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BROOKLYN WEEKLY, JUNE 21, 2020
Mayor Bill de Blasio cancelled the Summer Youth Employment Program because
of COVID-19. The Offi ce of Mayor Bill de Blasio
MDC detainees report inhumane conditions
BY JESSICA PARKS
Prison offi cials at the scandalplagued
Metropolitan Detention Center
in Sunset Park have failed to properly
handle the spread of coronavirus,
according to past and present detainees
who blasted the prison’s conditions
as unsafe and inhumane.
“My husband is not crying out to
be released, he is crying out because
of the conditions that are going on in
there,” said the wife of a current inmate,
who requested anonymity to
speak freely about her husband’s experience.
The prison made headlines earlier
this month when 35-year-old inmate
Jamel Floyd died after corrections
offi cers pepper-sprayed him in the
face — sparking a string of protests
outside of the facility, coinciding with
other demonstrations against police
brutality.
Last December, the detention center
also came under fi re when a power
outage forced 1,600 inmates to bear
below-freezing temperatures for an
entire week, leading to a probe by the
federal Department of Justice.
Now, sources claim that inmates
have been subjected to “incredible”
conditions inside the facility — where
staff force detainees into near-constant
confi nement to their cells, and
have provided a troubling lack of
medical response to the virus.
“I was locked in the cell basically
24 hours a day,” said former inmate
Gregory Cooper, who was granted
compassionate release on April 30. “I
was allowed to come out for 30 minutes
a day, three times a week to shower,
use the phone and talk with my attorneys
— all within a half-hour.”
In the short time inmates are allowed
outside of their cells, Cooper
said it’s impossible to keep a social
distance — leading to the inevitable
spread of the virus. Prior to his release,
at least a dozen of his 80 fellow
inmates in his unit were showing
signs of the coronavirus.
“There is no social distancing,”
Cooper said. “When they let everybody
out for the 30 minutes, everybody
is congregating, everybody is
talking.”
Since imposing confi nement,
prison offi cials have canceled the routine
maintenance of cells altogether,
forcing inmates to live in unsanitary
conditions, said the inmate’s wife.
“He expresses how there is an
aroma coming from the toilets,” she
said. “There are no lids, and they are
not being cleaned.”
The woman also said that the
emergency button in her husband’s
cell is not working properly — making
her fear for his safety, as he is
asthmatic.
“I feel like that is something that
around this time should at least
work,” she said, adding that the poor
ventilation in her husband’s cell is
leading him to have diffi culty breathing.
Six inmates at the detention center
took the matter to court with
a lawsuit on March 27, requesting
oversight in the facility’s pandemic
response and the release of inmates
with existing medical conditions —
however, a judge denied their petition
on June 10, and commended the
correctional offi cers’ “aggressive” response
to the virus.
“I conclude that petitioners have
not shown a clear likelihood that
MDC offi cials have acted with deliberate
indifference to substantial
risks in responding to COVID-19,”
wrote federal Judge Rachel P. Kovner.
“Rather than being indifferent to the
virus, MDC offi cials have recognized
COVID-19 as a serious threat and responded
aggressively.”
As part of the lawsuit, independent
examiner Dr. Homer Venters, an
epidemiologist and former chief medical
offi cer for city jails, visited the center
on April 23 and found insuffi cient
amounts of masks and gloves, along
with a failure to implement proper infection
control measures, according
to court documents.
In his report, Venters said detainee’s
sick calls were often ignored, and
when they were answered, offi cials
typically only conducted a temperature
check.
Cooper echoed the lack of a medical
response inside the detention center,
claiming inmates will ultimately
die from the virus before correctional
offi cials would consider their release.
“You could be dying, they won’t let
you go,” he said. “They are not letting
people go.”
Another inmate was reported
dead at the prison last week, three
weeks after he quietly died of unknown
causes on May 19.
The Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park. Federal Bureau of Prisons
BY ROSE ADAMS
Low-income youth and their
families in New York City will
lose out on more than $109 million
in wages because of the city’s
controversial decision to cancel a
program that connects young city
dwellers to summer jobs, a recent
study found.
The Independent Budget Offi ce’s
study showed that Mayor Bill de
Blasio’s decision to cancel the Summer
Youth Employment Program
in the wake of COVID-19 will cause
70,000 young people to miss out on
between $700 and $1,600 in wages
each — potentially stripping families
of a needed income boost as unemployment
rates skyrocket due to
coronavirus-related shutdowns.
De Blasio, who canceled the program
to save $119 million as the city
faces a multi-billion dollar budget
shortfall, has faced backlash from
teens and advocates who say the
program provides young people
between the ages of 14 and 24 with
valuable job experience.
Last year, the Summer Youth
Employment Program connected
74,500 young people — less than
half of the total applicants — with
jobs in business, non-profi t, government,
and other sectors. Eight-fi ve
percent of participants came from
families that make $31,000 a year or
less, and many lived in affordable
housing, the IBO study found.
One Bronx student, who has participated
in the program for three
years while his family has resided
in a homeless shelter, said that he
relies on the money he earns to buy
himself new clothes every year.
“It was very helpful to me specifi
cally because I was in a shelter
and my parents didn’t have that
much money,” said Rahkim Powers,
a 17-year-old high school senior.
“They had to work and save
up so we can leave the shelter.”
Powers said he’s concerned that
he won’t fi nd a job this summer
amid the coronavirus closure and
soaring unemployment.
“I’m very worried,” he said. “I
was dependent on that to pay for
my clothes for school and to save
up money.”
Citywide, 14-percent of the
program’s youth lived in public
housing in 2018, and their summer
earnings accounted for about
6 percent of their families’ household
income, the study shows.
Last week, de Blasio said his
administration is working with
the City Council to “revitalize” the
program, which would be part of
the city’s ongoing budget process
that will be fi nalized by the end of
June.
“The City Council has raised
important ideas, proposals, ways
of addressing how we revitalize
the Summer Youth Employment
Program in the context of this pandemic,”
he said at a June 11 press
conference. “That is an ongoing
conversation with the City Council.
That will be part of our budget
decision making with the City
Council over the next two weeks
or so.”
LOST WAGES
Families to lose $109 million in pay from
cuts to youth employment program: Report