NYC Department of Correction - Strip Searches Class Action Settlement

Civil Rights · Claims Open

Current Status

Claims are open. A Claim Form must be submitted online or postmarked no later than November 26, 2026, and that same date is the deadline to exclude yourself or to object. The court has not yet decided whether to approve the settlement: a final approval hearing is scheduled for January 29, 2027 at 10:00 a.m. before Judge Colleen McMahon in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and no payment date has been announced. Filing does not depend on the Claim ID and PIN printed on the mailed notice — the claim portal carries a separate route for class members who do not have one.

What Changed Recently?

New York City has agreed to pay $28,000,000 to settle Lewis, et al. v. City of New York, et al., a civil rights class action filed in March 2023 over strip searches conducted at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse at 100 Centre Street. Notice went out to the class and the claim portal is live, with a filing deadline of November 26, 2026.

The complaint alleged that the City, the Department of Correction and the DOC Commissioner violated the Fourth Amendment and Article 1, Section 12 of the New York State Constitution by requiring people in custody to be strip searched on arrival at the Manhattan Court Division even though they had already been searched — by pat frisk, clothing search, metal detector, body scanner and a Body Orifice Screening System chair — before boarding a secured Department of Correction bus at Rikers Island. The plaintiffs alleged there was no legitimate penological interest in the second search and no reasonable suspicion that anyone was carrying weapons or contraband, and that the practice was not being applied at the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens or Staten Island courthouses.

The court did not rule for either side. The notice states that the plaintiffs negotiated the settlement with the defendants to avoid the risks and costs of continued litigation and the uncertainty of a trial, and that the class representatives and their attorneys believe it is the best outcome for the class. If the court denies final approval, the settlement is void and the case continues.

This is a separate case from the City's $21.5 million Central Booking settlement, which covers detention conditions rather than court-day searches and has its own class periods, claim form and October 19, 2026 deadline. Someone who was both held at Central Booking and strip searched at the Manhattan Court Division would need to file in each case separately.

The release in this settlement reaches only claims arising out of a strip search conducted by Department of Correction staff at the Manhattan Court Division during the class period. Other civil claims tied to New York City institutions run on their own tracks — the city's amended Gender-Motivated Violence Act, for instance, opened an 18-month lookback window for survivors of institutional sexual abuse, including abuse at city-run juvenile detention facilities, which closes July 29, 2027. That is a different law with different eligibility rules and a separate filing process.

Who Qualifies?

The class covers any individual in New York City Department of Correction custody who was strip searched on arrival at the Manhattan Court Division after having been strip searched before departing Rikers Island for court. Anyone who appears on the Class List — the agreed spreadsheet of class members, which records the dates each person was transported from Rikers to Manhattan Criminal Court and how many times — is presumptively a class member.

Two class periods apply, and which one covers you depends on how the Department of Correction classified you. For people classified as Enhanced Security, the class period runs from March 28, 2020 through February 29, 2024. For everyone else it runs from October 1, 2022 through February 29, 2024.