‘DISASTER WAITING TO HAPPEN’
Coronavirus case at Brooklyn prison sparks calls to release vulnerable inmates
BY ROSE ADAMS
After an inmate at a Brooklyn
detention center was diagnosed
with COVID-19, activists
have renewed their demands
for federal authorities to release
detainees vulnerable to
the virus.
“This is a real disaster waiting
to happen,” said David Patton,
the executive director of
the Federal Defenders of New
York at a press conference on
Sunday.
The male detainee — who
was arrested and brought to
the Metropolitan Detention
Center in Sunset Park while
waiting a court date on March
16 — fi rst complained of chest
pains on March 19, and underwent
coronavirus testing at
a nearby hospital, according
to a spokesperson at the Federal
Bureau of Prisons, who
said the test results came back
positive on March 21. The inmate
had been kept in isolation
while awaiting offi cial results,
and his bunkmates have since
been quarantined, the spokesperson
added.
To stem the virus’ spread,
authorities have suspended
all visits to all federal jails,
stopped inmates from moving
within facilities, and are
testing and quarantining all
new inmates, the bureau confi
rmed.
However, a group of public
defenders blasted those precautions
as infective at reducing
the virus’ spread through the
crowded jails — which house a
number of inmates considered
to be particularly at risk.
About one-third of the 2,000
inmates detained at Sunset
Park’s Metropolitan Detention
Center and Manhattan’s Metropolitan
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Correctional Center
are classifi ed as within
the “vulnerable population”
— meaning the virus is more
likely to be lethal if they contract
it, Patton said.
Both facilities — which
mostly house people awaiting
their trials, as well as some
serving short sentences — have
a constant fl ow of new arrests,
which make them a hotbed for
disease, according to Patton.
“These are places that are
particularly susceptible to
contagion,” Patton warned
on March 22. “They are not
sanitary, social distancing is
not a possibility, they’re overcrowded.”
To truly mitigate coronavirus’
spread, Patton and a group
of elected offi cials claimed the
US Attorney’s Offi ce needed
to release vulnerable inmates
who are not deemed a risk to
the general public, and stop
new inmates from entering the
premises to allow inmates to
be physically spread out.
“Mitigating efforts such as
physical distancing and frequent
hand washing is impossible
in jails. People are escorted
most places in correctional settings
so it’s very diffi cult for
people to stand six feet apart,”
said Jonathan Giftos, the former
medical director at Rikers
Island. “The only measure that
will meaningfully impact the
spread coronavirus in the jail
system is to depopulate.”
Last week, authorities
agreed to release 56 vulnerable
inmates from Rikers Island,
where about 38 people
have tested positive for the virus
as of March 23, the Associated
Press reported. Another
200 people are being reviewed
for release, according to Mayor
Bill de Blasio.
Advocates, however, said
that offi cials have to release a
much larger percentage of inmates
in order to reduce the
threat of further contagion.
“It needs to be an effi cient,
quick, and big effort, it can’t
An inmate at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park tested
positive for COVID-19. Federal Bureau of Prisons
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