Since January, Jerry Young has been held at the West Facility in the Rikers Island jail complex in New York City, frequently confined to his cell 24 hours a day.
When Mr. Young, 66, who uses a wheelchair and has stomach cancer, gets time away from his cell, he is outside alone for one hour in a cage without any activities, according to a lawsuit filed Monday that accuses the city of holding some people in de facto solitary confinement.
Mr. Young, who faces drug charges in Queens, is held in what is essentially segregated housing, meaning that he spends most of his time alone, the lawsuit says. But because of his age and illnesses, he is part of a “special population” that is supposed to be exempt from solitary confinement, except under very limited circumstances and for brief periods, it says.
Like Mr. Young, others at the West Facility and the North Infirmary Command are confined in violation of the law, according to the suit, which was filed on behalf of four detainees by the Legal Aid Society and a private law firm. The lawsuit, which will seek class action status, names New York City and Lynelle Maginley-Liddie, the jail commissioner, as defendants.
Spokesmen for the city did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The law upon which the suit depends is the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act, or HALT, signed by Andrew M. Cuomo in 2021 when he was governor. It prohibits prisons and jails from keeping people in solitary for more than 15 consecutive days. It also bans the practice for some people, including minors and those with certain disabilities.
According to the lawsuit, two housing areas in Rikers are designed so that detainees are automatically in segregated confinement, said Veronica Vela, the supervising attorney of the Prisoners’ Rights Project at Legal Aid in New York. There are no communal spaces, she said, and outdoor time is sporadic. When her team has described the issues to the city’s Department of Correction in the past, inmates have been moved to general-population housing, Ms. Vela said.
“They’ve had three years now to try to come into compliance with HALT, and instead of making an effort to do so, they just make this sort of bizarre claim that they don’t have anybody in solitary confinement,” Ms. Vela said. “And that’s just not true.”
The HALT law was passed after a long fight by prisoners’ supporters concerned about the mental health of people in solitary confinement and the apparent racial disparities in how the punishment was being meted out. Prolonged isolation, which United Nations officials have called torture, has been linked to brain damage, increased risk of self-harm and suicide.
Legal Aid has also sued the state, accusing prison officials of holding mentally ill and disabled people in isolation in violation of the law.
Hurubie Meko is a Times reporter covering criminal justice in New York, with a focus on the Manhattan district attorney’s office and state courts.
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