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The Federal Bureau of Prisons announced Saturday that work to restore food at a detention center in New York, where detainees are deprived of heat and electricity for a week, will be completed by on Monday. A congressman who visited the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on Saturday said officials were not taking the situation seriously enough.
"The detainees are very very angry and complain," said Nydia Velazquez, a Democrat whose district includes the prison. "We expressed our frustration to see the director not addressing this issue with a sense of urgency.
Velazquez first went to prison on Friday after learning that hundreds of inmates had spent the past week without heat, power, or ability. to communicate with their lawyers or their families.
After being denied access to detainees on Friday, Velazquez returned Saturday with fellow Democratic Congressmen, Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney, as well as legislators from cities and states, and this time The elected officials spoke with inmates.
"After visiting the MDC today, it is clear that local officials have disregarded the fundamental rights of detainees.This appalling situation needs to be corrected and I will continue to put pressure on the BOP to make sure that the situation is over. it takes immediate action, "said Velazquez on Twitter . ] Saturday.
The New York Times announced Friday that detainees in the detention center were stranded in their cells without light or heat since the last meeting. nd when an electric fire has cut off the power. Lawyers who had been able to speak to their clients at the prison said that some prisoners suffered from health problems due to lack of heat.
The Bureau of Prisons acknowledged in an e-mailed statement Saturday that the prison "had suffered a partial blackout due to a fire in the switch room." The office said a new electrical panel is being installed by an outside contractor and that work should be completed by Monday.
The office said that air temperatures in units "were within acceptable limits" on Saturday.
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Velazquez was not in agreement. She said legislators had measured the temperature at 49 degrees in some cells. "The heat is sporadic and uneven," she said.
Counsel for the Center's inmates, who are waiting for people awaiting trial or awaiting conviction for federal crimes, said that clients with health problems were suffering from cold cells without access. warm clothes or blankets.
Federal Defenders lawyers filed a petition on behalf of inmate Dino Sanchez in the Brooklyn Federal Court on Thursday, claiming that Sanchez, who was suffering from asthma, "was forced to freeze in his short-sleeved jumpsuit. ". the dark. "The court documents indicate that prison officials have taken no steps to provide Sanchez with" an oxygen mask, clothing, blankets or access to a livable place that would mitigate his risk to Health. "
Velazquez said he heard similar complaints from detainees on Saturday.
" This is a violation of human rights and health issues, but also an infringement of security of correctional officers, "said Velazquez." People are angry and will express this in every way possible. "
In addition to affecting the heat, the blackout cut off power to computers that inmates use to send e-mails to their families and their lawyers and to request refills of prescription drugs.Some inmates were able to speak to lawyers with federal advocates via a reserved line, may s the inmates represented by other lawyers were not able to call them.
"I have to know what's going on with my clients" the lawyer Ezra Spilke said Friday. "They are basically in the secret of their lawyers since the 27th, date of the electric fire."
Officials from the American Federation of Government Employees, the union representing correctional officers at the prison, confirmed the lawyers' reports on the conditions of detention.
"They are waiting for a disaster to happen," Prison employee Rhonda Barnwell, who works at the facility's medical center, told reporters on Friday. "There is only heat in the afternoon since we complained today."
Velazquez first went to prison on Friday and was not allowed to speak to the detainees even though she heard them. "The detainees were hitting the walls, the doors," she said. "It was surreal."
Conditions in the prison were condemned by human rights defenders.
"It's worse than the countries we denounce," Rev. Al Sharpton said at his weekly rally. "It's shameful and inexcusable."
Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement: "It is shocking that the government keeps people for days in a dark prison one of the most difficult weeks in the world. cold of our memory. "
Dozens of activists, including a fanfare, gathered in front of the prison on Saturday. One group promised to camp outside the school until the conditions improve.
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