ALBANY – An advisory panel of state and union officials established in the wake of the 22-day state correction officer strike earlier this year is asking state leaders to expand the use of segregated confinement to discipline inmates.

The committee found that the state's Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act or the HALT law, which took effect in 2022 in a move to reduce isolation of inmates, too greatly restricted the ability of prisons to punish inmates who rioted, tried to escape, engaged in sexual harassment and gang-related extortion, lewd conduct and "unhygienic acts" such as throwing feces and urine on staff.

Under the panel's proposed changes to state law announced Friday, New York prisons would reduce the subjectivity of standards to allow segregated confineme

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