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Amid COVID 19 in MCC Jail No Lawyer But Quarantine in Hole Inner City Press Is Told

By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC - Decrypt - LightRead - Honduras - Source

SDNY COURTHOUSE, March 29 -- 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. Here's one, after which Inner City Press asked, "What about calls to lawyers? Or asking their lawyers to raise their cases to the court? I'll be back in the SDNY on Monday." And here's the situation, including that even if an inmate has a lawyer who argues and wins what awaits is two weeks in the same hole they use to punishment:

 "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...   There have been no confidential calls guaranteed to inmates. They are told to get in touch with their lawyers by mail on CorrLinks, but that’s no confidential.  The inmate has his lawyer’s phone number, but he needs to provide it to his counselor, to get it approved, but the counselor is not at the facility and haven’t been there for a while, so practically his only resource is the email which is not confidential. 

About discovery, there are no conditions to review it at all, since legal visitation is not allowed and there haven’t been any confidential call or virtual conferences as they said there would be,  this inmate has very little information of his case, only what his family can tell him (over the phone and being recorded) after having them spoken to his lawyers. 

About raising cases to court, specifically regarding compassion releases, the lawyers have learned that if granted, the inmate is sent to a segregation unit for 14 days, on quarantine, before letting him out. Segregation house units are the ones used for punishment; that's  where they quarantine people...scary. So inmates are very scared of saying anything (if they feel bad) because they don’t want to be sent to the segregation unit."

 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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