Bronx County Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth A. Taylor on Friday set a one-week deadline for the New York City Department of Correction to show it was complying with an order to provide access to medical care for people in city jails as alarms sound about worsening conditions inside the facilities.

Milbank, The Legal Aid Society and Brooklyn Defender Services represent the plaintiffs in the suit and were designated class counsel as part of Taylor’s order. The class includes all current and future DOC inmates “who have been or will be denied access to medical care based on the [NYC DOC’s] failure to discharge its mandatory duties,” Taylor wrote.

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Brooke Menschel, Director of Civil Rights and Law Reform at Brooklyn Defender Services, said inmates’ advocates will “continue to turn to courts, elected officials, and policymakers” to hold DOC accountable until conditions improve.

“Thousands of people are suffering because the Department of Correction consistently fails to meet basic human needs and ensure health and safety for people in its custody,” Menschel said. “This is not only inhumane and morally wrong, it is illegal and the court agreed. Every day we hear from people in distress, in need of both emergency and routine medical care, and yet these calls for help regularly go unanswered. The results are devastation, suffering, and death.”

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