The Legal Aid Society and Jenner and Block LLP today filed a lawsuit challenging the New York State Office of Children and Family Services’ (OCFS) unlawful policy and practice of routinely locking children in their care in secure placement in solitary confinement, at times for weeks or months on end.

At each of the five secure placement facilities operated by OCFS, youth are routinely confined alone in tiny, barren cells for up to 24 hours a day. The complaint alleges that, while locked in solitary confinement, these children are routinely denied access to mandated education, programming, recreational activities, and basic health and hygiene necessities. According to the complaint, youth are regularly forced to urinate or defecate in trash bins or buckets in their cells and required to eat their meals in these unhygienic conditions.

Despite a New York State prohibition against solitary confinement of youth in adult facilities, as well as widespread national recognition that it is extremely harmful to deprive a child of meaningful social interaction or mental stimulation, the complaint alleges that OCFS continues to utilize the practice of solitary confinement under different, misleadingly innocuous names.  

“Young people housed in secure placement facilities operated by OCFS have a right to safety, dignity, and age-appropriate treatment,” said Dawne Mitchell, Chief Attorney of the Juvenile Rights Practice at Legal Aid.

“Locking these children – the majority of whom are Black or Latinx – alone in small, unhygienic rooms for hours on end with no access to education, programming, or interaction with others is detrimental to their development and can have devastating, lasting impacts on their mental health and well-being,” she continued. “OCFS must immediately put an end to these barbaric unlawful and inhumane practices and ensure these young New Yorkers are provided appropriate care, including basic hygiene, education and rehabilitative services.”