Protest held outside New York prison where inmates have spent days without power
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https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2019/02/02/metropolitan-detention-center-brooklyn-no-heat-no-lights/
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — The federal Bureau of Prisons said Saturday that work to restore power to a detention center in New York City where inmates have gone without heat
and electricity for a week will be completed by Monday.
A tense rally was held outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn following news reports that hundreds of inmates there have spent the past week largely without power or
the ability to communicate with their attorneys or families.
According to lawyers from the Federal Defenders of New York, a non profit that defends low-income people, the center has had electrical problems since the beginning of the year.
Things came to a head after a fire broke out last weekend. Lawyers for inmates at the facility, which houses people awaiting trial or awaiting sentencing on federal crimes, have said
that clients with health issues are suffering in cold cells without access to warm clothes or blankets.
In addition to heat, lawyers say the outage has knocked out power to the computers and telephones that inmates use to email their families and attorneys and to request refills of
prescription medications. Attorney General Letitia James called the circumstances “unacceptable, illegal, and inhumane” in a statement sent to CBS2.
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