For over a week, during a serious cold snap, inmates at a federal jail in Brooklyn, the Metropolitan Detention Center, were without electricity and heat. Temperatures dipped as low as 2 degrees Fahrenheit.
Perhaps even worse, rather than rushing to have this humanitarian crisis minimized, jail administrators chose to initiate an emergency lockdown. This meant limiting inmates' communication with the outside world, effectively cutting off access to family visitation, medication requests and legal representation.
Most of the 1,600 people held at the Brooklyn jail had yet to go to trial and were not even technically prisoners.
Jail officials are being accused of downplaying the crisis and failing to acknowledge their negligence.
The Bureau of Prisons and the Department of Justice have stated that the incident will be examined and steps will be taken to prevent a repeat in the future – this is a great first step.
Add your name to this petition to call on both departments to fulfill these promises by delivering tangible, meaningful progress and transparency to ensure inmates the Metropolitan Detention Center and anywhere else in the United States do not have their constitutional rights violated again!
