Solitary confinement
Isolation is legal in American jails and prisons, within limits. New York's HALT Act caps segregated confinement at 15 consecutive days and bars it outright for the young, the old, the pregnant and people with disabilities. New Jersey caps isolated confinement at 20 days. Beyond those statutes, the Constitution forbids punishing a person who has not been convicted and forbids deliberate indifference to a substantial risk of serious harm. This page goes through the limits, the claim, the grievance rule that comes first, and what families have recovered.
Sometimes. A short, documented stay in a disciplinary cell after a hearing is not a constitutional violation. Months alone, isolation used on a teenager or a person with serious mental illness, isolation with no hearing at all for someone who has not been convicted of anything, or a person left unwatched in a cell during a medical emergency: those are the facts that become cases.
In New York and New Jersey the legislature has drawn lines in days, and a facility that crosses them has broken a written rule. Everywhere, the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments apply, and the question becomes what staff knew about the risk to this person and what they did about it.
How it happens
- Days that turn into months. A disciplinary sentence to segregation ends on paper, and a new ticket starts the next one. The person never leaves the cell in between.
- Isolation under another name. The unit is called restrictive housing, protective custody, medical observation or a lockdown. The cell, the hours and the silence are the same.
- People the law says may not be there. A 19-year-old, a person with a diagnosed mental illness, a pregnant woman or a man of 60 is placed in segregation anyway.
- Pretrial punishment. A person who has been convicted of nothing is locked in for 23 hours a day as discipline, with no hearing and no written reason.
- Nobody checks the cell. Required rounds are skipped or logged without being done. A person with a known medical condition has an emergency behind a closed door and is found hours later.
- Care stops at the door. Medication, mental health visits, showers, recreation and phone calls to family are cut off once the person is moved to the unit.
The claim
The statutes: limits written in days
New York. The HALT Act caps segregated confinement at 15 consecutive days, or 20 days in any 60. It bars segregated confinement for people 21 and under, 55 and over, people with disabilities, and people who are pregnant or postpartum. Alternatives to segregation must provide at least seven hours out of the cell each day. It took effect on March 31, 2022 (N.Y. Correction Law § 137(6)).
New Jersey. Isolated confinement is limited to 20 consecutive days, or 30 days in any 60 (N.J.S.A. 30:4-82.5 et seq., P.L. 2019, c.160).
Those statutes set the standard the facility was required to meet. Whether either one gives an incarcerated person a direct lawsuit for money is not in this site's verified ledger, and we do not publish an answer. The damages claim described below is the constitutional one. A facility's violation of its own state's day limit is evidence in that claim: it shows what staff were told not to do. We have no verified Florida or Pennsylvania statute limiting isolation, so none is cited.
The Constitution
Before conviction. A person held before trial may not be punished at all (Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520 (1979)). A pretrial detainee sues under the Fourteenth Amendment, and in the Second Circuit the mental element is objective: the official knew or should have known of the risk (Darnell v. Pineiro, 849 F.3d 17 (2d Cir. 2017)).
After conviction. The Eighth Amendment applies. The official must know of and disregard a substantial risk of serious harm, which is a subjective test (Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825 (1994)). Deliberate indifference to serious medical needs violates the Eighth Amendment; negligence or malpractice does not (Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97 (1976)). Conditions count too: the Second Circuit held that overcrowding with extreme heat and cold and unsanitary conditions over 28 months stated an Eighth Amendment claim (Walker v. Schult, 717 F.3d 119 (2d Cir. 2013)).
Disability. Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act covers state prisons (Pennsylvania Dept. of Corrections v. Yeskey, 524 U.S. 206 (1998)); no qualified individual with a disability may be excluded from a public entity's programs or subjected to discrimination by one (42 U.S.C. § 12132). Isolating a person because of the symptoms of a mental illness raises that statute as well.
Rikers Island is under a federal court order
In Nunez v. City of New York, No. 11-cv-5845 (S.D.N.Y.), the City has been under a consent judgment since 2015. In November 2024 the court held the City in contempt on 18 provisions. A May 13, 2025 order created an independent Nunez Remediation Manager answerable to the court, and Nicholas Deml was formally appointed on February 17, 2026. The case is ongoing. A consent judgment of that kind is about how the jails are run; it is not an individual's damages claim. Its record is a public account of conditions in the City's jails.
What they will argue
First: you did not grieve it
"No action shall be brought with respect to prison conditions under section 1983 by a prisoner until such administrative remedies as are available are exhausted" (42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a)). There is no special circumstances exception, but the remedy must be actually available: a process that is a dead end, too opaque to use, or thwarted by officials does not count (Ross v. Blake, 578 U.S. 632 (2016)). File the grievance, appeal it to the top, and keep copies.
No physical injury. The same statute bars a prisoner's claim for mental or emotional injury without a prior showing of physical injury or a sexual act (42 U.S.C. § 1997e(e)). Isolation cases often involve both, and medical records from the period matter.
Security required it. The facility will say the placement was for safety, not punishment, and courts weigh that (Bell v. Wolfish). Logs, disciplinary tickets and hearing records show which it was.
Nobody knew. For a sentenced prisoner the defense is that no official actually knew of the risk (Farmer). Sick-call slips, grievances, letters from family and prior suicide-watch placements are how knowledge is proved. The suicide and self-harm page covers that situation.
Qualified immunity, and who can be sued. Individual officers raise qualified immunity (Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800 (1982)). A State and its agencies are not "persons" under Section 1983, so a state prison case is brought against officials in their personal capacity (Will v. Michigan Dep't of State Police, 491 U.S. 58 (1989)). A city or county jail can be sued directly, but only for its own policy or custom (Monell v. Dep't of Social Servs., 436 U.S. 658 (1978)). See the Monell page.
What people have recovered
The family of Kalief Browder
Held about three years at Rikers Island from the age of 16, about two of them in solitary confinement, on a charge that was dropped. He died by suicide in 2015.
Source: Prison Legal News. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
The family of Layleen Polanco
A transgender woman with epilepsy died in a Rikers Island restrictive housing cell in June 2019 after going unmonitored.
Source: NBC News. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
These are other people's cases, and both followed a death. What a case is worth depends on the injury, the evidence and the defenses; the what a case is worth page explains the factors, and the public settlements page lists every verified matter.
The clock
The grievance deadline inside the facility comes first and is the shortest. After that, the federal claim borrows each state's personal injury period and needs no notice of claim (Felder v. Casey, 487 U.S. 131 (1988)).
| State | Federal Section 1983 claim | State-law claim against the government |
|---|---|---|
| New York | Three years (Owens v. Okure, 488 U.S. 235 (1989); CPLR 214(5)) | City or county jail: notice of claim within 90 days (N.Y. Gen. Mun. Law § 50-e(1)(a)), suit within one year and 90 days (§ 50-i(1)). State prison: claim or notice of intention in the Court of Claims within 90 days (N.Y. Court of Claims Act § 10(3)) |
| New Jersey | Two years (N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2); the Civil Rights Act claim needs no tort notice (N.J.S.A. 10:6-2) | Tort Claims Act notice within 90 days, a six-month wait, suit within two years (N.J.S.A. 59:8-8) |
| Florida | Four years (Fla. Stat. § 95.11(3)) | Written claim to the agency, and for a state agency to the Department of Financial Services, within three years (two for wrongful death), then a six-month wait (Fla. Stat. § 768.28(6)) |
| Pennsylvania | Two years (42 Pa.C.S. § 5524; Kach v. Hose, 589 F.3d 626 (3d Cir. 2009)) | Written notice within six months, and to the Attorney General for a Commonwealth agency (42 Pa.C.S. § 5522(a)) |
Where the person died, a New York wrongful death claim runs two years from the death (N.Y. EPTL § 5-4.1), and the 90-day notice runs from the appointment of the estate's representative (N.Y. Gen. Mun. Law § 50-e(1)(a)). The death in custody page covers those cases.
If a criminal charge is still open, talk to the defense lawyer before describing anything about the arrest or the jail to anyone, and read the criminal case and civil case page. The New York, New Jersey, Florida and Pennsylvania pages go through each state's rules.
Jail and prison abuse
Force by officers, conditions, and the grievance rule that decides whether a case can be filed.
Jail and prison abuse →Suicide and self-harm
What staff knew, what they did, and what the law requires when a person in custody is at risk.
Suicide and self-harm in custody →Care that never came
Deliberate indifference to serious medical needs, for detainees and sentenced prisoners.
Denial of medical care →Common questions
Is solitary confinement illegal in New York?
Not entirely. Under the HALT Act, in effect since March 31, 2022, segregated confinement is capped at 15 consecutive days, or 20 days in any 60. It is barred altogether for people 21 and under, 55 and over, people with disabilities, and people who are pregnant or postpartum. Alternatives to segregation must give at least seven hours out of the cell each day.
My son is in the box right now. What should we do first?
Write down the date it started and the unit he is in, and ask him to file a grievance and keep a copy. Federal law requires a prisoner to use the available grievance process before suing about conditions. If he has a disability, a mental illness or is under 22, say so in writing to the facility, because New York law bars segregated confinement for those groups. Then call a lawyer.
Do we have to file a grievance before suing?
A person who is still incarcerated does. The Prison Litigation Reform Act says no action about prison conditions may be brought by a prisoner until available administrative remedies are exhausted. The Supreme Court allows no special exceptions, but a remedy that is a dead end, that nobody can understand, or that officials block is not available. Ask for the facility's grievance deadline on day one and meet it.
How long do we have to sue?
For the federal claim: three years in New York, two in New Jersey, four in Florida and two in Pennsylvania. A state-law claim against New York City needs a notice of claim within 90 days, and a claim against the State of New York goes to the Court of Claims within 90 days. The deadline tool counts each from your date.
Tell us what happened.
One conversation with an attorney, in your language. We tell you which claims the facts support, which deadline runs first for the agency involved, what evidence to preserve this week, and whether a pending criminal case changes the timing. If it is not a case we can take, we say so and tell you where to go.
(718) 484-7510If a criminal charge is still open, talk to your defense lawyer before you describe the arrest to anyone, including us. English, Russian and Spanish in-house; an interpreter for any other language. Contingency fee, confirmed in writing before we begin.