Kids LOCKED In Jail Cells Without Toilets

Empty rusty prison cell with a small window.

New York’s own child welfare agency stands accused of locking kids in filthy solitary cells without toilets for weeks, exposing the ugly legacy of blue-state “reform” that forgot the Constitution and basic human decency.

Story Snapshot

A new federal class-action lawsuit says New York’s child welfare agency kept kids, some as young as 12, in near-total solitary confinement for weeks or months.
Youth were allegedly denied toilets, education, family visits, and mental health care, forced to use buckets or trash cans for human waste.
Legal Aid and Jenner & Block say these practices violate the Constitution and the ADA and demand systemic reforms.
The case exposes how progressive New York talked “reform” while presiding over conditions many Americans would call barbaric.

Allegations of ‘Barbaric’ Solitary Confinement for Children

According to the federal complaint, New York’s Office of Children and Family Services, the agency trusted to “care” for court-involved youth, has instead operated secure facilities where children are locked alone in small cells for up to twenty-four hours a day. Youth as young as twelve are allegedly kept there not only for short discipline, but for weeks or even months, with doors rarely opening and basic services cut off during extended isolation.

NY kids kept in state solitary confinement for months without toilets, new suit claims: ‘Barbaric’ https://t.co/bzMU70UNIq pic.twitter.com/2vhPhw9z6C

— New York Post (@nypost) January 9, 2026

The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York by the Legal Aid Society and Jenner & Block, describes a system where solitary confinement is not a rare emergency measure but a routine management tool. Children report days on end with almost no out-of-cell time, no meaningful human contact, and no access to mandated schooling, recreation, or programming. The suit argues this is punishment first, rehabilitation last, and violates basic constitutional protections.

No Toilets, Buckets for Waste, and Denied Basic Dignity

Perhaps the most shocking allegations involve bathrooms. Many of the solitary cells reportedly have no toilets inside, leaving youth entirely dependent on staff to unlock doors. The complaint says staff frequently ignore or delay bathroom requests, forcing children to urinate or defecate in trash cans, buckets, or even on the floor. Trash bags of waste are sometimes left in the small rooms overnight or longer, creating what advocates call squalid, degrading conditions.

These accounts describe scenes that most Americans would expect from failed states, not from a wealthy state that boasts about “progressive” values. Youth in these facilities allege going hours without being allowed to use a proper bathroom, sitting with the smell of their own waste in cramped cells. For a conservative audience that believes government power must be strictly limited and accountable, the picture is chilling: a bureaucracy with absolute control over children’s bodies and no meaningful check on its daily decisions.

Disabled and Vulnerable Youth at the Center of the Lawsuit

The plaintiffs are not hardened adult criminals but teenagers and young adults in state custody, many with serious mental health and developmental disabilities. The suit says these youth are disproportionately Black and Brown and come from low-income communities, carrying trauma, learning challenges, and psychiatric diagnoses into facilities that answer their needs with isolation instead of treatment. Legal Aid argues that this violates the Americans with Disabilities Act and federal disability rights laws, not just correctional standards.

The complaint highlights specific youths held at secure centers like MacCormick, Industry, and Goshen. One teen diagnosed with ADHD and other behavioral disorders was allegedly singled out as “problematic” and cycled repeatedly through multi-day solitary, losing crucial educational and therapeutic services. Another, who had successfully engaged in restorative justice programming, reportedly spent seven consecutive days in isolation and endured unit-wide lockdowns that confined every youth regardless of individual behavior.

Progressive Reform Rhetoric Versus On-the-Ground Reality

The case lands in a state that has loudly advertised criminal justice reform for years. New York passed the HALT Solitary Confinement Act to restrict isolation in adult prisons and banned solitary for youth in adult facilities. Yet the lawsuit claims the child welfare system quietly kept using isolation under softer labels like “room confinement,” “lockdowns,” or “behavioral interventions,” creating what amounts to a shadow solitary regime for minors in OCFS custody despite the public rhetoric.

For conservatives who watched blue-state leaders moralize about “humane” justice while attacking border security and police, this gap between talk and practice is familiar. The same political class that condemned tough-on-crime policies now must explain why its own child welfare agency allegedly locked disabled kids in cells without toilets. The case underscores a core conservative warning: expansive government systems tend to protect themselves first, not the vulnerable people entrusted to their care.

Legal Battle Ahead and What It Means for Accountability

The class action is in its early stages, with no certified class and no injunction yet in place. OCFS leaders and facility superintendents are named in their official capacities, and the agency has so far offered little detailed public response. The plaintiffs seek declaratory and injunctive relief that would effectively ban solitary for these youth, require access to toilets, restore education and mental health services, and install stronger oversight so these practices cannot simply be renamed and restarted.

For Americans who value limited government and the rule of law, the stakes reach beyond one agency. If a powerful state like New York can sidestep its own reform laws and leave children in conditions described as barbaric, it reinforces the need for real transparency, parental involvement, and independent oversight. As the Trump administration in Washington focuses on enforcing the law and restoring order nationally, this New York lawsuit serves as a stark reminder: when progressive bureaucracy goes unchecked, it is often the smallest and weakest who pay the highest price.