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The crisis in a troubled federal prison in Brooklyn drew the attention of more than half A dozen judges, one of whom planned to visit the prison on Tuesday to investigate complaints of frost and blackness following a failure of the heating system and a power failure in the establishment.
Another judge ordered the prison, known as the Metropolitan Detention Center, to allow detainees to begin meeting with their lawyers. The legal visits were canceled last week, arguing that the constitutional rights of detainees to benefit from counseling were violated.
At least four other federal judges, in Brooklyn and Manhattan, reportedly convened hearings to consider complaints about the deterioration of the conditions of detention at the Court. the prison, which contains more than 1,600 federal inmates, most of whom are awaiting trial and have not yet been convicted of a crime.
The judges are concerned after reports that detainees were locked up in dark, icy cells huddling under blankets in the jail along the waterfront at Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
Heating problems began at the end of January, when freezing temperatures led to the failure of some parts of the heating system, according to officers of the correctional officers' union. 19659007] Feeding problems, which began earlier in the month, resulted in an electric fire on January 27 that put the facility under "emergency food". For a week, detainees were placed in partial isolation, with no access to the phones or computers they use to request medications, according to federal advocates, who began receiving calls from their clients in jail.
After the publication of news describing the conditions of detention, the federal defenders and their elected officials asked to visit the premises. installation and protesters set up camp outside. On Sunday, protesters who attempted to storm the prison were repulsed and claimed that they had been sprayed with pepper. The Prisons Office did not confirm whether pepper spray had been used on the protesters. There was no arrest.
The current was restored Sunday night and federal officials said Monday that the heat was working. But there were differences of opinion as to whether all prisoners had access to heat.
On Monday, the United States Department of Justice released a statement in which he stated that he would intervene to "review what was happening" in prison and ensure that the Electricity would not happen again.
Some legal visits resumed Monday, but quickly ended in the middle of the morning after police announced that a prison staff member had received a bomb threat. The authorities assessed the threat and the prison returned to "normal" activities, according to a statement from the Prisons Office.
The growing crisis over the prison has also become a major concern of the Federal District Court. in Brooklyn, where court judges were planning to meet to discuss detention conditions, according to a letter filed by federal prosecutors in Manhattan in a case involving an inmate detained in the Brooklyn Institution.
Judges can also ask federal officials to attend this meeting and discuss the conditions of the prison with them, the letter said.
A number of detainees are being prosecuted in the Manhattan Federal District Court, and the judge in one of these cases, Analisa Torres, plans to visit the prison. Edward Friedland confirmed Tuesday the spokesman of the court
The judge will be accompanied on Tuesday by a senior attorney of the federal office of defenders, Deirdre von Dornum, and an investigator from The US Attorney's Office in Brooklyn, who both visited the prison Friday evening, on the order of Chief Justice Dora Irizarry, who said he wanted to "get updated and complete information" on the conditions of detention.
It is important for the judge to learn about living conditions in the MDC, "said von Dornum, adding that" these conditions may have changed considerably in recent days. "
Judge Torres ordered the appearance of officials from the Prisons Bureau before her at a hearing on Tuesday to examine the detainee's assertions about conditions of detention at the MDC The judge must go to the prison after hearing his testimony before court
Prosecutors in the case before Judge Torres asked the journalist Monday to postpone the hearing, saying that "living conditions in the MDC are changing and continue to require intensive work on the part of the MDC staff. "
The letter argued that the prison staff was" fully occupied. "
Also, according to the letter," many criminal proceedings Urgent demands on living conditions in the prison "had been planned and required" simultaneous attention ", responsible for the prison administration.
"Refused", writes Judge Torres in response to the request for time.
The prison's problems were brought to light at a hearing held Monday in the Brooklyn Federal Court after the federal public defender's office had sued the court. The Federal Bureau of Prisons and the prison director, citing what he said was a "humanitarian crisis" at the MDC
By stating that it would order the resumption of legal visits of detainees, Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall said:
Hall J. stated that the concerns expressed by the government about security in the prison did not allow for "the wholesale denial" of the rights of the inmates to
The Judge added that she did not want to microscopically handle the prison operations, but stated that the plaintiffs had discharged their task of proving that the intervention of the court was necessary in this case and she defended the right of the court to do so.
"If it's not the courts, then who?", Said Justice Hall.
She indicated that another request for federal defenders would be to obtain the appointment of an independent arbitrator or a special master instructed to investigate the situation in the jail. to the audience next week.
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