Superstorm Sandy: How are the Inmates Faring?
Posted on Mon Oct 29, 2012 at 11:56:09 PM EST
Tags: Hurricane Sandy, inmates (all tags)
Here's the flooding of the Battery Tunnel earlier today. Lower New York is flooded. There are three feet of water on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange. [Added: Reports now say that is false.] There was an explosion at a Con Ed plant in lower Manhattan.
What's happening at MCC New York, on Foley Square, and MDC Brooklyn, New York's federal detention centers? [More...]
MDC Brooklyn is the largest federal detention center in the country, housing 3,000 inmates and is close to the Battery Tunnel. MCC New York is at Foley Square, less than a mile from Wall St. It houses more than 750 inmates. Are the lights and power out? Are the cells flooded?
The Bureau Of Prisons website for all federal prisons was down for hours tonight. Which means there was no place for the families of the inmates to get information.
Michael Bloomberg, who this week was so insensitive to the Riker's Island prisoners, does not speak for the feds. But what are the feds doing at MDC and MCC? Where is their emergency preparedness plan?
MDC Brooklyn apparently uses Programmable Logic Controller (PLC)-based door monitoring and control . What happens in the event of a power failure? Is it remotely controlled or does it rely on a back-up generator and battery operated low-level lighting. Some jails now have their own power grid. Here's a video.
Here is NCIC's 2009 report, "A Guide to Preparing for and Responding to Jail Emergencies."
Hopefully, BOP learned something from Louisana's