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The inmates were held in cramped cells, without electricity and electricity. Icy cold. The ceiling vents were filled with clothes or cardboard to prevent cold air from entering. At 2 pm, the prison population had not yet been nurtured.
These were the conditions described Saturday by New York officials who had visited a federal prison in the waterfront Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where more than 1,600 inmates were largely confined to their cells dark and frozen for nearly a week, since an electrical fire partially cut off the prison's food, prompting the management to cancel the visits and place the inmates in jail .
"The situation is really, really, a nightmare. ", Said the representative Nydia M. Velázquez, a democrat whose neighborhood includes prison. "It's like living in a closet without light."
Officials, including Ms. Velázquez, who had initially been denied a full tour of the facility Friday night, stood on the prison stairs and have a crowd of a few hundred people gathered for a rally to ask the detainees to heat themselves and to have the right to contact their family and their lawyers.
Representative Jerrold Nadler, whose neighborhood includes neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Manhattan, denounced a "total lack of urgency and concern" from the director, Herman Quay, and the management of the jail. Inmates who needed electricity for sleep apnea risked a stroke, notes Nadler.
When Mr. Nadler announced that contract electricians had already left, it was unlikely that electricity would be restored over the weekend.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons issued a statement on Saturday night on behalf of the prison management, stating that a new electrical panel had been installed by an outside contractor that day and that strives to restore power as quickly as possible. "The work should be completed on Monday.
The statement continues:" Inmates have hot water for showers and hot water in the cell sinks. Personal hygiene items and essential medical services continue to be provided.
On Friday evening, a court order allowed Brooklyn's leading federal and public defender, Deirdre von Dornum, to visit the prison for four hours.
Since the authorities visited the prison on Saturday afternoon, protesters were outside, including psychiatric drugs. Many relatives of prisoners walked around the prison chanting, "Where is the guardian? Where is the heat? "
While the brass bands were playing outside, the inmates hammered the narrow windows of their cells, under their own form of protest.
Away from the crowd, several families honk and honk. signs with messages such as "Alfredo We Love You" look in the windows for a silhouette that might belong to a husband, father or boyfriend. information when they called the prison. They learned what was happening via Twitter and the news.
Paola Gomez, 28, said she had not been able to reach her boyfriend inside the prison since last Friday. When she called the prison, she was only told that the visiting hours had been canceled.
The wife of another inmate said that she could not send her a package containing blankets, even though she had sent him through a courier. third party provider. like Amazon.
The cells sit on the perimeter of the building, which allows the inmates to see in the surrounding streets but also contributes to the cold.
Elected officials said that prison officials rejected an offer from the city. provide emergency generators and emergency blankets. On Saturday night, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Twitter that the city was sending trucks with hundreds of blankets and handwarmers to the jail and that generators were on their way "whether they want it or not."
The statement from the Bureau of Prisons stated that the blankets provided by the city would be accepted.
Speaking through union representatives, facility workers explained that the lack of electricity and heat resulted from a perfect storm: the electrical panel failed Con Edison is supplied with electricity and, when it caught fire, the generator switch melted, thus preventing the building from passing to the generator.
In addition, the heating and cooling system was designed so that the hot water of the prison boilers is located near the outer walls and their coils freeze and break often when temperatures go down. under the freezing point, as was the case last month.
"The building has structural problems. "Said Ms. Velázquez.
The elected officials promised to push the prison management to ensure that the electricians work tirelessly to restore power. Ms. Velázquez stated that if the power was not restored, she would ask the judges to issue a court order asking the detainees to be transferred to another institution.
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