DOC fails to provide medical care, judge rules
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A Bronx Supreme Court justice recently ruled that the Department of Correction has failed to provide detainees with medical attention. AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File
By Jacob Kaye
A Bronx Supreme Court judge recently found that the New York City Department of Correction has failed to provide medical care to detainees in the city’s jails, a complaint that has long been made by incarcerated people in the past year.
The decision, made by Judge Elizabeth Taylor, in the class action lawsuit, orders the DOC to implement a series of measures to provide medical services to detainees who say they have been unable to see doctors or receive medical attention when in need.
In 2021, over a dozen people have died in DOC custody, making it the deadliest year in the city’s jails since 2016. At least seven of those deaths were related to medical conditions, according to the most recent Nunez Report released Monday by the federal monitor appointed to oversee Rikers Island.
“After this tragic year, when at least fourteen New Yorkers have died at Rikers Island and other local jails, we are grateful the court took swift action to order the DOC to fulfill its obligation to provide the thousands of New Yorkers who remain in the jails with access to medical care,” said Veronica Vela, the supervising attorney with the Prisoners’ Rights Project at The Legal Aid Society. “If DOC is still unable to comply with this ruling, it has no authority to detain, and the City and State must act immediately to release people in its custody to prevent further suffering.”
The ruling applies to all current and future incarcerated people inside of DOC facilities, all of whom will be represented by attorneys at The Legal Aid Society, Brooklyn Defender Services, and Milbank LLP.
Taylor ordered the DOC to provide incarcerated people with access to sick call on weekdays and make it available at least five days a week within 24 hours of it being requested, provide security to allow incarcerated people to move to and from health facilities within the jails and to not prohibit or delay detainees’ access to medical care.
“Thousands of people are suffering because the Department of Correction consistently fails to meet basic human needs and ensure health and safety for people in its custody,” said Brooke Menschel, the director of Civil Rights and Law Reform at Brooklyn Defender Services. "This is not only inhumane and morally wrong, it is illegal and the court agreed.”
A DOC spokesperson said that the department is working to deliver health services despite complications posed by the pandemic and a resulting staffing shortage.
“We completely agree that health care is a human right and we do our best to ensure that this right is fulfilled,” the spokesperson said. “While COVID and related staffing issues have challenged us, we are determined to deliver services to those in our care to the best of our ability.”
The lawsuit centered around a man identified as J.A., a 23-year-old who has been in DOC custody since mid-September.
Prior to his incarceration, J.A., who has asthma and a history of seizures, was stabbed in his side, puncturing a lung.
During his September arrest, police officers allegedly hit J.A. with a car, threw him to the ground and stepped on top of his leg, according to the suit. He attended his arraignment in a wheelchair, his attorneys say.
When he arrived at Rikers Island, he was stuck on a bus in handcuffs for fourteen hours and was allegedly denied access to food, water, the toilet and medical attention.
After spending nearly a week in intake and having the cell sprayed pepper spray, complicating his asthma, J.A. was moved into a more permanent housing situation.
While there, he says that he has consistently been denied medical attention. His attorneys say that the petitioner has called the Correctional Health Services hotline multiple times and has asked individual DOC officers to bring him to a medical facility.
At one point, he was told by CHS that he’d been given an appointment and that a DOC officer would escort him to the facility. However, when the time came, no officer arrived, the lawsuit says.
J.A. also claims that one officer told him that in order to go to the clinic, the detainee would need to pretend to have a heart attack or some kind of medical emergency.
“Every day we hear from people in distress, in need of both emergency and routine medical care, and yet these calls for help regularly go unanswered,” Menschel said. “The results are devastation, suffering, and death.”
The DOC has a week to prove to the court that it has implemented practices to ensure detainees get treated for medical issues.
The public defense attorneys said that if the order isn’t met, they’ll seek to have a judge order the release of people who face potentially fatal medical consequences if untreated.
