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A PRISON UNFIT FOR PRISONERS
The Tower of London, Black Hole of Calcutta, Devil’s Island… Add to the list of infamous prisons where no one should be confined the Federal Bureau of Prisons Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Last week, US District Judge Gary Brown (EDNY) sentenced 74-year-old Daniel Colucci – convicted of failing to pay over taxes collected from his employees to the IRS – to nine months in prison conditioned on the BOP not designating him to serve it at MDC Brooklyn, a designation to that would be, “under present circumstances, unacceptable.”
The opinion, describing in extensive detail the inhumane conditions at MDC Brooklyn – including lengthy lockdowns, vicious assaults and significant delays in providing medical care – came several weeks after an MDC inmate was killed in a fight there.
Judge Brown ruled that the severity of the million-dollar tax loss, the court’s suspicions about the “depth” of Colucci’s remorse, and reluctance to pay restitution, made the nine-month sentence necessary.
However, all of that was trumped, the Court said, by the risk that Colucci’s short sentence might result in the BOP designating him to MDC Brooklyn:
[J]udges in this district are subject to a steady drumfire of [allegations of inhumane treatment at MDC]… And these issues continue to affect judicial determinations. In United States v. Chavez, contrary to statutory presumptions, Judge Furman ordered that a narcotics defendant subject to a multi-year sentence remain at liberty pending surrender, based largely on the conditions at MDC. In United States v Griffin, Judge Komitee granted a motion for compassionate release based primarily on the conditions at MDC for a defendant serving time for violating supervised release. Cf. United States v. Santana (“Given the severe prison conditions that prevail at the MDC (conditions that amount to imposing harsher punishments on prisoners), this Court and others have adjusted sentences of defendants in custody there for lengthy periods.”). In yet another case, Judge Cogan indicated that he might have sentenced an offender to incarceration “if not for the length of the sentence landing him in the Bureau of Prison’s Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
In Chavez, Judge Furman identified three areas of concern in the post-COVID conditions at MDC: (1) continued reports of inordinate periods of lockdown, (2) claims that the facility provides inadequate and/or substantially delayed necessary medical care—a particular risk in this case and (3) general issues about the conditions at the facility. Allegations of inadequate supervision, unbridled assaults and lack of sufficient medical care are supported by an increasing body of evidence, with certain instances that are irrefutable. [See] Griffin (‘it has been well documented that the MDC has an ongoing issue with frequent lockdowns due to violence and the threat of violence, among other concerns, which has delayed medical care for a number of inmates’).”
The Court also cited Griffin’s finding that “[c]haos reigns, along with uncontrolled violence” at the facility. Judge Brown wrote, “This Court has identified shocking instances of brutal violence within the facility. This review is necessarily limited, as the Court’s access to relevant information was exceptionally narrow. In other words, there were, most certainly, other incidents not collected during this Court’s review. Nevertheless, the results are staggering.”
Colucci was deserving of some incarceration, the Court held, but the “circumstances present a conundrum… [T]he defendant, like the defendant in Chavez, is over 70 years of age, faces significant health challenges and has no criminal record… Thus, a sentence of incarceration imposed, if that sentence would be served at the MDC, would most assuredly be excessive..”
The Court ruled that Colucci would remain on bond until the BOP designated him to a facility. If he is sent somewhere other than MDC Brooklyn, he will do his time there. However, if the BOP designates MDC as Colucci’s facility, the Court intends to vacate the 9-month sentence and send Colucci to home confinement instead.
David E. Patton, the former chief federal defender for New York City, told the New York Times that the BOP has evaded accountability for the deplorable state of MDC Brooklyn. “People are dying because of their inaction,” he said. “I know it’s not easy to take on your colleagues in the Bureau of Prisons. I know it’s not easy to reform a broken culture. But it’s time for some fortitude from our leaders.”
The BOP told The Times, “We make every effort to ensure the physical safety and health of the individuals confined to our facilities through a controlled environment that is secure and humane.”
United States v. Colucci, Case No. 23-CR-417, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 138497 (E.D.N.Y. Aug. 5, 2024)
United States v. Chavez, Case No. 22-CR-303, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1525 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 4, 2024)
United States v. Griffin, Case No. 22-CR-408, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 102127 (E.D.N.Y. June 9, 2024)
United States v. Santana, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 90220 (S.D.N.Y. May 20, 2024)
New York Times, Brooklyn Jail Is Too ‘Inhumane’ for 75-Year-Old Tax Scammer, Judge Says (August 8, 2024)
– Thomas L. Root