Today the lawsuit Nunez v. City of New York (11-cv-5845) was certified as a class action by stipulation and agreement of plaintiffs’ counsel and The City of New York, and so-ordered by Magistrate Judge James Francis in the Southern District of New York. The complaint, filed in May of last year, alleges that corrections officers and personnel employed by the New York City Department of Correction (“DOC”) have a longstanding policy and practice of using excessive and unlawful force against inmates throughout the City’s jails. The lawsuit also claims that DOC personnel are frequently inadequately trained and disciplined and that the use of excessive force is knowingly permitted and encouraged by DOC supervisors. The plaintiff class will include all present and future inmates incarcerated at DOC jails, with the exceptions of the Eric M. Taylor Center and the Elmhurst and Bellevue Prison Wards. Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel, Ropes & Gray, and the Legal Aid Society Prisoners’ Rights Project have been appointed as class counsel.