My name is Natasha White, and today I want to remind you that solitary confinement is torture and has long term mental affects. I am not a doctor however I am not only a survivor of solitary but also a woman who had to deal with what solitary confinement can do to our loved ones. Jails and prisons justify solitary confinement by saying it's supposed to teach you something. It is used as punishment for breaking the rules of prison - or for getting on an officer’s bad side. However when a person goes to SHU (special housing unit) they are handcuffed and transported with nothing. No books, paper, pen or anything else for that matter. The cell has no windows so there's definitely no sunlight. The door has no windows so you can not see anyone that is passing. No outside interactions. No phone calls. Basically you've put a person in a metal box. Every hour and every day in that box you hear the same sounds, and smell the same smells and when afforded recreation, you’re confined to a 10 by 7 cage for 1 hour alone.

The effects of solitary confinement also reach outside the prison walls. In December of 2018 my husband was released after serving 26 years in prison, 12 years of which he served in solitary confinement. The only thing solitary taught my husband was how to live alone in isolation, and it did long term damage. For a man who has read more than 2000 books, minor things as simple as a delayed train makes him furious. For the first year I had no idea of the real effects it had on him, but one day, during an argument between us, he snapped, breaking everything he got his hands on in our apartment, including my heart. Because of the severity of this incident, I relocated, having to leave everything behind. A little over a year later I'm still putting the pieces together. My husband’s time in solitary did nothing to rehabilitate him -- it actually made it harder for him to deal with other people. What good does that do anyone?

I have seen people go into solitary confinement for even short periods of time and come out different and not for the better. The fact that people are so easily ready to strip a person of their humanity is disgraceful. All people have basic needs - including human interaction. It is not your right to deny any person because they are in prison. DOC is supposed to be doing something like rehabilitating, right? How does that work when you are in a cell alone with no one to talk to? It’s impossible and it’s torture!

Since last winter, and before, people have been coming to tell the Board about their experiences in solitary confinement. But New York City is still subjecting people to that torture. It is beyond time that this Board vote to end solitary confinement and implement the Blueprint developed by the Jails Action Coalition and CAIC.