Working with co-counsel from Disability Advocates, Inc., Davis Polk served as pro bono counsel for the plaintiffs, the Prisoners’ Rights Project of The Legal Aid Society and Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York in Disability Advocates, Inc. v. New York State Office of Mental Health and Department of Correctional Services, a landmark federal lawsuit that successfully sought to improve the treatment and housing conditions of inmates with mental illness throughout the New York State prison system.

Disability Advocates is an Albany-based, not-for-profit organization that is authorized by federal law to advocate for the rights of persons with disabilities in New York. After five years of litigation and two weeks of trial, the parties negotiated a settlement that provides for major improvements in psychiatric treatment for New York State inmates with mental illness.

The Private Settlement Agreement (PSA) established a heightened level of care for inmates with serious mental illness who are confined in Special Housing Units (SHU) for disciplinary infractions, and required that they receive a minimum of two hours per day of out-of-cell treatment in addition to an hour of recreation. Inmates diverted from SHU to the new Residential Mental Health Unit (RMHU) now receive as many as four hours of out-of-cell treatment daily in addition to an hour of recreation.

The PSA also provided for ongoing reviews by senior prison officials of disciplinary dispositions of inmates with serious mental illness, with the goal of eliminating lengthy SHU and keeplock sentences for such inmates. The PSA greatly expands mental health programs and services for mentally ill inmates in the general prison population as well, including establishing new residential treatment programs, and extends mental health screening at reception to include all incoming inmates. We believe that the PSA is historic in the scope of its comprehensive programs.

Other prisoners’ cases include a matter in which our lawyers reached a favorable settlement for the estates of two prisoners with mental illness who had committed suicide in prison, and our representation of prisoners in Section 1983 actions.