NYCLU sues over conditions at Nassau jail

A civil rights group is suing Nassau County over the lack of an oversight panel for the East Meadow jail, where five inmates have committed suicide in the past two years.

The New York Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit Wednesday in state Supreme Court in Mineola.

The suit contends the current county charter, adopted in 1990, requires the county executive to appoint a seven-member independent board of visitors to respond to inmate grievances and advise the sheriff. That action has never been taken.

The NYCLU filed the suit several months after its Nassau chapter director, Samantha Fredrickson, alerted county officials to the charter provision.

"We have no choice but to ask the court to compel the county to take this initial step toward finally treating people housed at the jail with basic human dignity," the NYCLU said in a statement.

County Executive Edward Mangano's office did not respond to a request for comment.

Sheriff's department counsel Elizabeth Loconsolo said a local oversight board would duplicate the efforts of the New York State Commission of Correction.

"It may be that the board of visitors was never constituted as it would just create additional, duplicative work and constitute an unwarranted burden on limited county resources," she said in a statement.

Loconsolo said the county will respond to specific allegations raised in the suit "through the legal process."

The suit follows a $22 million wrongful death claim filed earlier this month by the Seaford mother of an Iraq War veteran, Bartholomew Ryan, who hanged himself in the jail in February while facing DWI charges.

The state cited the jail last year for violations of minimum standards, including unsanitary conditions and over-reliance on solitary confinement.

State Commission of Correction officials said some citations, including the overuse of inmate segregation and unsanitary conditions, were lifted after jail officials made changes.

The lawsuit includes allegations that inmates have not been getting proper medical care from the jail's private medical firm, Armor Correctional Health Service of Miami. Armor took over in June from Nassau University Medical Center.

A public relations agency for Armor issued a statement Wednesday that referenced Ryan's death.

"We have been . . . working closely with the sheriff's office to fully investigate this tragic incident," the statement said.