layleen cubilette-polanco

Criminal justice advocates want solitary confinement to be entirely prohibited immediately.

Polanco died on the ninth day she was in a restrictive housing unit—where she was held in solitary as a punitive measure.

Officers were "confused" about how often they were supposed to check on the 27-year-old transgender woman, found dead in her cell on Rikers last summer.

Layleen Cubilette-Polanco’s death a year ago after having epileptic seizures while in the jail’s solitary unit galvanized a movement calling attention to violence against Black and Latinx transgender people.

"Layleen Polanco's passing further underscores the dangers of solitary confinement, which isolates already medically fragile people from observation and care."