On May 19, 2015, former inmates at the all-female jail on Rikers Island filed this lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The plaintiffs sued New York City under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The plaintiffs, represented by Legal Aid and private attorneys, asked the court for declaratory and injunctive relief as well as compensatory and punitive damages. The plaintiffs claimed that the City of New York violated their rights of due process and free speech under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Specifically, the plaintiffs claimed that at the Rose M. Singer Center, the all-female jail on Rikers Island, the City of New York permitted corrections officers to sexually assault inmates and that inmates were allowed to be retaliated against when they reported the sexual assault to higher authorities.

On January 5, 2016, District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein released a summary order denying plaintiffs’ motion for class certification. He found that the class was not sufficiently ascertainable as proposed and that the plaintiffs lacked typicality and commonality in their claims. Judge Hellerstein was also concerned that granting class certification would make it more difficult for currently unknown victims to file a damages suit in the future. However, he ruled that the claims of the individual plaintiffs survived for both monetary and equitable relief.

On March 17, 2016, the plaintiffs appealed the district court’s order denying plaintiffs’ motion for class certification to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. After engaging in discovery, the parties reached a settlement agreement and stipulated to a dismissal of the case, which was approved by Judge Hellerstein on May 26, 2017. Due to the stipulation of dismissal, the appeal to the Second Circuit was withdrawn. The case is now closed.

Kat Brausch - 02/18/2016
Lisa Limb - 03/22/2019


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