The Legal Aid Society, Brooklyn Defender Services and Milbank LLP lauded a recent decision in Agnew v. NYC Department of Correction which found that the New York City Department of Correction (DOC) has failed to provide access to medical care for incarcerated New Yorkers in the City Jails. The order mandates that DOC immediately remedy these unlawful failures and provide people in its care with access to medical services, as reported by Gothamist.

Recognizing that DOC’s failures are far reaching, the Court certified a class that includes all current and future persons incarcerated in DOC jails and designated Legal Aid, Brooklyn Defender Services and Milbank as class counsel. According to the ruling, DOC must comply with its legal duties to provide medical services to all persons in NYC jails, by:

• Providing all class members with access to sick call on weekdays and make sick call available a minimum of five days per week within 24 hours of a request;
• Providing sufficient security to allow class members movement to and from health services in the jails; and
• Not prohibiting or delaying class members’ access to care, appropriate treatment, or medical or dental services.

The Court ordered the Department to demonstrate compliance with its order – and these duties – within a week. If DOC cannot meet its duty to provide these basic services – a task that is fundamental but has been largely out of reach for the Department in the current crisis – the parties will return to Court so that Petitioners may ask for alternative relief, including the release of incarcerated people facing particularly grave medical consequences from the breakdown in access to basic medical care and the dangerous conditions in the jails.

“After this tragic year, when at least fourteen New Yorkers have died at Rikers Island and other local jails, we are grateful the Court took swift action to order the DOC to fulfill its obligation to provide the thousands of New Yorkers who remain in the jails with access to medical care,” said Veronica Vela, Supervising Attorney with the Prisoners’ Rights Project at The Legal Aid Society. “If DOC is still unable to comply with this ruling, it has no authority to detain, and the City and State must act immediately to release people in its custody to prevent further suffering.”