17 corrections officers to be disciplined in trans girl’s loss of life at Rikers
Extra than a dozen New York City Department of Correction officers would perhaps be disciplined for their habits surrounding the loss of life of Layleen Xtravaganza Cubilette-Polanco, 27, a transgender girl who died final One year while in solitary confinement at Rikers Island jail.
Three officers and one captain would perhaps be suspended without pay straight, the division mentioned in a press launch Friday. It become as soon as no longer straight obvious what disciplinary actions the final 13 officers would face.
The announcement comes several weeks after Bronx District Authorized educated Darcel D. Clark declined to file charges following a six-month investigation into the cases of Cubilette-Polanco’s loss of life.
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“We are committed to guaranteeing that every particular person of our facilities are safe and humane,” Department of Correction Commissioner Cynthia Brann mentioned in a press launch. “Even one loss of life in our custody is one too many and this swift and beautiful decision on inner discipline makes obvious that the safety and successfully-being of folk in our custody remains our top precedence.”
Cubilette-Polanco died in June 2019 after being placed in solitary confinement despite the objections of no longer less than one doctor due to the her historical previous of seizures.
In declining to file prison charges, Clark mentioned in a press launch that “the purview of this office is to no longer resolve whether or no longer it become as soon as a shocking decision” to position Cubilette-Polanco in solitary confinement. As one more, it become as soon as the district lawyer’s role to “resolve whether or no longer that decision rose to the extent of prison habits.”
After an “in-depth investigation,” Clark’s office optimistic that it would unable to inform previous an cheap doubt that officers committed against the law that precipitated Cubilette-Polanco’s loss of life.
Numerous weeks sooner than she died, Cubilette-Polanco had been hospitalized on the Elmhurst Sanatorium Reformatory Ward for psychiatric care after “exhibiting radical changes in habits” including shouting, crying, rolling round on the floor, talking to herself, expressing suicidal thoughts and charging at a jail guard, in accordance with a Board of Correction file.
After returning to Rikers Island, jail personnel tried to get her sent to restrictive housing, or solitary confinement, as a punishment for charging on the guard, in accordance with the file. Alternatively, a psychiatrist “verbally acknowledged that due to the [her] scientific historical previous because it pertains to seizure disorder, that he would no longer have the flexibility to licensed [sic] a cell housing placement” in a restrictive housing unit.
Cubilette-Polanco died after suffering an epileptic seizure, in accordance with the scientific examiner’s file.
“The loss of life of Layleen Polanco become as soon as an incredibly painful 2nd for our metropolis,” New York Mayor Invoice de Blasio mentioned in a press launch Friday. “What occurred to Layleen become as soon as fully unacceptable and it is serious that there would possibly perhaps be accountability.”