New York City Department of Correction staff claimed that sick people held in the jails refused to go to medical appointments when those detainees didn’t even know the appointments had been scheduled, a legal filing alleges. The filing claims staff leaned on detainees to sign “medical refusal forms” or caused detainees to miss appointments because of lockdowns or searches that were later falsely recorded as “refusals." reports the New York Daily News. “We have strong evidence that numbers are being falsified,” said Alyssa Briody of Brooklyn Defenders. “Someone with DOC will ask them to sign a refusal form when there is no escort or the officer doesn’t want to take them. There is an inherent power imbalance. They don’t want to upset a correction officer."
The motion filed Thursday asks a Bronx judge to hold the city in contempt for failing to provide medical treatment to detainees and fine the city $250 per day per missed visit, which could total hundreds of thousands of dollars. The filing argues the city’s failure has caused people held in the jails to miss thousands of appointments since June 2022. Statistics cited in the case say that even after the city was previously held in contempt, detainees, weren’t brought to visits 11,696 times in April 2024 compared to 7,671 times in October 2021 As a result of missed visits, “ripple effects abound: delays and denials beget more infections, more maladies, and more pain, resulting in chronic illness, permanent disability, and, in some cases, death,” the legal papers allege. The motion is built around the affidavits of 34 inmates who allege that staff tried to pressure them into signing refusal of medical treatment forms even though they didn’t refuse treatment. The city has maintained the vast majority of missed appointments took place because detainees “refused” to go.
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