Today, four young men who were pretrial detainees at Rikers Island until 2018, when the City of New York abruptly transferred them to an upstate “black site” jail, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the City of New York, New York City Department of Correction (“DOC”) Commissioner Cynthia Brann, Albany County, Albany County Sheriff Craig D. Apple, Sr., and individual correctional officers.

Since 2015, when it banned solitary confinement for inmates ages 21 and younger, the City and DOC have illegally rendered dozens of young Rikers inmates to Albany County Correctional Facility (the “Albany County Jail”). Plaintiffs in this case were taken by DOC from Rikers to the Albany County Jail. Upon arrival, they were systematically subjected to brutal beatings and sexual assaults by jail guards. Plaintiffs suffered severe injuries, including a perforated eardrum, concussion, rectal bleeding, black eyes, and lacerations. For the entirety of their time at the Albany County Jail, the Rikers detainees were held in solitary confinement, cut off from meaningful human contact, and isolated from family, adequate medical care, and their lawyers.

Plaintiff Davon Washington is a 22-year-old man who resides in the Bronx, New York. He was released from custody on December 24, 2018. Plaintiff Steven Espinal is a 19-year-old man, and Plaintiff Pariis Tillery is a 25-year-old man, both of whom are still detained in solitary confinement at the Albany County Jail pending trial. Plaintiff John Doe is a 24-year-old man who was previously detained at the Albany County Jail and is now serving a sentence in state custody.

Today’s lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeks injunctive relief and damages. Plaintiffs Espinal and Tillery seek to be transferred out of the Albany County Jail, where they fear daily for their safety. Plaintiffs are represented by Katie Rosenfeld and Douglas E. Lieb of Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP and Steven Goldman of the Law Office of Goldman & Associates.

“Young Inmates Say They Were Shipped Upstate, Held in Isolation and Beaten,” New York Times