuity.” 

The Department of Corrections pushed back against some of the report’s findings, but conceded that it has struggled to fully comply with all of ICRA’s requirements.

“There is no question that ICRA has posed challenges for the Department, oftentimes due to infrastructure and the disruptive behavior of the population generally within Restorative Housing Units (RHU),” the agency said in a statement. “Despite these challenges, the NJDOC unequivocally contests the characterization that the conditions are worse than three years prior or that the Department is ignoring the law.”

The report is based on surveys from 65 people locked up in state prisons. More than half of the responses came from prisoners incarcerated at New Jersey State Prison (NJSP) in Trenton. 

Caley said many more people would have likely responded if not for the restrictions placed on people in isolation. 

“It can’t be overstated that the people that responded did so very bravely,” he said. “These surveys themselves could be considered contraband, let alone writing implements.”

A respondent from NJSP said they were held in isolation even though they were on psychiatric medication. ICRA bans people with mental illness from being placed in isolation except in “rare, specified circumstances.”

“No rec, no phone, no canteen,” they wrote. “Only a shower a day and sometimes we go 5 days without showering, per the Majors, and that’s how it is going to stay.”

Today’s report echoes many of the findings of an investigation published by Type Investigations and coauthored by Appeal Contributing Editor Christopher Blackwell, as well as a report released last year by the New Jersey Office of the Corrections Ombudsperson. In the agency’s report on disciplinary units, called Restorative Housing Units or RHUs, 93 percent of survey respondents said they were provided with 2 hours or less of out-of-cell time. 

The ICRA requires facilities to house isolated prisoners in clean cells with “properly functioning sanitary fixtures,” but some of those who participated in the group’s survey described atrocious conditions. One person at NJSP said he was placed in segregation in January after another prisoner assaulted him while he was handcuffed. 

“They confined me in a cell without lights, running water, or a working toilet as punishment, despite no disciplinary charges,” they wrote. 

Several respondents described the toll isolation was taking on their mental health. Solitary confinement can destroy a person’s mind and body and lead to self-harm, psychosis, and suicide. The United Nations considers it torture to hold someone in solitary confinement for more than 15 consecutive days.

“I don’t know how to explain it, but im fucked up, depressed, stressed; it made me lose faith,” one person at NJSP wrote.

Another person, also incarcerated at NJSP, described the moment he finally “snapped” and began assaulting staff. 

“I was being abused so much: with no shower, food was being slammed through my tray slot, TV broke, fan broke,” they wrote. “I haven’t had any contact with my family or loved ones, and mentally it’s making me unstable to the point I don’t care. I don’t feel human in any way.”