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Female Detainees Are Freezing Inside Notorious Manhattan Jail, Attorney Says
By
Jake Offenhartz
Published Dec 20, 2019
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Madeleine Crenshaw / Gothamist
By
Jake Offenhartz
Published Dec 20, 2019
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Female detainees at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan say they're being forced to endure intolerably frigid conditions, as a creaking HVAC system blasts air conditioning into their cells on one of the coldest days of the season so far.
Deirdre D. von Dornum, the Attorney-in-Charge at Federal Defenders, tells Gothamist that she received frantic calls from ten separate woman on Friday, and one on Thursday. Each complained that there was no heat, and some said that A/C was inexplicably coming out of the vents in their cells.
Several women in the unit with chronic medical issues were particularly frightened, according to Dornum. "There's a woman with anemia whose feet are turning blue," she said. "The floors are cement, and they're given these thin slippers."
The attorney added, "They have raised the cold issue with the staff on their unit repeatedly, but with no change in condition or provision of warmer clothing."
A spokesperson for MCC, Emery Nelson, said there had been no heating disruptions at the jail in the last two days.
But Dornum said that attorneys have asked jail staff whether the women's units were checked specifically, and have not received an answer. A similar denial was issued by the agency in response to reports of a heating outage at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn—which later triggered a federal investigation.
Bureau of Prisons attorney Nicole McFarland, who was singled out in subsequent testimony for ignoring the needs of detainees, was promoted earlier this month to be the supervising attorney for both MDC and MCC.
Detainees at the Manhattan facility have long described MCC as a nightmarish "gulag," where they are routinely subjected to inhumane conditions, including vermin infestations, substandard medical care, violence at the hands of guards, and heating and plumbing issues.
This past summer, detainees in the women's unit—which holds between 30 and 40 people—said they were forced to clean raw sewage that was unleashed on their cells and common areas, without the proper medical equipment.
More recently, the facility faced significant scrutiny for the death of Jeffrey Epstein, who is believed to have taken his own life in custody as the guards tasked with watching him slept for hours.
Elsewhere in New York City, there are currently reports of heat outages at Rikers Island. According to the Department of Correction, there have been 14 heat-related grievances at the jail facility in the last two days.
Additional reporting by Cindy Rodriguez.
Tagged
jail
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mcc
Jake Offenhartz
Jake Offenhartz is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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