Layleen Polanco died alone in a Rikers cell
An Afro-Latina trans woman with epilepsy was put in solitary at Rikers in 2019 and died there. No one was charged.
Layleen Xtravaganza Cubilette-Polanco was 27, an Afro-Latina transgender woman and a member of New York's ballroom House of Xtravaganza. On June 7, 2019, she was found dead in a solitary confinement cell on Rikers Island.
She was in jail for one reason: she could not make bail set at $500, tied to charges connected to sex work and a prior case. She had epilepsy, too, a condition the Department of Correction knew about and one that had already produced seizures during her time in custody.
None of that kept her out of punitive segregation, where she was sent to serve a disciplinary penalty. Reporting on the case found that a psychiatrist reviewing her history declined to clear her for solitary because of her seizure disorder. A medical doctor cleared the placement anyway, and she was moved into the unit.
The city medical examiner ruled her cause of death sudden unexpected death in epilepsy. She had a seizure, alone, in her cell. A city oversight review found that jail staff failed to check on her as required, for stretches far longer than the unit's rules allowed, and that the response when she was finally found came too late to save her.
The Bronx District Attorney, Darcel Clark, opened an investigation. After roughly six months, her office declined to bring criminal charges against any of the officers or medical staff involved. No one was prosecuted for Polanco's death.
The Department of Correction handled it internally instead. Seventeen officers faced disciplinary action, and several, including a captain, were suspended without pay. Discipline inside an agency is not a criminal charge, and Polanco's family and advocates said the absence of any prosecution meant no one had been held legally accountable.
In 2020, the city settled a federal lawsuit brought by Polanco's family for $5.9 million. Advocates described it as the largest known settlement for a death in custody in the city at that time.
The facts that make the case damning are not in dispute. Polanco had a known, documented seizure disorder. A psychiatrist flagged that solitary was unsafe for her. She was placed there anyway, had a seizure, and was not monitored closely enough for anyone to reach her in time. She died alone.
Her death moved policy. New York City officials cited the case in their push to end punitive solitary confinement in city jails, and her name became central to the organizing against the practice and against conditions on Rikers Island.
Polanco was jailed because she lacked $500. She died because she was put in solitary against medical caution and left unwatched. Both facts are established.