The Department of Correction sent them upstate as a way to get around restrictions on the city’s use of solitary confinement, including a ban on it for inmates younger than 22, their suit alleges. At the jail 160 miles away, the men were subjected to what McMahon described as “a routine of torture.” They say they all endured similar beatings and sexual assaults at the hands of Albany correction officers. DOC staff was often allegedly present for the assaults.