While there, he filed a writ of habeas corpus seeking his release.
The courts in New York rejected him, as did the Supreme Court, without comment. But Judge Sotomayor issued a statement saying that “the New York City residency ban raises serious constitutional concerns as applied to New York City.”
Mr. Ortiz was released in 2018 when a bed opened up in the New York City shelter system on Wards Island, located far enough from schools to comply with New York law.
When the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, ruled against him in 2020, he said his release did not make his case moot because the case presented “significant and new issues that are likely to recur.”
Indeed, according to court documents in Mr. Ortiz’s case, about 250 people in New York remain incarcerated each year after they have earned their release. This creates a “cruel catch-22” for people classified as sex offenders, Allison Frankel wrote in 2019 on The Yale Law Journal forum, because corrections officers “won’t let them out of jail until they get approved housing.” but their poverty, disability, and sex offender registration status made it impossible to find housing.”
Even people with money, connections, time and mobility find it difficult to find housing in New York. It is almost impossible to do this from a prison cell, writes Ms. Frankel, who represents the interests of the people who tried to do it.
“While their loved ones can sometimes help find housing,” she wrote, “often our client families have limited English language skills, computer literacy, financial resources, knowledge of the housing market, and free time from work to search for housing.”
Judge Sotomayor wrote that states have a strong interest in protecting children from sexual abuse, but it is not clear whether New York law is furthering that interest.