The Daily - No Heat, No Power: How a Federal Jail Failed Its Inmates

Episode Date: February 13, 2019

A New York Times investigation found that inside a Brooklyn jail, more than 1,000 inmates were locked inside freezing cells for 23 hours a day, prompting an inquiry by the Justice Department. But the involvement of the Justice Department may not be the turning point it appears to be.Guest: Annie Correal, who covers New York for The Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Today, a Times investigation found that inside a Brooklyn jail, more than 1,000 inmates were locked inside freezing cells with no heat for 23 hours a day, prompting an investigation by the Department of Justice. Why the involvement of the Department of Justice may not be the turning point it appears to be. It's Wednesday, February 13th. Annie, when do you first hear about this story?

So it's the end of January, and like much of the country, New York is heading into a deep cold spell. I'm Stefan Holt, and this is News 4 Now for Thursday, January 31st. First up, yes, the weather, I don't even have to tell you, it's cold out there. It was just four degrees when we shot this this morning

with a wind chill of more than 12 below. Other parts of the area felt like negative 30. It's after midnight on January 31st. I take a look at my email, and there's an email from an unfamiliar address. The subject line is MDC Brooklyn without power. And it says no heat, no power, no proper food. Over 72 hours in lockdown. Goes on to say, please help. Can't complain at the prison with our names as they retaliate against inmates and block our visits. Annie Correal covers New York for The Times. I immediately thought if this is real, there must be some sign of it. Especially in New York, it's hard for anything to happen without it being tweeted. So what I do see is one tweet from a lawyer who said two weeks before that she had been turned away because the jail said that it was testing a generator. So I sent her a message, and she writes back saying, yes, there is an issue. She's getting information that there is no power since Sunday afternoon when there was an electrical fire.

And she says that the person I'm really going to want to talk to is an attorney named Deirdre von Dornum, who runs the Brooklyn office of the federal public defenders. They represent hundreds of inmates at places like Metropolitan Detention Center. So I call Deirdre, and she doesn't sound exactly shocked to hear from me. She's pretty much like, yeah, we've been hearing from people all week, and they sound really scared. It turns out that there is this telephone line that connects the jail to the federal defender's offices. And so even though power is down, this line kept working. And so over the course of the week, the federal defenders have started getting more and more calls from inmates inside MDC saying,

we're cold, we've been on lockdown, there are no lights in the jail. So pretty much they've been gathering accounts. There's one paralegal in Deirdre's office who even has a chart of where calls are coming from in the jail, which floors seem to be affected more than others. So this is one of the only places that the inmates could reach in this moment. I think it's fair to say that it's the only place that they could reach unless they happen to have a contraband cell phone. This became a bit of their lifeline. And so what are the stories through this direct line to the public defender's office

that these inmates are sharing with Deidre and her colleagues. So the stories all paint the picture of a jail that has been plunged into darkness. It's hard for me to count days, because you have to remember there was no lights. So we're in a dark cell. I had no idea what time, what day, anything was. You lost track of everything. Total sensory deprivation. It's kind of dystopian. You've got hundreds of inmates

locked into cells that are pitch black. What happens is they have, like, it's forced air. The heating system is forced air. And when the heat goes off, it still blows. And instead of hot air blowing through the vents... But it was blowing the air from the outside, so it was cold. It was blowing cold air. It's cold air.

You know, I sleep on the top bunk, so the air blows directly on me. So what I did was I took a cover off of a book and used it with a string to tie it up there to block the vents so it wouldn't blow cold air on me. Because it was already cold enough as it was. And the counselor gave me a ticket for blocking the vent. They don't have anything but a couple of blankets. Now the blankets here are like if you get in a hospital. It's not like a thick wool blanket. It's a very thin blanket.

They usually issue you two, you know? So it's a thin cotton blanket, almost like a little thicker than a sheet. And I had three of them because at the end of the day it was very cold. The officer took one because he thought I had an extra one. And we're only allowed to have two. So you don't have really any way to stay warm. And this is in the middle of the cold spell you described. The weather during those days is really getting colder and colder.

How cold? That day that I got the tip would be the coldest day in, I think, three years in New York. It dropped to two degrees. So it was rigid cold. And at the same time, many of these inmates didn't have access to their prescription medication that they would usually get, nor did they get any medical care. So we had people who had, you know, infections, open wounds. They weren't treated. There was a guy who had been hit by a handball and had sort of an open wound around his eye that appeared to have been infected. There's another guy who had a chronic sore on his leg that was festering and he was sleeping on

bloody sheets. I think some of the most worrisome cases were psychiatric patients who didn't get their usual medication, or so they told lawyers, and were known suicide risks. There was one man who a lawyer told me was known to swallow razor blades. There was another man who had to take a noose out of his cellmate's hands because this guy was just having an emotional breakdown in the middle of this blackout. So I think that the shutdown wasn't, it wasn't just cold and it wasn't just sort of bleak. I think it was very difficult for inmates to be held in these cells without knowing how long it would last. It was against the law to treat terrorists that were captured in the same manner that we were treated. You know, they were let out for about an hour.

And during that hour was when they appeared to go to the phones and call the lawyers. So the word began to get out. But before my editors were comfortable taking this to press, they wanted me to find someone else who could attest to these conditions. I should note that I was reaching out repeatedly to the warden and his staff, Herman Quay, this sort of Dickensian warden name. I'm reaching out to him, no response, and I'm, you know, kind of scratching my head. How can I get someone to confirm this? With the help of my colleagues, I reached out to union leaders. The correction officers are part of a national union.

And they, too, were really forthcoming. It was similar to what I experienced, you know, speaking to the federal defenders. They were like, oh, yeah, as though, oh, finally someone called. And they begin describing a situation very similar to what the inmates had described. So we decide we're going to publish this first thing the next day. The New York Times reports inmates in freezing cells at a federal jail in Brooklyn. After we publish the story, we do hear back from the warden. And the warden's office says that they're experiencing a partial power outage and operating on emergency power,

but assure that the housing units have been, quote, minimally impacted. And that there is hot water, that there's heat, that inmates are getting hot meals. And it's interesting because this contradicts what we've heard pretty dramatically. I mean, you're pretty much hearing opposite accounts. Of minimal impact. Exactly. So after that, you know, I had also reached out to the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington, which runs the show. And I hear back from them and they echo the warden's message. Nothing to see here. And they add that, you know, Con Ed has been responding to several incidents. And so they seem to sort of put the blame on Con Ed. And so I call Con Ed and they're like, no, this is an internal issue. It has nothing to do with us. And we've actually been pretty good during this cold spell. So now you've got the public defenders, the corrections officers union, the inmates, the power company, all pointing back to the jail.

Exactly. So then what happens? Take a look at what is happening right now outside of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. Car horns are going off. Let the heat off. Let those lights on. Let the heat off. Once this reached the outside world, the response was swift and loud.

They say they will be out here as long as they need to until there is justice for the inmates. No hate, that's torture! No hate, that's torture! Here in New York, protests today over conditions at a federal jail. Within hours of the story appearing, news trucks, protesters, and lawmakers were at the jail. There are inmates' families. These aren't families in here! These aren't families in here!

This is what it's like! I'm here! I'm here! I'm here! Desmond! Are you good? No! There's local advocates. Hundreds of family, friends, and concerned citizens have spent the entire day out in the cold fighting for these inmates. And they don't just come for the night. They actually end up kind of staying through the weekend. We hear you. We love you. We hear you! We love you!

Heat is minimum standard. That is not maximum standard. That is minimum requirement. No heat! No peace! No heat! No peace! No heat! No peace! And they hold a kind of a 24-hour vigil, demanding that the heat come back on. If you do not have heat, bang on those windows! And we're looking at about nearly a week at this point that the jail has been without power. So you've got people throughout the weekend with bullhorns, and they're kind of communicating with the inmates, weekend with bullhorns and they're kind of communicating with the inmates who are lining up and banging their windows in a kind of call and response with the protesters outside. Knock on those windows!

This gets captured by social media. It's the very poignant seconds of video that goes out through the world, and the response just seems to kind of grow and grow. Several U.S. representatives visited the facility Saturday to address heat, electricity and medical concerns. By the end of the weekend, you've got national lawmakers kind of chiming in to say something's got to be done. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Kamala Harris and people who are we are now really thinking about in terms of presidential candidates. Right. And by Sunday night, you've got the lights back on at the jail. Hmm. And that's kind of a moment because the protesters are still there.

Mm-hmm. And it's late at night, and the lights come back on, and you see all of the inmates flipping the switch in their cells, and the jail light up, and everyone sort of cheer on the street. So that may have been kind of like the end of the story. But actually, as the week begins, the action around this only kind of grows. A letter signed by two dozen legislators, with these powerful Democrats included,

goes out to the Bureau of Prisons and to the Justice Department, and they're demanding an investigation. And lo and behold, Wednesday, the DOJ says, yes, we are going to have our inspector general investigate. So once the DOJ launched this investigation, I imagine for you as the reporter covering this, breaking it, this is kind of mission accomplished, right? You've got a tip, you've gotten to the bottom of it, you've written about it, and the federal government is investigating it. So what more is there really to do? Right. It all happened really quickly. I will say that. It seemed to be one of those moments

that suggests that things do work the way they're supposed to work. You report something out, you get it out there into the world, elected officials respond, and the government takes action. But I don't know if it's that simple. What do you mean? It turns out that there is a long history of pretty egregious issues. The DOJ has been called in. The inspector general has been assigned to investigate. They've come out with scathing reports.

And then it happens all over again. A report by the Justice Department's own inspector general in 2003 concluded that the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn had conditions of confinement that were unduly harsh. So the first major instance of that was not long after 9-11, when a group of around 80 Muslim and Arab men were rounded up on immigration charges after the attacks of September 11th, they suffered everything from harassment to physical assault. Very limited access to attorneys or families. Lights illuminated 24 hours a day. And a pattern of physical and verbal abuse. One lawsuit described men being slammed up against the wall and told that they would never leave, that they would die there and no one would know.

In one case, the man said he was sodomized with a flashlight. By the corrections officers? Yes, by employees at the MDC. Virtually every one of the post-9-11 detainees was eventually cleared of connections to terrorism. And many people said, well, you know, this reflected an emotionally charged time following 9-11 detainees was eventually cleared of connections to terrorism. And many people said, well, you know, this reflected an emotionally charged time following 9-11. But in following years, there were cases of inmates beaten by several officers in a premeditated sort of way. Federal prosecutors say guards at a federal lockup tried to cover up a vicious attack on an inmate, and they say it didn't stop there.

They say the attack's so violent that the officers later tied a bed sheet from prison bars to try to claim the inmate had tried to commit suicide. One case involved officers leaving a noose in the cell to suggest that the man had been trying to kill himself and had become combative when they tried to intercede. The second alleged attack dates to June of last year, when an inmate was punched and stomped by officers in an elevator. There was an inmate beat in an elevator. U.S. Attorney Rosalind Moskov said, quote,

we will vigorously protect the constitutional rights of individuals to be free of excessive force by officers whose duty is to uphold the law. In a few cases, there were women who were sexually assaulted and raped by correction officers and lieutenants. So all of that has been laid out in horrifying detail in inspector general reports in the past. And here we are. So here we have a situation where the Department of Justice is involved. And because they're involved, that suggests that they will solve this particular problem, as they have in the past. But the cases you described suggest that when the Department of Justice begins investigating,

they tend to leave the larger problem untouched. That persists. Exactly. That's been the cycle, the pattern. In some ways, though, it's

understandable. You're asking the Department of Justice, which runs the Bureau of Prisons, to police itself, to root out the

source of its own dysfunction. And there's plenty to suggest that that just doesn't happen, or doesn't happen very quickly. So you might question whether that's going to be effective. And various people are. You know, when the Department of Justice announced that its inspector general would investigate MDC, various people, including the federal defenders, said, we applaud the efforts of lawmakers to bring us to this step, but they've done it before and nothing has changed.

So if the Department of Justice is not involved, how is change achieved in a jail like this? Exactly. So where does that leave us? Lawyers here in New York, the federal defenders that represent hundreds of these clients, they're asking for an independent monitor, what's known as a special master, who isn't involved in the Department of Justice, to come in and be part of this attempt to finally bring change to MDC. We don't know whether that's going to happen, but I think whether or not an independent monitor is assigned, this incident comes at a moment when both parties are really examining the future of criminal justice. America is a nation that believes in the power of redemption. From Donald Trump to Elizabeth Warren. America's legal system is great at locking people up, but terrible at doing what it's supposed to do,

dispensing equal justice under law. People are asking, what should send people to prison? Are drug offenses worth it? How long should they spend in prison? What should their rights be when they're there? So what could be a better example of a system that's not quite working than a jail where they can't even get the lights to work and the heat to stay on in the dead of winter? Annie, thank you very much for this reporting.

We appreciate it. Thank you, Michael. We'll be right back. Here's what else you need to know today. Am I happy at first glance? I just got to see it. The answer is no, I'm not. I'm not happy. On Tuesday, President Trump said he was displeased with the border security deal reached by Republicans and Democrats in Congress to avoid another government shutdown. But he refused to say whether he would sign or veto it.

The proposal includes far less money for a border wall than Trump has demanded, and less than the plan he rejected in December, which triggered a 35-day shutdown. Do you really want to go through another shutdown? I don't think you're going to see a shutdown. I wouldn't want to go through it now. During a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the president seemed reluctant to plunge the government into another costly shutdown, but said that if there were one, it would be the fault of the Democrats.

If you did have it, it's a Democrat's fault. And I accepted the first one, and I'm proud of what we've accomplished, because people learned during that shutdown all about the problems coming in from the southern border. I accept it. I've always accepted it. But this one, I would never accept if it happened. And minutes ago, a federal jury here in the Eastern District convicted Joaquin El Chapo Guzman Loea on all counts of the federal indictment. indictment. On Tuesday, after a three-month trial and a years-long investigation involving authorities in at least four countries, the Mexican crime lord known as El Chapo was convicted on charges of running a multi-billion dollar drug empire that brought hundreds of tons of drugs across the U.S. border. This conviction is a victory for the American people who have suffered so long and so much while Guzman made billions pouring poison over our southern border. financing, logistics, and bloody history of a major drug cartel, from the precise profit it

earned on cocaine sales to its members' use of a bazooka for target practice. Guzman, who has a long history of escaping from prison in Mexico through secret doors and underground tunnels, is expected to be sentenced to life in a supermax prison in Colorado. This conviction is a victory for the Mexican people who have lost more than 100,000 lives in drug-related violence. This conviction is a victory for every family who has lost a loved one to the black hole of addiction. There are those who say that the war on drugs is not worth fighting.

Those people are wrong. That's it for The Daily. I'm Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.