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Three officers and a captain of the New York City Department of Correction were suspended without pay immediately, Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement on Friday. Thirteen other uniformed staff are facing disciplinary action but officials did not discuss their status.
“The death of Layleen Polanco was an incredibly painful moment for our city,” de Blasio said. “What happened to Layleen was absolutely unacceptable and it is critical that there is accountability.”
She had been arrested on misdemeanor charges of assault and harassment, court records show. She was taken into custody because she missed court dates as part of an alternative to incarceration program stemming from prostitution charges, according to court records.
She was sent to jail because she couldn’t afford the $500 bail, her family said.
Polanco was placed in what it called a restrictive housing unit at the Rose M. Singer Center on May 30, 2019, after she was adjudicated for an assault that injured another person in custody, the Department of Corrections said.
She was found unresponsive in her cell on June 7, 2019. When her autopsy was released, her family received records confirming that Polanco suffered multiple seizures while on Rikers Island, according to her family’s attorney, David Shanies.
But Clark said investigators found that corrections officers failed to follow the department’s policy to observe inmates in punitive segregation at least once every 15 minutes at irregular intervals.
“In this case, they allowed 47 minutes to pass between tours of Ms. Polanco’s cell. This violation was referred to DOC for appropriate administrative action,” Clark said.
The DOC describes the restrictive housing unit as a joint program with Correctional Health Services designed to “incentivize participation in mental health programs.” Residents of the unit receive up to seven hours a day outside of their cell for programming and services and entertainment.
CNN’s Elizabeth Hartfield contributed to this report.
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