Junteenth a State Holiday and Stop Solitary CT Wins the PROTECT Act

The years long effort to stop solitary confinement of incarcerated people, led by Stop Solitary CT, won passage of the PROTECT Act by the legislature, signed into law by Governor Lamont. The Legislature also established Juneteenth as a state holiday.

The new law places statutory limits on solitary confinement, provides oversight of the Connecticut Department of Correction (DOC) with a Corrections Advisory Council including formerly incarcerated people, establishes an ombudsman, and requires the DOC to report on its use of force.

Calling the bill “a giant step toward restoring the humanity lost in Connecticut's correctional system decades ago,” lead organizer Barbara Fair credited testimony from formerly incarcerated individuals who “spoke powerfully to life after unsepaable trauma and to the mental fragility it caused.”

In 2017 State Sen Gary Winfield, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, spent time in a solitary cell set up at the State Capitol to raise awareness of the inhumanity of the practice.

Also in this session, Juneteenth became a legal state holiday commemorating the day enslaved Black people in Texas were freed on June 19, 1865, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation had declared an end to slavery.

During the debate, many legislators shared their personal histories including stories of their enslaved ancestors and of experiencing Ku Klux Klan violence.

“The shackles are still on our feet. The shackles still remain around our necks,” said Rep. Robyn Porter. “And I hope that we take an opportunity to be cognizant of that.”

“Our community faces disparities every single day. Jobs and methods are used to define and separate us so we will never achieve,” said Rep. Toni Walker. “We need to end this. We need to get up and celebrate every aspect of all of us. Juneteenth is one day that we want to have on the records as a celebration of independence from slavery.”

Responding to public outcry after the police murder of George Floyd and demands for concrete action to end racist practices, the Governor's budget proposals will now be required to indicate how they “identify and remedy past and present patterns of discrimination or inequality,” and “prevent the emergence and persistence of foreseeable future patterns of discrimination.”