By Anne Ayotte
ZMO Law PLLC Paralegal Specialist
An Eastern District of New York judge has joined SDNY Judge Jesse Furman in refusing to send a defendant to the Metropolitan Detention Center because of the abhorrent, violent conditions at New York City’s only jail for people accused of federal crimes.
On August 5th, defendant Daniel Colucci pled guilty to a significant tax fraud, unlawfully diverting more than $1 million dollars in federal taxes intended to fund public-good programs. A crime like that would normally warrant a term of imprisonment between 18-24 months under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. But the horrendous conditions at the MDC made EDNY Judge Gary Brown think again. Lucky for the 75-year-old admitted tax fraudster, Colucci will serve a reduced nine-month sentence in federal prison, so long as it’s not at the MDC. In his order, Judge Brown noted that conditions at MDC are so “barbaric” that if the BOP choses to send Colucci there, he will vacate the decision and sentence Colucci to nine months of home incarceration instead.
Such criticisms of the notorious prison have been echoing across the internet and major news headlines. A quick Google search reveals a long-list of articles criticizing the shocking conditions that informed Judge Brown’s decision to keep Colucci out of the Brooklyn jail.
MDC was never a fun place to be, but the worst of it started in January and February of 2019, when the facility could not cope with a week-long power outage as outdoor temperatures dipped into the single digits. Media outlets exposed the dark, freezing conditions at the facility, prompting an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General. The OIG report found that: (1) there were “significant heating issues” during the outage caused by pre-existing issues, (2) officers failed to provide warm clothing and blankets to inmates, (3) the facility failed to effectively address at least two medical issues, (4) MDC leadership failed to effectively communicate their reasoning to suspend legal and social visits which disproportionately affected people held pretrial, and (5) management failed to provide proper notice or information to the public about the actual conditions of the prison.
The prison never really recovered from the chaos of that icy time as it lurched through COVID, corruptions scandals involving drugs and cell phones, and near constant instances of violence, including two horrifying recent incidents. Judge Brown cited the killing of Uriel Whyte, who was stabbed to death in June 2024 by another inmate. Whyte had been awaiting trial for more than two years before his murder at MDC. In the following month, a violent brawl in the facility left Edwin Cordero dead. He too was awaiting transfer to another federal prison. Since 2020, at least 18 people have died at the MDC.
Beyond its failure to maintain a safe environment, internal mismanagement at MDC gives rise to further concerns. There is no shortage of corruption, including an officer who was setenced in June for receiving “tens of thousands of dollars from inmates in exchange for smuggling narcotics, cigarettes and cell phones into the MDC.People locked up at MDC have easy access to cell phones and dangerous illegal drugs, suggesting that the June case was not an outlier—guards there are miserably underpaid, suffer low morale and do a dangerous and often thankless job.
The plague of inadequate infrastructure, internal corruption, and unchecked violence endemic to the MDC pushed Judge Brown’s decision. He noted that it is “routine” for both Eastern and Southern District judges to reduce defendants’ sentences based on the conditions at the MDC, and wrote that the “conditions bear heavily on the determination by the Court in this case.”
The MDC is violent, corrupt, and unfit to house prisoners. So long as these conditions remain, New York’s federal judges should heed Judge Brown’s and Judge Furman’s recent decisions and consider the effects of incarceration at MDC in crafting a just sentence.
If you have a loved one who is incarcerated at the MDC, or who might be sent there, feel free to contact our office for further information.