Skip to content Skip to search

Republish This Story

* Please read before republishing *

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license as long as you follow our republishing guidelines, which require that you credit The 19th and retain our pixel. See our full guidelines for more information.

To republish, simply copy the HTML at right, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to The 19th. Have questions? Please email [email protected].

— The Editors

Loading...

Modal Gallery

/
Sign up for our newsletter

Menu

  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships
    • From the Collection

      Changing Child Care

      Illustration of a woman feeding a baby a bottle
      • Washington, D.C., offers financial relief to local child care workers

        Orion Rummler · September 20
      • As climate change worsens hurricane season in Louisiana, doulas are ensuring parents can safely feed their babies

        Jessica Kutz · May 5
      • Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito argued abortion isn’t an economic issue. But is that true?

        Chabeli Carrazana · May 4
    • From the Collection

      Next-Gen GOP

      Illustration of a woman riding an elephant
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • A banner year for Republican women

        Amanda Becker · November 11
      • Republican women could double representation in the U.S. House

        Amanda Becker · November 4
    • From the Collection

      On The Rise

      Illustration of three women marching
      • Can Cheri Beasley build a winning coalition in North Carolina?

        Candice Norwood · October 11
      • Los Angeles has never elected a woman mayor. Karen Bass hopes to change that.

        Nadra Nittle · September 8
      • Judge J. Michelle Childs is confirmed to D.C. appeals court

        Candice Norwood · July 20
    • From the Collection

      Pandemic Within a Pandemic

      Illustration of four people marching for Black Lives Matter with coronavirus as the backdrop
      • The 19th Explains: Why the nursing shortage isn’t going away anytime soon

        Mariel Padilla · September 23
      • Some LGBTQ+ people worry that the COVID-19 vaccine will affect HIV medication. It won’t.

        Orion Rummler · November 23
      • Why are more men dying from COVID? It’s a complicated story of nature vs. nurture, researchers say

        Mariel Padilla · September 22
    • From the Collection

      Portraits of a Pandemic

      Illustration of a woman wearing a mask and holding up the coronavirus
      • For family caregivers, COVID is a mental health crisis in the making

        Shefali Luthra · October 8
      • A new database tracks COVID-19’s effects on sex and gender

        Shefali Luthra · September 15
      • Pregnant in a pandemic: The 'perfect storm for a crisis'

        Shefali Luthra · August 25
    • From the Collection

      The 19th Explains

      People walking from many articles to one article where they can get the context they need on an issue.
      • The 19th Explains: What we know about Brittney Griner’s case and what it took to get her home

        Candice Norwood, Katherine Gilyard · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why the Respect for Marriage Act doesn’t codify same-sex marriage rights

        Kate Sosin · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why baby formula is still hard to find months after the shortage

        Mariel Padilla · December 1
    • From the Collection

      The Electability Myth

      Illustration of three women speaking at podiums
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • Stepping in after tragedy: How political wives became widow lawmakers

        Mariel Padilla · May 24
      • Do term limits help women candidates? New York could be a new testing ground

        Barbara Rodriguez · January 11
    • From the Collection

      The Impact of Aging

      A number of older people walking down a path of information.
      • From ballroom dancing to bloodshed, the older AAPI community grapples with gun control

        Nadra Nittle, Mariel Padilla · January 27
      • 'I'm planning on working until the day I die': Older women voters are worried about the future

        Mariel Padilla · June 3
      • Climate change is forcing care workers to act as first responders

        Jessica Kutz · May 31
    • From the Collection

      Voting Rights

      A series of hands reaching for ballots.
      • Election workers believe in our system — and want everyone else to, too

        Barbara Rodriguez, Jennifer Gerson · November 8
      • Voter ID laws stand between transgender people, women and the ballot box

        Barbara Rodriguez · October 14
      • Emily’s List expands focus on diverse candidates and voting rights ahead of midterm elections

        Errin Haines · August 30

    View all collections

  • Explore by Topic

    • 19th Polling
    • Abortion
    • Business & Economy
    • Caregiving
    • Coronavirus
    • Education
    • Election 2020
    • Election 2022
    • Environment & Climate
    • Health
    • Immigration
    • Inside The 19th
    • Justice
    • LGBTQ+
    • Politics
    • Press Release
    • Race
    • Sports
    • Technology

    View All Topics

Home
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships

We’re an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. Read our story.

The 19th News(letter)

News from reporters who represent you and your communities.

You have been subscribed!

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

Become a member

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

A woman speaking at a protest.
“I am extremely pissed off with this situation,” said Polanco's sister, Melania Brown. “Solitary confinement is no place for no human. They're already incarcerated, and they're already doing their time. It's bizarre to me. It's crazy to me that you lock somebody up on top of them already being locked up.” (Photo by Cole Witter)

Justice

After a transgender woman’s death, NYC vowed to end solitary confinement. Nothing has changed.

Layleen Cubilette-Polanco’s death spurred widespread calls for reform. Her family says those promises have been broken. 

Kate Sosin

LGBTQ+ reporter

Kate Sosin portrait

Published

2021-01-14 15:17
3:17
January 14, 2021
pm

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

The video footage showing the last hours of Layleen Xtravaganza Cubilette-Polanco’s life changed everything. 

On June 7, 2019, Cubilette-Polanco suffered a seizure in solitary confinement at Rikers Island jail and died. Video footage obtained by her family’s lawyers revealed that guards, who were required to check on her every 15 minutes, tried to wake her by knocking on her door for approximately an hour and a half before opening her cell and calling for medical backup. Officers are seen laughing outside her cell moments before entering to find her unresponsive. 

Cubilette-Polanco’s death and the revelations from the footage outside her cell spurred nationwide calls for change, ultimately leading to a settlement with her family, punishment for staff and the promise of reforms. Among them was a promise to end solitary confinement in New York City jails. 

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

But four months after the city’s self-imposed deadline to end solitary confinement, the Board of Corrections that oversees city jails has yet to present a plan to the public. A working group told NBC News in June it would unveil a plan to halt the practice in September 2020 and vote on it by the end of October. 

Cubilette-Polanco’s sister, Melania Brown, says no one from the city has reached out to her to explain why. 

“I am extremely pissed off with this situation,” Brown said. “Solitary confinement is no place for no human. They’re already incarcerated, and they’re already doing their time. It’s bizarre to me. It’s crazy to me that you lock somebody up on top of them already being locked up.” 

Board of Corrections officials declined multiple interview requests from The 19th. But in a statement, Executive Director Meg Egan said the board has submitted a proposed rule to the city’s law department that replaces solitary confinement with a model that “prioritizes safety” and “transparency.”

A photo of Layleen Polanco.
Layleen Xtravaganza Cubilette-Polanco (Photo courtesy of The Polanco Family)

“Our hope is to quickly resolve any issues, receive certification from the Law Department, and start hearing from the public,” Egan said. “This process has taken longer than anyone desired, but we believe the final rule will reflect a shared desire to transform restrictive housing in the New York City jail system.”

The Board of Corrections, charged with independently overseeing the city’s jails, has argued that putting together a plan for ending solitary requires time to get buy-in from officers and ensure the safety of staff and those incarcerated.

Advocates, however, say that plan lacked accountability metrics and that the Board has repeatedly blown past its deadlines. 

“It infuriates me because the people who have the power to stop this abuse and commit to ending it have not done anything,” said Anisah Sabur, an organizer with the #HaltSolitary campaign in New York. 

With no updates from the Board of Corrections, members of the New York City Council introduced a bill that would ban the practice in November. 

Stories by experienced reporters you can trust and relate to.

Delivered directly to your inbox every weekday.

You have been subscribed!

Submitting…

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

Sabur and other advocates presented the Board of Corrections with their own 19-page plan for ending solitary in October 2019 that they say answers safety concerns. That plan would require every person in jail to be granted at least 14 hours outside a cell a day and that confinement be used as a last resort for safety reasons for hours instead of days. 

“How do you address the issue when someone is having a bad day?” Sabur asked. “Do you really take them and put them in a box alone for 23, sometimes 24, hours a day, for days, weeks, months, years and leave them there?”

Sabur was incarcerated at Rikers Island in 1989 on a drug charge and was placed in solitary confinement less than a week later for fighting. Within three days in solitary, she said, her mental health had severely deteriorated. 

“I started to talk to dead people and think that it was my time to die, really thinking about ways that I could just end it, because I felt like I was never getting out of jail, but on top of that I was never getting out of solitary,” she said

LGBTQ+ advocates say the death of Cubilette-Polanco, a transgender woman, highlights the ways that the criminal legal system fails transgender women of color in particular, who face staggering rates of employment discrimination and often wind up trapped in the prison system. 

The Afro-Latinx woman was 27 when she was sent to Rikers after failing to make $501 bail dating back to 2017 prostitution charge. An internal investigation by the Board of Corrections last year revealed that in the days leading up to her death, she was hospitalized after showing “radical changes in behavior” and deteriorating mental health. During that time, Cubilette-Polanco reportedly charged at a guard. 

Due to safety concerns stemming from the guard incident, staff recommended Cubilette-Polanco be sent to solitary confinement. But a jail psychiatrist refused to sign off on the transfer, noting that Cubilette-Polanco had a “seizure disorder.” The report states that staff found another physician to authorize the move. 

It infuriates me because the people who have the power to stop this abuse and commit to ending it have not done anything.

Anisa Sabur

Days after the video footage of the officers outside her cell was released, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city was ending solitary confinement, calling Cubilette-Polanco’s death a tragedy and recommitting to previous promises to close Rikers Island. De Blasio’s office, asked repeatedly to comment for this article, deferred questions to the New York City Department of Corrections. 

In August 2020, the city agreed to pay $5.9 million to Cubilette-Polanco’s family in a settlement for their wrongful death claim, the largest for a death in Rikers Island history. 

Still, Brown said that without an end to the practice of solitary, there is not justice for her sister. 

“That’s the last place my sister took her last breath,” Brown said. “That will be the beginning of justice for my sister, not even the full, but it will mean a lot. I will feel like a weight has lifted off my shoulders. I will feel like my sister didn’t die in vain, but that her death will protect many others and save many other lives.”

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Help sustain what we started

Your monthly investment is critical to our sustainability as a nonprofit newsroom.

Donate Today

Become a member

Up Next

Justice

19 Minutes with The 19th: Behind our reporting on Lisa Montgomery’s execution

Join us on Instagram Live Friday, January 15 at 5 p.m. CT. Hear from general assignment reporter Ko Bragg who will talk about her reporting on Lisa Montgomery, the first woman to be executed by the federal government since 1953.

Read the Story

The 19th
The 19th is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Our stories are free to republish in accordance with these guidelines.

  • Donate
  • Newsletter
  • Events
  • Search
  • Jobs
  • Fellowships
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Community Guidelines
  • Membership
  • Membership FAQ
  • Major Gifts
  • Sponsorship
  • Privacy
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram