Fed jail in sick shape: lawsuit

LIFE INSIDE Brooklyn’s federal jail is filthy and inhumane. It stinks — literally — and the food isn’t fit for consumption.

These are among the complaints lodged by a group of convicts — including disgraced pol Pedro Espada Jr. — in a new class action lawsuit against the Metropolitan Detention Center.

Espada and five other white-collar criminals are banding together to fight the conditions at the Sunset Park facility (photo) that they say violates their rights against cruel and unusual punishment.

Only one plaintiff, who’s 63, remains in the lockup. Three others have either been transferred to other prisons and halfway houses or are out altogether.

The ex-state senator, 64, is serving out his five-year sentence for embezzlement in a Brooklyn halfway house, according to the suit.

The plaintiffs contend that the fetid facility, meant as a holding pen for prisoners with open cases, is “effectively a high-security prison,” and a nasty one at that.

They say the place has no sunlight or fresh air — but it does have “the constant presence of airborne fecal matter, mold, asbestos and other unknown particulate matter.” Espada’s “asthma condition has noticeably worsened” from his time inside, the suit claims.

The food is as low-quality at the air, they say. The preparation areas “are habitually contaminated by the visible presence and droppings of rats, mice, cockroaches and flies.”

Medical care is provided in places filled with vermin droppings, and staff accuse the men of “faking” illness and give scant care to their complaints, according to the lawsuit.

On Thursday, the Bureau of Prisons said it “does not comment on matters that are the subject of ongoing legal proceedings.”