Juvenile detention centers in New York are keeping children and young adults in solitary confinement for days or weeks at a time, a federal lawsuit filed Thursday alleges. The facilities lock the youth in small cells without sinks or toilets, often for upwards of 23 hours a day, forcing them to urinate and defecate in bottles, food containers, and garbage bins, according to the lawsuit.
The detention centers routinely use isolation both as punishment and when they’re understaffed, the youth allege. During the lockdowns, the incarcerated young people are often locked in rooms without access to telephones, media, recreational activities, or human contact. Some of the rooms have no windows.
“Anyone who has a child can envision the harmful effects of isolating a youth in a cell,” said Kate Wood, staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society, which filed the lawsuit with the law firm Jenner & Block. She said their clients describe “really losing themselves, drowning in anxiety and fear and total lack of mental stimulation.” Some have threatened suicide, Wood said…