The Legal Aid Society, along with pro bono counsel Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, have filed a lawsuit against the New York City Department of Correction (DOC) for the Department’s repeated violations of the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement (HALT) Act, a landmark human rights law that limits the use of solitary confinement in prisons and jails throughout New York State.

The complaint alleges that DOC regularly violates HALT by confining people in their cells for 23 or 24 hours a day at two specific housing units on Rikers Island: the Communicable Disease Unit in the West Facility (WF CDU) and the second floor of the North Infirmary Command (NIC). New Yorkers housed in these units languish in cells, often for months at a time, and are denied access to congregate religious services, programming, and recreation.

One of the plaintiffs, Jerry Young, 66, has been in the WF CDU since January 2025. He suffers from stomach cancer and uses a wheelchair. He has been prevented from gathering with other Muslims for Friday prayers.

Arnold Catala, 37, has been housed in WF CDU since April 2025, and each day is confined in his cell for 23 to 24 hours. Mr. Catala, who has high blood pressure, asthma, and a prosthetic leg, among other medical conditions, has also not been receiving medication or doctors’ visits.

Like many of the people held in these units, Mr. Young and Mr. Catala qualify as members of a “Special Population” that HALT protects from placement in solitary confinement, except under very limited circumstances. Members of the special populations include people with chronic illnesses, people who rely on wheelchairs or other devices for mobility, and people with mental health disabilities including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and bipolar disorder.

The lawsuit seeks to end DOC’s practice of subjecting people on Rikers Island to the devastating and frequently irreversible medical and psychological consequences of solitary confinement.

“DOC’s continued refusal to abide by the provisions of the HALT Act is both unlawful and inhumane,” said Veronica Vela, Supervising Attorney with Legal Aid’s Prisoners’ Rights Project. “No one, and particularly not people living with disabilities, should be locked in a cell for 23 hours a day without human contact or access to medical treatment or programs.”

“These repeated violations of the law must end immediately,” she continued. “DOC must be prevented from inflicting the pain and trauma of solitary confinement on anyone in its custody.”