Paul, Weiss Files Lawsuit Seeking Release of Medical Parolee Still Confined Two Years After Being Granted Parole

Paul, Weiss and The Legal Aid Society filed an Article 78 proceeding in New York Supreme Court in Dutchess County against the state’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) and 12 of its officials on behalf of a pro bono client with end-stage heart failure who has remained incarcerated more than two years after he was granted both medical and regular parole.

Our client was granted medical parole in January 2020, but remains incarcerated in state prison purportedly because DOCCS has not identified a suitable discharge location. We allege that DOCCS’ failure to discharge our client is arbitrary and capricious and violates multiple state statutes and our client’s substantive due process rights, and seek a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against DOCCS’ continued incarceration of our client.

Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that despite owing our client affirmative obligations under the Correction Law and Executive Law, since granting our client parole, DOCCS and its officials have arbitrarily and capriciously refused to investigate potential discharge locations—even those provided by counsel—and rejected a potential location based on a non-statutory and unevenly applied internal policy that requires parolees to be housed in the county in which they were originally convicted, even though DOCCS routinely waives this policy for others and, in fact, previously waived it as to our client. The lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against DOCCS’ continued incarceration of our client.

The Paul, Weiss team has been led by litigation associate Daniel Negless with assistance from pro bono attorney Jeremy Benjamin. Litigation partner Elizabeth Sacksteder is supervising the matter.