Judge Orders Nassau County to Appoint Jail Oversight Board

A State Supreme Court justice has ordered Nassau County to comply with a 23-year-old unfulfilled charter mandate to establish an independent board charged with overseeing and reforming conditions at the Nassau County Correctional Center, where county officials have for years failed to meet their obligation to provide prisoners adequate medical and mental health care.

The ruling was issued late Wednesday in Marone v. Nassau County, a New York Civil Liberties Union lawsuit seeking to compel the county to fulfill its duty to appoint the Board of Visitors, an independent oversight committee that has never fully operated since being established in 1990. The County Charter authorizes the seven-member committee to respond to inmate grievances and advise the sheriff on programs that would improve the care and treatment of people housed at the jail.

“More than 20 years after Nassau County voters overwhelmingly approved this charter amendment, there will finally be much-needed oversight at the jail,” said Jason E. Starr, director of the NYCLU’s Nassau County Chapter. “Now it is up to County Executive Edward Mangano to follow the letter and the spirit of the charter mandate by appointing seven people to the Board of Visitors who possess the independence and expertise to effectively oversee the jail and who reflect our community’s diversity.”

The NYCLU filed the lawsuit in March 2012, weeks after Bartholomew Ryan, a 33-year-old Iraq War veteran, committed suicide while in custody at the jail. The state Commission of Correction recently released a report finding that the private company that manages medical care at the jail failed to adequately evaluate and treat Ryan.

Seven people have died while in custody at the jail since January 2010, including five suicides. State authorities have indicated that several of those deaths, including Ryan’s, were clearly preventable.

In recent years, the NYCLU has received hundreds of complaints from people incarcerated at the jail about the failure to provide necessary medication, the mistreatment of persons with disabilities and the utter lack of mental health services at the jail.

According to the County Charter, the Board of Visitors is to be composed of seven county residents who will serve three-year terms and have some “working knowledge of the correctional system.” The committee is required to have an office at the jail and access to jail records, books and data. Committee members would be appointed by the county executive and serve without compensation.

In a 17-page ruling, Acting-Justice James P. McCormack found that the County Charter unambiguously requires the county executive to appoint seven members to the Board of Visitors.

“The language of the Charter is unequivocal and it clearly directs the County Executive to fill the seven member Board of Visitors in a manner consistent with Nassau County Charter,” Justice McCormack wrote.

“We hope this ruling represents a turning point in the decades-long long saga of mistreatment and neglect at the jail,” said NYCLU Senior Staff Attorney Corey Stoughton, lead counsel on the case. “Strong, independent oversight can help end this troubling history and finally ensure that inmates receive the basic medical care they need.”