Emergency buttons that allow detainees at the Metropolitan Detention Center to call for help when they’re locked in their cells have often malfunctioned or been ignored for years, according to court records and close observers of the jail, most recently in an incident where two detainees were trapped as smoke filled their cells.
Earlier this month, two detainees at the infamous federal jail in Sunset Park repeatedly hit an emergency button as smoke filled their locked cell, but no one responded for half an hour, the Federal Defenders of New York said.
The emergency buttons are installed in cells throughout MDC so detainees can call for help when they can’t leave their cells, including during lockdowns. Various court filings cite frequent lockdowns at the facility in recent years, initially to prevent the spread of COVID, but later due to dire staffing shortages. Attorneys, judges and incarcerated people have expressed concerns that malfunctioning or ignored emergency buttons could endanger the health and safety of people in the jail…