Hochul says Trump won’t send an ICE surge into New York unless she asks

And the HALT lawsuit is now a class action against the state after a new ruling this week.

Good afternoon — It’s Friday and Cherry Pie Day.

In today’s CapCon:

• Gov. Kathy Hochul attended a meeting of governors with President Donald J. Trump Friday and said she emerged with a “reassuring” result for New York City.

• A judge is allowing litigation against New York over suspended programming under the HALT Act to proceed as a class action lawsuit.

• The Trump administration, with one day to spare, is appealing a court decision that upheld New York’s “Green Light Law.”

• What’s happening at the Capitol next week, including the final five state budget hearings and two interesting bills on the move.

• A new bill seeks to set safeguards for cameras connected to the home internet networks of their users, including around the data retained from them.

Names in today’s CapCon: Daniel F. Martuscello III, Julia Salazar, Daniel C. Lynch, Kathy Hochul, Donald J. Trump, Anne M. Nardacci, Zohran Mamdani, Hinchey, Kristen Gonzalez, Rachel May

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From last year’s prison strike (Will Waldron/Times Union)

⚖️ Judge allows HALT lawsuit to move forward as a class action against the state

This week marks the anniversary of the start of last year’s statewide prison strike, during which thousands of correction officers left their posts in protest.

That left the state’s prisons even more understaffed than they already were. When the strike finally ended in March, the state fired 2,000 of those officers and has stationed the National Guard in prisons since then to supplement staffing.

But the agreement that ended the strike also included a provision purporting to allow the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to continue its suspension of parts of the HALT Act, enacted in 2022.

The HALT Act sets restrictions on when and for how long someone can be placed in solitary confinement and requires certain programming, like rehabilitative and therapeutic services, and out-of-cell time for those individuals.

That’s intended to prevent negative mental health outcomes that could result in behavior that lands them right back in solitary confinement.

When DOCCS agreed to continue its suspension of the law’s required programming for 90 days following the end of the strike, proponents of the HALT Act questioned the legality of that decision.

So six incarcerated individuals, represented by the Legal Aid Society, sued the agency last April to reverse that decision and resume the law’s required programming.

Nearly one year later, that programming still hasn’t been restored in the state’s prisons.

“I’m committed to reopening programs in our institutions and providing services,” DOCCS Commissioner Daniel F. Martuscello III told state Sen. Julia Salazar this month when she asked about the agency’s progress at a state budget hearing.

DOCCS Commissioner Daniel F. Martuscello III (Will Waldron/Times Union)

“I believe in the out of cell programs afforded to incarcerated people under the HALT Act to get to their anxiety and what was driving their anger at decision making,” he said. “And we continue to strive towards that each and every day as we recover from this last year.”

When the litigation was filed last year, the plaintiffs simultaneously asked the judge to allow it to proceed as a class action lawsuit. That way, the result of legal action would impact all similarly situated people in prison, not just the six who sued.

That’s significant because legal precedent can prevent class action litigation against the state under the government operations rule. Long story short, it makes certifying a class more difficult when governmental operations are involved.

It’s also particularly important because the state’s prisons remain severely understaffed.

That understaffing is the agency’s reasoning for being unable to provide the HALT Act’s required programming statewide and, while an aggressive recruitment campaign is underway, it’s unclear when the state’s prisons will be fully staffed.

The judge presiding over the case finally issued a decision on their request to certify two classes of individuals in the litigation this week.