Metropolitan Detention Center Crisis Latest Symptom of Ailing Penal System
There is a crisis going on in america’s prisons and jails, with inmates repeatedly being the victims of widespread neglect. Accounts of inhumane living conditions, poor food and water access, and exposure due to the elements have been related from facilities across the entirety of the US. County jails and state or federal prisons are equally at fault, with no significant difference between the categories. The widespread scope of these offenses implies that the problems are ubiquitous to the penal system itself, and has sparked numerous protests around the country, including within the prisons themselves.
Inmates within the Metropolitan Detention Center located in Brooklyn, NY had to endure over a week of darkness, cold, and being on lockdown during the recent polar vortex in the northeastern united states, but the storm is not entirely to blame for their situation. The problems with the facility began as early as January 5th, when heating to the building was reported to be malfunctioning and other amenities such as lighting or hot water for showers was shut off entirely. The jail entered lockdown while the winter storm raged on, but soon afterward notification that the building’s facilities were still inoperable or entirely offline made its way to the public. Protesters picketed outside the MDC, calling for power to be returned and the inmates to be treated humanely.
The prisoners endured no heat or power until February 4th when the facility was fully restored.
This marks just the most recent and publicized offense toward inmates at a federal or state facility, with numerous examples having occurred within the past year highlighting the inequities that the inmates must endure.
A 59 year old woman died within 24 hours of being entered into a Wayne County jail, the extreme heat and lack of food and water being cited as evidence of negligence by her family, who have entered a lawsuit against both the county and the deputies responsible.
Protests were held outside the Cuyahoga County Jail in response to a report issued by the U.S. Marshals service that labelled the conditions of the jail “inhumane” following the deaths of six inmates in 2018.
Spokane County Jail is being inspected after eight inmate deaths took place within a 14 month period, with one former inmate calling the facility “an inhumane living environment that promotes very horrible thoughts.”
A prisoner protest has been held within the walls of prisons across the US since September, demanding changes be made to the system to promote living conditions.
At the heart of the protests is the inherent nature of the prison system itself, the overwhelmingly disproportionate racial makeup of its inmates, and the mindset of allowed abuse.
Protesters at the MDC in Brooklyn dispersed after power was returned to the facility, but numerous activist groups across the US continue to raise the penal system as a topic of protest. Prisoners are often seen as a social pariah, a class of civilians who are inherently less than human because of their status. This creates a disturbing narrative around such abuses; prisoners are not deserving of human rights, so we do not have to treat them as humans.
With no clear solution to the root causes of the penal system’s problems in sight protests are sure to continue, as are further allegations of abuse.
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