Elevator-sized cells. "Pens" for incarcerated individuals placed in solitary confinement to spend an hour each day outdoors. How COVID-19 affected this maximum-security prison.Â
When Assemblywoman Anna Kelles visited Auburn Correctional Facility, she felt it was her duty to "bear witness" â to observe the conditions at the prison, a 205-year-old facility that is one of the oldest in the country.Â
Kelles, D-Ithaca, shared her experience during a conference call last week organized by several advocacy groups, including the Center for Community Alternatives, Release Aging People in Prison, #HALTsolitary Confinement Campaign and New York Communities for Change.Â
A group of legislators visited jails, prisons and immigration detention centers across the state. State Sen. Julia Salazar, the new chair of the Senate Crime Victims, Crime and Correction Committee, was the first to visit a correctional facility. She toured Fishkill Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison in the Hudson Valley.Â