Simpson Thacher and NYCLU Secure Win in Suit Against the New York State DOCCS Over Release of Prison Staff Misconduct Records
10.09.24
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On October 7, 2024, Simpson Thacher and the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) secured a significant settlement in a lawsuit against the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS), with the DOCCS agreeing to turn over thousands of withheld corrections staff disciplinary records authorized to be disclosed following the repeal of Civil Rights Law § 50-a. Filed in 2023, the lawsuit claimed that DOCCS unlawfully denied in part NYCLU’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request seeking records relating to alleged misconduct by DOCCS’ corrections and parole officers. NYCLU submitted a FOIL request on October 16, 2020 seeking public records specifically authorized to be disclosed under state FOIL after New York’s repeal of Civil Rights Law § 50-a, a statute that had been used for decades to bar the disclosure of misconduct by law enforcement. With this recent settlement, the DOCCS has agreed to turn over records, including a database summarizing tens of thousands of investigations with officer names unredacted.
The Simpson Thacher team included Linton Mann III, Alison Sher, Nicole Palmadesso, Kelsey Vickery and Hayley McLaughlin.