BTN STAFF
For almost a week inmates in a Brooklyn jail have been locked up without heat and power. A fire that occurred on Sunday, January 27 cut off the power and heat in parts of the jail. Since then, almost 1,600 inmates have been in the dark and without heat at the facility. “Their windows were frosted over. Even more disturbingly perhaps for the inmates, their cells were pitch black and they don’t have flashlights.” said Deirdre von Dornum, who oversees the Federal Defenders’ Brooklyn team, in a telephone interview.
On Saturday, (02.02.19) protestors, lawyers, and lawmakers stood outside of the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center to demand that the problems will be fixed. Nydia Velazquez, who represents parts of New York City in the U.S. House of Representatives, said the Bureau of Prisons was disregarding inmates’ rights. This news come as pictures of inmates in Chicago Cook County jail shoveling snow in sub zero temperatures.