Federal Judge Calls BOP Brooklyn Lockup Too Deplorable to House Defendant
The Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), a massive federal jail in Brooklyn, New York, is known for its harsh conditions. So harsh that on January 4, 2024, U.S. District Court Judge Jesse M. Furman refused to send a convicted defendant there to await sentencing, instead allowing him to remain free on bond.
After Gustavo Chavez, 70, pleaded guilty in federal court for the Southern District of New York to selling drugs containing fentanyl, Judge Furman found that conditions at MDC constituted “exceptional reasons” under 18 U.S.C. § 3145(c) to spare him incarceration there. “It is imperative that those detained pursuant to the order of a court are treated humanely,” he wrote. At least two other judges have also declined to send defendants to the troubled lockup.
Chavez’s health conditions include intellectual disability as well as hypertension, and the jail is “notoriously and, in some instances, egregiously slow in providing necessary medical and mental health treatment to inmates,” Judge Furman declared. The order allowing Chavez to remain free also cited extended lockdowns at MDC, which the Court called “tantamount to solitary or near-solitary confinement”—a practice “increasingly viewed as inhumane.” The “dreadful” and “grim” conditions of confinement included contaminated drinking water, mold, vermin and insects, as well as non-functioning emergency call buttons.
Four prisoners have committed suicide at MDC since 2021, the Court noted, even as the government has “fail[ed] to do what needs to be done” to address problems at MDC, which mostly stem from understaffing. Meanwhile federal officials are seeking to take control of New York City’s Rikers Island jail because of its dangerous and deplorable conditions, an effort the Court called “ironic, to say the least.”
In fact, Judge Furman observed, “it is routine for judges … to give reduced sentences to defendants based on the conditions of confinement in MDC. Prosecutors no longer even put up a fight, let alone dispute that the state of affairs is unacceptable.” Based on conditions at the jail, he concluded “it would be cruel and unjust” to detain Chavez there pending sentencing. Finding those conditions constitute “exceptional reasons” that justified the defendant’s continued release on bond, the Court granted Chavez’s motion to do so. See: United States v. Chavez, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1525 (S.D.N.Y.).
Additional source: New York Times
As a digital subscriber to Prison Legal News, you can access full text and downloads for this and other premium content.
Already a subscriber? Login