New York City inmates claim that city jails are violating an eight-year-old court order mandating access to education for incarcerated people under 22, The Intercept reports. In filings last week, the plaintiffs in a decades-long class-action suit against the city called for the appointment of a new court monitor to oversee implementation of the 2016 court order. “Not only is this a legal failing, but it’s a moral failing,” said Lauren Stephens-Davidowitz, a staff attorney with the Prisoners’ Rights Project at the Legal Aid Society, a public defense organization, which filed the motions last week.
The original 1996 suit claimed that the city Department of Correction and the Department of Education failed to provide education to young people entitled to public schooling. Plaintiffs are now alleging that the city has failed to comply with the subsequent 2016 federal court order requiring that incarcerated young people be given access to a minimum of three hours of educational services each day, with special-education services for people who need them.