(NEW YORK, NY) - The Legal Aid Society, Brooklyn Defender Services and Milbank LLP hail a court order which finds the New York City Department of Correction (DOC) in contempt for failing to follow a Bronx Supreme Court order issued in Agnew v. New York City Department of Correction requiring access to basic medical services.

The contempt order gives the City 30 days to demonstrate that it is no longer violating the Court’s order or face a $100 fine for each medical appointment missed from December 11, 2021 through January 2022 as well as the possibility of further sanctions. At $100 per incident for at least 1,909 documented failures to provide an escort to medical services during that December and January, the City would owe approximately $190,900 to the people affected by the jails’ broken medical care system. The Court also ordered DOC to pay attorneys’ fees and costs associated with bringing the contempt motion.

View the full press release here.