A group of detainees are accusing the New York City Department of Correction of systematically violating the state's landmark law restricting solitary confinement, saying in a state court in a proposed class complaint they have been locked in their cells for up to 24 hours a day at Rikers Island despite the ban, a lawyer told Law360 on Wednesday.

In the complaint filed Monday, the detainees allege that the city is flouting the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act, or HALT Act, by operating what they described as de facto solitary confinement units in two Rikers facilities: a former Communicable Disease Unit at the West Facility and the second floor of the North Infirmary Command.

Arnold Catala, Cory Elder, Ben Foster and Jerry Young say in the complaint, which names DOC Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie and the city as defendants, that many of the people held in solitary confinement qualify as members of a "special population," including people younger than 22 or older than 54, pregnant people and recent mothers, and people with certain disabilities, all of whom are excluded from the practice under the law.

The detainees accuse the city of continuously violating the law by placing in segregated solitary cells people with heart disease and chronic illnesses like diabetes, lupus or hemophilia, people with mental ailments including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and bipolar disorder, and people with broken bones and limited mobility.

"This is a case about human dignity. It's a case about the value of human life," said Alex Lesman, a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society, which is representing the detainees. "There have been reports coming out for several years now about people being held in solitary confinement without any disciplinary process to put them there, and being held there for periods of time that far exceed what is supposed to be the limit under state law."

Attorneys at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP are working on the litigation pro bono.

Enacted in 2021, the HALT Act defines "segregated confinement" as holding a person in any type of cell for more than 17 hours in a day. The Correction Department is required to have hearings before it holds someone in solitary confinement for longer periods, specifying which rules the person has violated and how to justify the segregation.

The law also prohibits DOC from keeping anyone in segregated confinement in any event for more than 15 consecutive days, or for more than 20 days total in any 60-day period, except under very limited circumstances.

Catala, 37, who has high blood pressure, asthma and a prosthetic leg, has been held in solitary confinement since April 4, confined to his cell for 23 or 24 hours a day, the complaint says.

Elder, a 45-year-old man who said he has been segregated in a lonely cell for 23 hours a day since July 25, uses a wheelchair and has epilepsy, and he has been deprived of outdoor recreation for weeks.

"He is depressed, a condition he attributes to being alone in his cell all day," the complaint says.

The only interaction Foster, 33, has with other people is "yelling through the walls of his cell or exchanging quick glances with other incarcerated people" on his way to one hour of recreation time, which he spends alone in a caged area, according to the complaint.

Young, who is 66, has stomach cancer and uses a wheelchair, can communicate with other detainees only by opening the food tray on the lower part of his door and shouting through it, the lawsuit said.

Lesman said many other people at Rikers have similar stories.

The Legal Aid Society, which is the largest public defender in New York City, has been investigating violations of the HALT Act for over a year, finding that many of the proposed class members are people with disabilities. The organization also found a lack of transparency from the DOC.

"The DOC has been able to get away with this for years now," Lesman said.

The proposed class action comes against the backdrop of yearslong campaigns to close Rikers altogether and a federal takeover because of excessive force and violence inside the city's jails.

About 85% of people confined at Rikers are awaiting trial, according to city jail population data.

In 2023, the city settled a class action, Miller v. City of New York, for more than $49 million on behalf of thousands of pretrial detainees and parolees who were held in unlawful "stealth restrictive housing facilities" at Rikers Island and other facilities. 

Despite that high-profile litigation, the DOC continues to use solitary confinement in violation of the limitations imposed by the HALT Act, Lesman said.

"We felt that it was time to bring a class action that would put the HALT solitary law front and center and ask a state court to declare that this is unlawful, according to the HALT solitary law, and demand that the DOC stop doing this immediately," he said.

The DOC did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday. A spokesperson for the New York City Law Department declined to comment.

Lesman said the DOC's usual justification for placing people in solitary confinement is to ensure the safety of them, other detainees and correctional officers. But he said even when the practice enhances safety, the benefits are outweighed by the harms that solitary confinement has on people.

"The harms are serious, physiological and psychological harms that can be enduring, can often lead to suicide," he said. "Even if, if the public doesn't particularly care about the people who are stuck in solitary confinement, they should care about the public safety implications, because people are damaged by that experience, and most of them are eventually coming back out into the community."

The plaintiffs are represented by Veronica Vela, Barbara Hamilton, Riley Evans, Alexander Lesman and Samantha Coulson of the Legal Aid Society of New York and Bart Schwartz, Anna Occhipinti, Charlene Ni, Corinne Cathcart and Ariel Herzog of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP.

Counsel information for the defendants was not available Wednesday.

The case is Arnold Catala et al. v. City of New York et al., case number 820112/2025E, in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Bronx.

--Editing by Haylee Pearl.