Levy Konigsberg Partner Anna Kull was recently featured in an episode of Brutally Informed, a weekly podcast that takes a deep dive into current political and social issues.
As the featured guest for Episode 15 of the podcast series, Anna was interviewed by Hosts Rheya Spigner, Jared Marcelle, and Noah Jones about her work spearheading ongoing litigation over systemic staff-on-inmate sexual abuse in women’s jails and prisons across New York.
Listen to the full podcast featuring Partner Anna Kull here.
Anna leads our firm in representing a growing number of women who were sexually abused by guards and prison staff at correctional facilities across New York. She has filed numerous lawsuits against the City of New York, the NY State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS), and other responsible entities that failed to protect inmates, and has become a vocal advocate for survivors.
As discussed in the podcast, these lawsuits have been made possible by the NY Adult Survivors Act, a groundbreaking law that created a temporary one-year lookback window during which survivors of sexual abuse can file civil lawsuits against entities and institutions that failed to protect them – no matter how long ago the abuse occurred.
And while Anna and our team have filed claims on behalf of women who were abused at many New York women’s prisons, the podcast hones in on her work representing former inmates who were abused by guards at the Rose M. Singer Center (known as “Rosie’s”) on Riker’s Island, New York City’s largest jail.
In addition to profiling the experiences of two of Anna’s clients, the podcast also spoke with Anna about her experience litigating sexual abuse cases, the massive scope of abuse within New York’s women’s prisons, and how the Adult Survivors Act has played a critical role in giving so many survivors an opportunity to obtain justice. As she notes:
“It’s a vehicle for change. It’s a vehicle for justice. And in filing these cases, these women are sacrificing their privacy in the interest of justice. Many of them are willing to come forward and share what happened. I can say that many of my clients find a lot of resolve in simply having a voice and knowing that this is being taken seriously.”
Anna goes on to discuss how, despite already having hundreds of claims on her desk, she expects more victims to step forward before the temporary filing window created under the Adult Survivor’s Act closes later this year. As she notes:
“Once the window closes, however, any cases that were otherwise barred can no longer be filed. So it is that much more important to get this information out to the public so that women know that they have these rights and that adult survivors of all sexes know that they have until November 2023 to bring their cases.”
Anna Kull is a Partner at Levy Konigsberg. As Lead Attorney of our firm’s sexual abuse litigation team, she has championed the rights of survivors across the country in claims against the Catholic Church, Boy Scouts of America, public and private prison systems, and other powerful institutions. Her work representing women sexually abused in New York jails and prisons has also been profiled in the New York Daily News and the short documentary film, "A Chance for Justice: Life After Abuse in Prison."
