SDNY COURTHOUSE, March 28 -- As Coronavirus COVID-19 has spread including in the prison system, Inner City Press has for two weeks reported in person from nearly every bail hearing and appeal in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York courthouse.
Based on its articles it has received communications from many inmates and their family members. This is one of them: "Mr. Lee, the conditions inside the MCC due to coronavirus, are inhuman. I have first hand information from an inmate, and would love to share it, so the world is aware of this situation that should be a shame to the authorities. Since last Saturday March the 21st, and having few confirmed cases of COVID-19 inside the prison, inmates at MCC Manhattan have been practically on lockdown and isolated, only being allowed to call their family a few times for a couple of minutes. This inmate described To his family the horrible situation for all the inmates.
They have NO SOAP, no shampoo, no cleaning products, no clean uniforms for 3 weeks, no food or not enough food, they are locked in their cells almost all day and the guards won’t even bother to check on them for hours and hours; the guards close the doors and practically disappear; they can hear people screaming and crying all the time; people are being moved from one place to the other at all time. No sanitary conditions whatsoever, which increases the risk of the coronavirus spread among all the prison.
There are no doctors checking on the inmates to verify their health condition; the inmate told his family his eyes and throat were burning, and there was no one to tell, besides, there’s no medication available whatsoever, not even at commissary to buy. No toothpaste or toothbrushes available; no soap or hand sanitizer provided. No cleaning products for their cells. This inmate reported to his family on Friday March the 20th that his cell had gone out of light; the light was not re established until couple days ago, so he was forced to be isolated in his cell with no light for several days."
In fairness the U.S. Bureau of Prison tells a different tale, including in letters to SDNY Chief Judge Colleen McMahon, who on March 27 Inner City Press witnessed and conversed with as she experimented with technology to hear from inmates seeking release from the prisons.
But BOP's letters and the US Attorney's Office arguments are in the PACER database, which unlike most media publication has not dropped its paywall for coverage of Coronavirus.
All of this hypocrisy takes place amid this global crisis as for example the United Nations while laying off UN Delegates Dining Room workers at his headquarters in New York City without any mitigation brags about giving old masks to the City amid a disease its boss Antonio Guterres helped mock and cover up, and bans the Press which asks. We'll have more on this. For now, a song, here.
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