OUTRAGEOUS & DANGEROUS situation. Federal prison inmates are freezing
without heat in 2 degrees F. weather!
Call the warden, Herman Quay
The phone no is 718-840-4200 (I hit "0" after the machine
and got a very curt answer saying go to
www.bop.gov
The email address is:
<BRO/
[log in to unmask]>
Fax: 718-840-5005
The phone in Washington DC for federal bureau of prisons is (202)
307-3198
I called as media -- there are many other options
the machine said MEDIA should email
email: <[log in to unmask]>
there are other email addresses too ...
The warden blames Con Ed, Con Ed says it's the prison's fault, and
meanwhile the prisoners are suffering greatly. Prisoners and guards say
that there is NO HEAT in the prison in below freezing temperatures, and
NO ELECTRICITY. And it's been that way all week.
Let's flood them with calls, faxes, emails so that they treat people with
respect, and save people's lives. (yes, it's that serious!)
Prisoners should be transferred to other facilities, or taken to the
hospital, or in my view simply released.
ALSO, PLEASE CALL YOUR CONGRESSIONAL
REPRESENTATIVES
AND, USE TWITTER!!
- Mitchel Cohen
Brooklyn Greens/Green Party
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/01/nyregion/mdc-brooklyn-jail-heat.html
No Heat for Days at a Jail in Brooklyn Where Hundreds of
Inmates Are Sick and ‘Frantic’
By
Annie Correal
Feb. 1, 2019
More than a thousand inmates have been stuck in freezing cells at a
federal jail on the Brooklyn waterfront that has had limited power and
heat for at least this week, according to federal public defenders and
leaders of the union representing the jail’s corrections
officers.
“They just stay huddled up in the bed,” said June Bencebi, a case manager
at the jail and the treasurer of the local chapter of the American
Federation of Government Employees, which represents about 500
corrections officers at the jail.
The jail, the Metropolitan Detention Center, houses more than 1,600
inmates and lies in an industrial swath near the waterfront in Sunset
Park, Brooklyn. Some inmates are linked to high-profile drug trafficking
and terrorism cases, while others are comparatively anonymous New Yorkers
awaiting trial.
The accounts of conditions at the jail were described to The New York
Times by six lawyers and paralegals with local Federal Defenders offices,
who had spoken with around three dozen inmates at M.D.C.; two union
leaders; and an employee at the jail who was not authorized to speak
publicly.
A spokeswoman for Herman Quay, the jail’s warden, said in an email that
the building experienced a partial power outage on Saturday but denied
that it had affected heat and hot water in the jail’s housing
units.
In an emailed statement, the federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed that the
jail was “experiencing a partial power outage” and operating on emergency
power. “Cells have heat and hot water, there is lighting in the common
areas and inmates are receiving hot meals,” the agency said.
The Bureau of Prisons indicated that the electrical failure was related
to Con Edison, which it said had been “dealing with numerous power
emergencies in the community.”
A spokesman for the utility, Robert McGee, disputed the characterization
and said Con Edison had not had problems in New York during the cold
spell. “It’s an internal problem, and their electricians will have to fix
it,” Mr. McGee said. “End of story.”
Union leaders and defense lawyers also rebutted the account of the jail’s
warden and the Bureau of Prisons.
Federal defenders said they were flooded with calls from inmates this
week as temperatures began to drop. “Our phone was ringing off the hook,”
said the lead federal defender in Brooklyn, Deirdre von Dornum. She said
inmates, using a dedicated line that connects the jail to federal
defenders offices, had gathered around the telephones on their floors to
report poor heating, little to no hot water and no lights in their
cells.
On Thursday, Rachel Bass, a paralegal at the Brooklyn office of the
federal defenders, said that she had fielded calls from about 15 inmates.
“In the past hour I have gotten 11 calls,” she said. “People are frantic.
They’re really, really scared. They don’t have extra blankets. They don’t
have access to the commissary to buy an extra sweatshirt.”
She said many inmates complained of congestion and sore throats.
The president of the local chapter of the union, Anthony Sanon, said the
problems began around Jan. 5 when the jail first lost power. The heating
issues began last week, leaving inmates and staff to face freezing
weather for the first time. “We didn’t have heat in the building, we
didn’t have light,” Mr. Sanon said. “The weather was actually
unbearable.”
The heat and power issues were unrelated, according to union leaders who
spoke to facilities workers. The heating issues began when units that
draw water up from the boilers froze. The workers said that the heat was
on, but several units had been disabled.
The electrical problems originated in an electrical panel that blew out
last month, the union leaders said. Although the panel was initially
repaired, it caught fire on Sunday.
The jail switched over to emergency power, leaving the corridors lit only
by dim lights, the cells dark and inmates confined to poorly heated cells
during the coldest days of the winter so far. This week, the temperature
plummeted to 2 degrees in New York City, as frigid weather swept over the
Midwest and Northeast.
“The heat isn’t coming out properly,” Mr. Sanon said.
One inmate told a federal defender that a corrections officer had taken
the temperature in a housing unit, which was warmer than the cells, and
it was 34 degrees.
New York City’s Fire Department confirmed that it responded to a small
electrical fire in the jail’s control room on Sunday.
But the warden’s spokesperson, who signed the name V. Logan, said in the
email the power outage had “minimally impacted” housing units.
“All housing units have functional lighting,” the email said. “Heat and
hot water has not been impacted. Likewise, inmate meals are not impacted;
inmates are receiving regularly scheduled hot meals each day.”
Taken together, the accounts of nearly three dozen inmates given to
federal defenders painted a different picture of conditions inside the
jail.
Heat was the main complaint. The heat was spotty to nonexistent,
depending on the floor. Hot water was scarce. Hot food had not been
served for several days, with canned food handed out cell by cell. One
inmate, who kept kosher, said he had only been given canned
sardines.
The inmates were promised extra blankets, but they never came. The
commissary, because of the limited electricity, was closed.
“All said they were wearing whatever they could to stay warm,” said Randi
Chavis, a federal defender in the Central Islip, N.Y., office who spoke
to several people. “Extra pairs of socks, towels wrapped around their
heads, durags, thermals if they have them.”
The conditions were aggravated by the lack of electrical power, inmates
told the lawyers and paralegals. The jail had abandoned its usual
routines, with inmates kept on partial lockdown for safety
reasons.
Because power outlets were not working, the inmates could not use the
computers that usually allow them to communicate with relatives and place
requests for prescription refills.
“One man takes anti-seizure medication which he is allowed to keep with
him,” Ms. Chavis said. “He takes two pills a day and is down to his last
three pills.”
Legal visits and family visits had been canceled since Sunday, the
lawyers said.
The recent events come on the heels of the government shutdown, which
impeded the ability of lawyers to visit their clients in federal jails,
including at M.D.C. It did not immediately appear that the power and heat
issues were related to the shutdown.
On Thursday, the federal defenders filed an emergency motion to remove
from the jail an inmate whose asthma had worsened from the cold. The
inmate, Dino Sanchez, a Brooklyn man in his 40s, had recently entered the
jail, a federal defender, Benjamin Yaster, said.
Mr. Yaster said in an interview that his client had been among those left
in a dark cell, illuminated only by sunlight from the windows, virtually
around the clock. “The population was kept in their cells for 23 hours,”
he said. “He’s stuck in these cold conditions in a short sleeved jumpsuit
and a short sleeved undershirt.”
“He feels short of breath and is wheezing and coughing more than he
normally would,” said Mr. Yaster.
The federal defenders initially requested that the M.D.C. management
provide backup heating or more blankets. They later requested that
inmates be moved to an adjacent building, now empty but for a few dozen
female inmates.
They said they received no response. “Not only have the conditions been
disgraceful but we have peppered them with questions and we get nothing
but silence,” said David E. Patton, head of the federal defender office.
The office represents thousands of indigent defendants.
“They might say, ‘an incident occurred,’ or ‘visiting is canceled’ but
when we follow-up to ask if people have heat, hot water, or adequate
access to their families or attorneys, they stonewall us,” Mr. Patton
said.
The building next door, also run by the jail, has full power and
heat.
Mr. Sanon, the labor union leader, said he contacted the warden beginning
early last week and toured the jail with him. He was assured heat would
be monitored. “To no avail,” he said on Thursday.
“This morning again I got a call,” he added. “It was freezing.”
Ms. Bencebi, the union treasurer, said she was particularly concerned for
older inmates. “I have several inmates that are very elderly,” she said.
“One of them complained that he’s been sick for the last few days. He
looks sickly. He’s walking slower. Talking slower.”
On Friday, local elected officials reacted to news reports of the
conditions inside the jail. Brad Lander, a Brooklyn Democratic
councilman, said on Twitter, “The freezing prisoners at the Metropolitan
Detention Center in Sunset Park are banging out SOS for all of us to
hear.”
Representative Nydia M. Velázquez visited the jail on Friday,
writing on Twitter that there was some restored heat in the facility,
along with hot water and hot meals.
But she said she was continuing to watch the situation closely: “Still
not at full capacity. Still cold & dark.”
---------------------------------------------
Joseph Goldstein contributed reporting.
A version of this article appears in print on Feb. 2, 2019, on Page A21
of the New York edition with the headline: ‘Frantic’ Inmates in Brooklyn
Jail Complain of No Heat for Days in Deep Freeze.