In 2004, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York received a complaint from an inmate in the custody of the New York City Department of Correction ("DOC") alleging that DOC violated Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 ("ADA"), 42 U.S.C. §§ 12131 et seq.. Specifically, the inmate alleged that the DOC did not have a designated employee responsible for the coordination of ADA compliance as required by law and refused to provide the inmate with the name of any such person. After the complaint was investigated, the government and the DOC resolved the complaint by entering into a Voluntary Compliance Agreement. By the terms of the Agreement, which was entered on August 5, 2004, the DOC was to hire a full-time employee as the "Disability Rights Coordinator for Inmates." The Coordinator was to be responsible for assuring ADA compliance and was charged with investigating and resolving all inmate ADA complaints or requests for reasonable accommodations by disabled inmates. In addition to hiring an ADA coordinator, the DOC also agreed to appoint Disability Rights Facility Contact Persons at each jail facility. The DOC agreed to publish the names of those employees and to adopt and publish grievance procedures to be utilized by inmates regarding disability claims.

Monitoring of compliance was to be achieved by the submission of a yearly report to the DOJ of all actions taken by the Disability Rights Coordinator for Inmates. The Agreement was to last for three years from its effective date.

We have no information regarding actions taken after entry of the Agreement or whether the Agreement has been terminated.

Dan Dalton - 09/17/2007


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