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/<mailto:[log in to unmask]>[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 <https://www.nytimes.com/by/annie-correal>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, 
<https://twitter.com/NydiaVelazquez/status/1091493134347964417>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.