ACLU Writes White House About Immigration Detention - NYSDOCCS Want To Use Torture in NYS - SDJails

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - Young offenders from the Bridge City Detention Center could soon find themselves locked up at Jetson Correctional or Angola State Prison. The move has activists like Gina Womack outraged. “The system has continued to fail our young people and by not actually providing the support and services that evidence says that they need,” Womack said. On Tuesday, August 9, folks from the group Friends and Families of Incarcerated Children voiced their concerns, worried children could be housed too close to adult offenders. According to the Office of Juvenile Justice, juvenile offenders moved to Angola would be in a separate building. “It’s the old reception center that will be totally refurbished that we’re doing now. It’s 1.5 miles from the nearest adult unit.,” said one official. But, Womack said these children need education, rehab and resources. “It’s not the point that children shouldn’t be sent there in the first place. Again, we’ve been working on support and regionalization and therapeutic services for the last 20 years,” Womack said. ******************************** ALBANY, N.Y. (WTEN) — With a rise in violence against those incarcerated in correctional facilities, advocates and Republican lawmakers call to repeal the HALT Act with claims that this violence is also against staff. The bill was implemented in April and restricts the use of solitary confinement to 15 days in correctional facilities. According to the Vera Institute of Justice they agree with “a vast body of research that shows the serious detrimental effects on mental and physical health of spending 22 to 24 hours per day alone and idle in a cell the size of a parking space.” And some long term psychological impacts of solitary confinement include obsessive thoughts, depression, PTSD and psychosis which is why advocates of the bill say the HALT Act was necessary. But correctional facilities say inmates are using this to their advantage. Recent data from the Corrections & Community Supervision cites a spike in violence since the bill was put into effect in April.