PLACE DOWN’
federal prison as COVID-19 cases rise
Dozens of protesters demanded that the Metropolitan Detention Center release its prisoners among a surge in COVID-19 cases on Friday. Photo by Rose Adams
COURIER LIFE, DECEMBER 11-17, 2020 3
about the heat outages by
press time.
Remembering
Jamel Floyd
During the Dec. 4 rally,
inmates fl ickered their lights
as protesters paid homage to
Jamel Floyd, an inmate who
died six months ago after
correctional offi cers peppersprayed
him.
The Bureau of Prisons
claimed that the 35-year-old
inmate, who was set to be released
this past October, was
trying to break his cell window
with a metal object and
acting erratically in a manner
“potentially harmful to
himself and others” on June
3. Correctional offi cers then
maced Floyd, prompting him
to go into cardiac arrest,
prison offi cials said.
Floyd was transported to
a nearby hospital, where he
was pronounced dead.
Floyd’s mother, Donna
Mays, has said that Floyd’s
asthma and diabetes caused
him to die from the mace.
However, the city’s chief
medical examiner determined
that his heart attack
was triggered by a synthetic
cannabinoid drug combined
with an underlying genetic
heart condition, the medical
examiner’s spokeswoman,
Aja Worthy-Davis said.
The medical examiner’s
cause of death did not mention
the pepper spray.
Donna Mays and Jamel’s
father, James Floyd, drive
from their home in Nassau
County to MDC almost every
Friday since Jamel died
to protest his death, usually
carrying signs or wearing
shirts emblazoned with his
face.
“Sometimes I wake up
and I don’t know what day it
is,” Donna Mays told Brooklyn
Paper at a protest outside
MDC on Nov. 20. “I have to
take it one day at a time and
moment by moment.”
Outside MDC on Dec. 4,
protester Shauna Fitzgerald
said that the only justice for
Floyd would be closing the
prison for good.
“As an abolitionist, I believe
that justice would be
to shut this place down,” she
said. “Keeping people inside
when there’s active COVID
cases is murder.”
The Bureau of Prisons did
not respond to a request for
comment.