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1/ On June 7, 2019, Layleen Polanco, a 27-year old transgender woman, died on Rikers Island after an epileptic seizure on her ninth day in solitary confinement.
She was being held on $500 bail.
She was being held on $500 bail.
2/ A report released June 23, 2020, by the Board of Correction found that Polanco was pushed there by jailers over a doctor’s objections & despite her seizure disorder. THE CITY has covered this story since the start of it.
Here’s everything we know: https://buff.ly/31nVouQ
Here’s everything we know: https://buff.ly/31nVouQ
3/ In April 2019, Polanco was arrested for allegedly biting a cab driver.
Though she was ordered released on that charge a few days later, she stayed in jail because her $500 bail was attached to previous misdemeanor drug and sex work charges from 2017.
Though she was ordered released on that charge a few days later, she stayed in jail because her $500 bail was attached to previous misdemeanor drug and sex work charges from 2017.
4/ She was a longtime member of the House of Xtravaganza, a dynasty in New York City’s ballroom scene.
But the community did not know that Polanco had been in jail for 2 months or that she could have been liberated for $500. https://buff.ly/3ibedY7
But the community did not know that Polanco had been in jail for 2 months or that she could have been liberated for $500. https://buff.ly/3ibedY7
5/ On May 15, 2019, a correction officer noted that she was “expressing a desire to commit suicide and/or attempting suicide;” had “frequent displays of shouting, crying and/or screaming;” and was “being alarmed (frightened) or in a state of panic;” https://buff.ly/2VrgfK9
6/ The next day Polanco was sent from Rikers to Elmhurst Hospital “for psychosis/mania,” her family’s lawyer David Shanies said, and stayed there for nine days.
Upon her return on May 24, correction staff debated about where to place her.
Upon her return on May 24, correction staff debated about where to place her.
7/ The department’s tour commander at Rose M. Singer Center wrote in an email that day that a psychiatrist could not authorize “a cell housing placement” for Polanco because of her seizure disorder. https://buff.ly/2VrgfK9
8/ Six days later, on May 30, a Correctional Health Services medical doctor *did* clear her for solitary and she was sent to serve 20 days of punitive segregation — due to the DOC’s policy not to house transgender women with cisgender women in the general population.
9/ Polanco died in solitary on June 7, 2019.
10/ In July, 2019, the city medical examiner’s office announced Layleen Polanco died in her solitary cell from a seizure related to epilepsy. https://buff.ly/2YB5d6V
11/ Her body was “cold to the touch” when emergency personnel arrived, according to a federal lawsuit brought by Polanco’s mother.
“The well-documented indifference to this young woman’s life is heartbreaking and outrageous,” said the family's lawyer. https://buff.ly/2VmYZ8G
“The well-documented indifference to this young woman’s life is heartbreaking and outrageous,” said the family's lawyer. https://buff.ly/2VmYZ8G
12/ Inmates with serious medical conditions are not supposed to be placed into punitive segregation areas, under city regulations.
The jail knew about her seizure disorder, but despite these regulations, she was still placed in the jail’s solitary unit.
The jail knew about her seizure disorder, but despite these regulations, she was still placed in the jail’s solitary unit.
13/ On June 5th, 2020, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark announced that she would not pursue any criminal charges tied to Polanco’s death.
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doi/press-releases/2020/June/BxDARelease.Rpt.06.05.2020.pdf
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doi/press-releases/2020/June/BxDARelease.Rpt.06.05.2020.pdf
14/ The same day, the city’s Department of Investigation concluded that no city employee was criminally liable for Polanco’s death.
While inmates in solitary are supposed to be checked every 15 minutes, a review noted that jail staff left Polanco alone for 47 minutes
While inmates in solitary are supposed to be checked every 15 minutes, a review noted that jail staff left Polanco alone for 47 minutes
15 / On June 13, 2020, a surveillance video was released documenting Polanco’s last hours. The footage reveals that guards tried to wake her on and off for 90 minutes before calling for help. https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/new-video-reveals-layleen-polanco-s-death-rikers-was-preventable-n1230951
16 / Her family told NBC News that the video shows key details that the Bronx district attorney and the Department of Investigation failed to note when they found officers not responsible.
17/ Polanco’s death has garnered national attention, leading to calls to end or strictly limit the use of solitary confinement and inspired a bail fund for transgender inmates. https://buff.ly/2BFj6YN
18/ “It’s something we need to evaluate in a thoughtful process with all the stakeholders and then decide if there’s the right time to take the next step,” @NYCMayor, said when asked about ending solitary confinement for adults in city jails earlier this month.
19/ But as a vote on the oversight board’s solitary confinement reforms—including new rules limiting “punitive segregation” in city jails to 15 days—approached fall of 2019, the de Blasio administration waged a quiet campaign against the changes. https://buff.ly/3887ABo
20/ After Polanco’s death, @NYCSpeakerCoJo called for an end to solitary confinement in the city, as did Public Advocate @JumaaneWilliams and other elected officials. https://buff.ly/2Zjvohy
21/ Changes to solitary confinement in New York City jails have not come. The Board of Correction has yet to pass proposed new rules limiting “punitive segregation.” https://buff.ly/2YEzrWG
22/ A coalition of advocates, many formerly incarcerated themselves, call for a total end to what they consider the form of torture.
They want a 10-hour-daily maximum time that most detainees can be locked in their cells — 2 hours during the day and 8 at night—to be universal.
They want a 10-hour-daily maximum time that most detainees can be locked in their cells — 2 hours during the day and 8 at night—to be universal.
23/ The death review, on June 23, 2020, from the Board of Corrections connects some of the dots between Polanco’s death in a solitary cell and her status as a transgender woman...
24/ The DOC’s policy not to house trans women with cisgender women in the general population of the women’s facility resulted in “increased pressure” to place Ms. Polanco in solitary, the report says.
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/boc/downloads/pdf/Reports/BOC-Reports/2020.06_Polanco/Final_Polanco_Public_Report_1.pdf
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/boc/downloads/pdf/Reports/BOC-Reports/2020.06_Polanco/Final_Polanco_Public_Report_1.pdf
25/ “We tried very hard to get Inmate [Polanco] cleared [for segregation] but [Mental Health] just won’t clear her,” a Department of Correction Tour Commander wrote in an email two weeks before Polanco’s death, according to a Board of Correction report.
26/ Yesterday, @AOC called Polanco’s death inside a solitary cell a “moral travesty” that was “in direct violation of corrections policy.”
“The corrections officers involved must be fired, and we must end solitary confinement and divest from prisons." https://www.thecity.nyc/2020/6/26/21304927/a-year-after-layleen-polancos-rikers-death-jailers-face-discipline
“The corrections officers involved must be fired, and we must end solitary confinement and divest from prisons." https://www.thecity.nyc/2020/6/26/21304927/a-year-after-layleen-polancos-rikers-death-jailers-face-discipline
27/ Meanwhile, the Correction Department contends it does not use solitary confinement at all — and refers to isolating prisoners only as “punitive segregation.”
28/ The Department of Correction says that people held in punitive segregation in city jails get at least two hours of outdoor recreation activity daily and an hour “in the dayroom.”
They also count a shower as an hour of out-of-cell time.
They also count a shower as an hour of out-of-cell time.
29/ The DOC said that the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners — describe solitary confinement as “the confinement of prisoners for 22 hours or more a day without meaningful human contact” as proof that its schedule shouldn't be considered solitary confinement
30/ But former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Méndez told The CITY that “providing slightly over two hours a day of meaningful social contact would constitute a bad faith interpretation of the purpose of the rules.” https://buff.ly/2YEzrWG
31/ Activities like showers and solo exercise do not count toward total out-of-cell time, because they do not involve “meaningful social contact,” Méndez also noted.
32/ On top of that, the ACLU says that transgender people can have a harder time raising bail than other inmates because they are less likely to have family willing to vouch for them.
And that some have long rap sheets “because they’ve been forced to do things to stay alive."
And that some have long rap sheets “because they’ve been forced to do things to stay alive."
33/ Transgender people are also particularly vulnerable behind bars. They have a 10 times higher rate than other detainees of unwanted sexual activity with other inmates or prison staff, according to a Bureau of Justice Statistics.
https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/svpjri1112_st.pdf
https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/svpjri1112_st.pdf
34/ A year after her death at age 27, Polanco is far from forgotten. Her name and image were seemingly everywhere at a gathering of thousands at an Action for Black Trans Lives march in Brooklyn Sunday.
35/ Polanco’s sister Melania Brown, who wants to see an end to solitary in the city, addressed the massive crowd from the steps of the Brooklyn Museum on June 14, 2020. https://twitter.com/bradlander/status/1272242203033821186?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1272242203033821186%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thecity.nyc%2F2020%2F6%2F18%2F21296402%2Fsolitary-confinement-reforms-languish-a-year-after-polanco-death
36/ “They gave me just what I needed to push a little harder, to fight harder,” Brown told THE CITY of the march attendees. “They got me ready, I’m ready to fight.”
37/ On June 26, @AOC called for the firing of jail personnel involved in the chain of events that ended with Polanco’s death.
38/ Hours later, @NYCMayor announced plans to discipline 17 Department of Correction employees — including three correction officers and one correction captain who were suspended without pay. https://buff.ly/3eFBCim
39/ Stay tuned as we continue to investigate this.
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40/ UPDATE: New York City will soon stop using solitary confinement in city jails, @NYCMayor declared Monday as he invoked the death of Layleen Polanco last year at Rikers Island. https://buff.ly/2ZhRkK4
41/ After resisting calls for change for more than a year, the mayor announced the creation of a “working group” charged with devising a plan to eradicate solitary confinement.
42/ “We have to right the wrong,” @NYCMayor said. “We can’t bring her back but we can make change so that no one else goes through such a tragedy.”
43/ The recent anniversary of Polanco’s death came amid ongoing protests against police and for the Black Lives Matter movement.
Her name became a rallying cry and her image adorned posters at a march for Black Trans Lives in Brooklyn this month. https://buff.ly/2Bn7lGv
Her name became a rallying cry and her image adorned posters at a march for Black Trans Lives in Brooklyn this month. https://buff.ly/2Bn7lGv
44/ “Layleen Polanco should not have been in solitary confinement,” @NYCMayor said Monday. “Lord knows she deserves justice. The family deserves justice. The transgender community deserves justice.”
45/ The working group is composed of @Stan_Fortune the Board of Corrections’ Vice Chair, who is formerly incarcerated, the DOC Commissioner, a rep from the correction officers union, & the president of @JustLeadersUSA, a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of incarcerated people.
46/ The mayor said he is expecting a report back in the fall from the group on how to proceed with ending solitary confinement in the city and will begin to implement the group’s recommendations from there.
47/ But the move was not made without its critics:
Jail officer's unions oppose limiting or eliminating, solitary confinement as a form of punishment. The mayor’s move will “get somebody killed,” predicted Patrick Ferraiuolo, president of the Correction Captains’ Association.
Jail officer's unions oppose limiting or eliminating, solitary confinement as a form of punishment. The mayor’s move will “get somebody killed,” predicted Patrick Ferraiuolo, president of the Correction Captains’ Association.
48/ “It’s unbelievable with everything going on, and all the crime that you see, when is he going to get that not everybody does the right thing,” he added. “Ending punitive segregation is a huge mistake and very dangerous.”
49/ But others think the @NYCMayor’s plan doesn’t go far enough.
50/ The #HALTSolitary campaign, which released its own plan for ending solitary in the city last October, said the mayor could have eliminated the practice immediately.
http://nycaic.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Blueprint-for-Ending-Solitary-Confinement-in-NYC-Oct-2019.pdf
http://nycaic.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Blueprint-for-Ending-Solitary-Confinement-in-NYC-Oct-2019.pdf
51/ “While we welcome Mayor de Blasio acknowledging the need to end solitary confinement in New York City jails, the time for working groups and discussions has long passed,” they said.
52/ “The mayor should have announced today that the BOC, which has purportedly been working on rules to restrict solitary confinement for three years, would be voting on proposed rules to fully eliminate solitary at its upcoming July 14 meeting," said members of #HALTSolitary
53/ Stay with us as we continue to investigate this. We will keep this thread updated.
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