}
More than 5,000 inmates are held in solitary confinement in New York’s state prisons and city jails – a condition two legislators hope to change by reforming what they see as a torturous practice.
State Sen. Bill Perkins (D.-Harlem) and Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry (D.-Queens) introduced a bill that would drastically scale back the use of solitary confinement, which isolates an inmate in a small cell for 22 or more hours per day.
The sandwich chain Au Bon Pain blocks Manhattan customers who use their wireless internet from seeing websites about gay advocacy, family planning and other hot-button issues.
Attempts to use the WiFi on Monday to search the internet for GLAAD.com, the official website for a well-known gay and lesbian rights organization, were met with an error message that read, “This website is not allowed. This website is categorized as Sexual Orientation and is blocked as part of this networks web content filtering policy.”
The same thing happened when a reporter tried to log on websites covering both sides of the abortion debate — as Au Bon Pain’s filtering software shut down the website ProLife.com with the message, “This website is categorized as Abortion and is blocked.”
Pragati Sawhney flashes a deep smile as she gets ready to make chocolate in the kitchen of her East Village apartment.
She stands barefoot in front of a table piled with flower and fruit extracts. She puts the chocolate chips in a saucepan and sets them on the fire, occasionally stirring. Once the chips melt, she pours the chocolate on a marble counter and spreads it with a plastic spatula.
Her home smells like chocolate and her dress is no longer white.
