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Horror at MDC Jail in Brooklyn
Over the weekend, it became clear that in the middle of a polar vortex, there were prisoners in Brooklyn who had been living without heat for days:
I am outside of the Metropolitan Detention Center where prisoners are without heat. The banging noise is them protesting for all of us to hear. They are without heat for days. This is in BROOKLYN. pic.twitter.com/h3UiVcR6VF
— shahana hanif (@ShahanaFromBK) February 1, 2019
They weren’t just without heat, but also lights as well. There were a number of reports indicating hot water and food service had also been affected. Despite this, the New York Times reported,
In an emailed statement, the federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed that the jail was “experiencing a partial power outage” and operating on emergency power. “Cells have heat and hot water, there is lighting in the common areas and inmates are receiving hot meals,” the agency said.
There were rallies outside, and the New York Times reported on protesters trying to storm the prison itself.
Rally outside MDC Brooklyn, where we first reported poor heating and a power issue that has kept inmates confined to cold cells without lights since Sunday. Inmates pound windows as a brass band plays and people chant outside. pic.twitter.com/5FMGQpSpaF
— Annie Correal (@anniecorreal) February 2, 2019
Local politicians became involved, with a local Councilman covering the story closely:
Here's what I'm hearing from inside #MDC as of Sunday night:
✔️ Lights are back on
✔️ Phones are back on❓ Still waiting to confirm heat
❓ Still waiting to confirm hot water❌Blankets from City Hall were never distributed by warden
❌It should have never come to this
— Justin Brannan (@JustinBrannan) February 4, 2019
It was disappointing to see barely a mention of this situation among conservatives.
The Eighth Amendment to the Constitution states: “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” Being forced to live in freezing, arctic temperatures on waterfront property with no heat, hot water, lights or warm meals certainly as cruel and unusual, and goes into “torture” territory. Further, many of those staying in this prison haven’t even been convicted of a crime; they are awaiting trial. There were certainly some innocent American citizens being subjected to these conditions, in addition to many convicted of misdemeanors.
But even if every resident of this jail had been hardened convicted criminals, this kind of treatment of prisoners is worse than any kind of treatment legal for pet owners to inflict on animals in their care. It will be interesting to see what consequences befall the officials in charge of keeping these inmates healthy and safe.
Published in Policing
I agree that conservatives should care more about cruel and unusual prison conditions. I don’t agree, lacking further data, that this is an example of what they should be caring about. If the temperatures in the cells were colder than in our bedroom, maybe I could change my mind. Maybe.
Good Lord!
This does seem stunningly inefficient and incompetent as well as unjust.
There could well be a lot more to this story. Maybe we can get Mueller to do a thorough investigation.
Promotions, raises, and bonuses, no doubt. Anything else would be an admission the city government failed. And we all know when progressives are in charge the government never fails.
Note Correal’s reference to “poor heating” not “no heat”.
How many died? How many got frostbite?
If the water is running, then it never got cold enough to freeze pipes. You are not going to get much sympathy from people who have lived through plenty of winter power outages in New England.
Plus, it’s time for physics lessons.
First, big buildings hold heat well The ratio of surface area to volume is small.
Second, when it comes to bitter cold, the ocean is a moderating influence. Right on the coast, temperatures are probably normally 8F warmer than inland when it’s very cold. Now, the polar vortex, by blowing steadily out to sea will likely make the ocean a bit less relevant.
… according to unnamed sources … from inside a prison.
I agree with Ret in #1: absent more information, I’d withhold judgment here.
I remember the hot water going out in our college dorm when I was a young man. We went a week or so taking cold showers in the winter: miserable, but not torture — and one can skip a shower for a few days. A brief lack of hot water isn’t a crisis.
Air temperature matters, of course. The obvious question is, just how cold was it in the cells? If, as the Bureau of Prisons reported, the cells were heated and hot food was being served, then this doesn’t sound like an outrage. (Frankly, cold meals aren’t torture either.)
That Tweet from Councilman Justin Brannan is interesting. It tells us that lights and phones work, and says nothing about heat and hot water — they may be on, for all we know. All it actually confirms is that blankets weren’t distributed. Of course, if heat were on, extra blankets probably wouldn’t be distributed. So, with its “it should never have come to this,” it’s a bit of vacuous grandstanding by the Councilman.
And a reminder of why Twitter makes us all more stupid.
This is just another great example why the government should run everything.
Abolish Ice!
Yeah, if a private business lost power they would get it restored in under a week. If not, they would have some sort of backup (generators, etc.) because they know they you simply cannot go that long without it. Government on the other hand . . .
Treadmills?
I saw a clip a few days ago of Rachel Maddow’s show in which she was talking about how it was -10F in North Dakota, or something cold, and what would happen if Russia turned off the power grid (or something). And I was like, well, presumably sane people in North Dakota have backup generators.
Electricity came to our part of North Dakota the year I was born (but in time to help Mom and Dad with the washing of my diapers). A winter in which temperatures got no colder than that was highly unusual, if there ever was such a mild winter. Maybe everybody froze to death and they had to import new people every year.
One of the “sources” is a reporter for the New York Times. Another is a NYC councilman. It’s not Twitter that makes one stupid. All mass media does so.
Right. But most of us wouldn’t hear the outrage, and feel compelled to echo it, if it didn’t pop up on our Twitter feeds about ten milliseconds after it’s first reported. What Twitter (and other social media, but Twitter is the worst) does is make it possible for those who are inclined to respond without reflection (that is, most of us at one time or another) to do so — widely and irrevocably.
I think Twitter is a significant part of what is wrong with our public discourse. It encourages the worst in most of us.