Kate Wood, an attorney with The Legal Aid Society’s Juvenile Rights Practice, recently joined The Capitol Press Room to explain a new lawsuit challenging the Office of the Children & Family Services’ unlawful practice of routinely locking children in their care 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 lawsuit 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.

“We know that this has been going on for over a year, and that OCFS has been well aware that this was going on in their facilities and has failed to take any meaningful action to stop it,” Wood explained.

“There’s a real sense that these young people are forgotten, that no one is looking, no one is paying attention,” she continued. “That’s part of the reason that it was so urgent for us to raise this with the public, so there’s an awareness that these young people are suffering needlessly.”

Listen to the full segment below.