Attorneys seeking to win class certification for female prisoners who have been or fear being raped or sexually abused by corrections officers at Rikers Island have turned to a federal appeals court.

Plaintiffs lawyers have asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to overturn a lower court’s Jan. 4 decision denying certification, insisting the rape and sexual abuse of women by corrections officers at the Rose M. Singer Center at Rikers are best handled on a class-wide basis.