The family of Layleen Polanco, a 27-year-old transgender woman who died in a solitary jail cell on Rikers Island, will receive $5.9 million in a settlement secured with the city.
The settlement is the highest in the city's history regarding a death in jail, according to the family's lawyer and the Law Department.
"Despite the settlement, my family isn’t done fighting," Polanco's sister Melania Brown said in a statement. "This lawsuit was only one way we were seeking justice for Layleen and this is only just the start."
Polanco died on Rikers Island in June 2019 of epileptic seizures after jail staffers had failed to check on her regularly in a "restrictive housing unit." She spent her last weeks in mental anguish while in custody and was relocated to the solitary cell as punishment for an alleged altercation before she died, a Board of Correction report found. She was held on $500 bail for misdemeanor charges.
Her death last summer reignited calls to end solitary confinement altogether. During mass protests against police violence this summer in New York City, thousands chanted "Black Trans Lives Matter," marching through Brooklyn's streets.
"I look forward to a day when we devote this level of resources to treating all people, including those in jail, with humanity and respect, and multi-million dollar settlements over senseless deaths are no longer needed," the family's lawyer, David Shanies, told Gothamist.
Settling the lawsuit against the city was a "difficult decision," Brown said. The news outlet THE CITY first reported on the settlement Sunday afternoon.
Brown wants the guards responsible to be fired.
"To this day, despite evidence of negligence, no one has been held accountable for my sister’s death," she said.
The Bronx District Attorney found no criminality in Polanco's death. Mayor Bill de Blasio has said 17 jail staffers will face discipline—but so far only four have been suspended without pay.
The de Blasio administration has not released the identity of the officers involved, any information on what internal charges they faced, or whether they have been disciplined. The disciplinary records of Correction officers are supposed to be public following the repeal of state law 50-A this past June, but a lawsuit filed by public sector unions has delayed their release. The Department of Correction said to file a Freedom of Information Law request for the discipline and charges due to the litigation regarding the release of those records.
"The death of Ms. Polanco was an absolute tragedy and our thoughts remain with her family and loved ones," a spokesperson for the Law Department told Gothamist. "The City will continue to do everything it can to make reforms towards a correction system that is fundamentally safer, fairer, and more humane."
Nearly a year after Polanco died, de Blasio formed a working group aimed at ultimately ending solitary confinement entirely.
But criminal justice advocates want the city to end solitary confinement immediately.
"The neglect and utter disregard for Layleen's life by prison officials is reprehensible," Beverly Tillery, the executive director of the Anti-Violence Project, which works to end violence against LGBTQ and HIV-affected communities, said in a statement.
"Solitary confinement for all must be ended immediately and concrete steps must be taken to ensure the safety of all trans and gender nonconforming people incarcerated," Tillery said.
Among the project's demands includes a database of correction officers who have committed misconduct—similar to what the de Blasio administration promised to do with police disciplinary records before the legal challenge slowed their release.
In a statement on Sunday, the #HALTsolitary Campaign's statewide organizer Anisah Sabur demanded both the city and the state "fully end solitary confinement to ensure that what happens to Layleen never happens again."
"We continue to be devastated that Layleen Polanco was tortured and killed in solitary confinement, and hope this settlement brings some measure of comfort to Layleen's family," Sabur said.
