Venting anger at courthouses
Holding cells lack upgraded system vs. COVID: advocates
Cramped holding cells in city courthouses were left out of the picture when COVID-19 led the city to equip court buildings with state-of-the-art ventilation systems, the Daily News has learned.
As the pandemic runs through its final months, the court buildings’ 500 prisoner holding cells look no different than before — they’re still poorly ventilated, even though during the past year they were still heavily used.
“They’re like pens that animals are held in, in farms. They’re usually packed full of people,” said Emma Goodman, a lawyer who works with prisoners.
“Most of them, if you were really social distancing properly, could maybe hold two — at the most, four — people,” said Goodman.
She says her clients fear for their lives. “We’ve gotten reports from people that are scared they’re going to die, and rightfully so,” Goodman said.
The Department of Citywide Administrative Services, which maintains and operates court buildings, upgraded air filtration systems in all the city’s courtrooms in September.
The agency admits the holding cell vents were not fixed.
“Setting aside holding cells, DCAS has ensured that all criminal courthouses have ventilation systems” that exceed the level recommended by leading medical organizations, agency commissioner Lisette Camilo wrote on Feb. 18 in a letter to the Legal Aid Society shared with the Daily News.
Holding cells at Manhattan Criminal Court, most of Brooklyn Criminal Court, almost all of the Queens Criminal, Family and Civil courthouses, and some of the courthouses on Staten Island were found to have a low level of filtration in October, according to a DCAS evaluation survey shared with The News.
Nick Benson, DCAS’ spokesman, said the agency evaluated all court building mechanical systems and made upgrades “where feasible.” He said the agency doesn’t oversee structural adjustments to jail cells for security reasons.
If the ventilation systems in the cells are a problem, Benson said, it’s up to the NYPD, the city Department of Correction and the state Office of Court Administration to “adjust accordingly.”
Tina Luongo, attorney-in-charge of the Legal Aid Society, said DCAS ignored its responsibilities in ignoring the ventilation upgrades in holding cell areas — and shouldn’t put the onus of dealing with the issue on other agencies.
“We do not accept that DCAS has no role to play in taking steps to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 simply because other agencies are involved,” Luongo said in a written response to the agency’s handling of the matter.
Conditions in the holding cells are not a court responsibility, said Office of Court Administration spokesman Lucian
Chalfen.
“The buildings aren’t ours,” Chalfen said. “We occupy the courtroom, which is why we do what we do in the courtrooms. The holding cells, our court officers don’t work the holding cells. Coming in, it’s the police department, and then going out, it goes to corrections.”
NYPD spokesman Sgt. Edward Riley did not specifically address courts’ holding cells but said the department has tested portable air filtration units for use in smaller areas like precincts and conference rooms. He added it’s “exploring whether grant funding may be available to purchase additional units for use where needed throughout the city.”
Police acknowledge the poor conditions in courthouse holding cells are horrid.
During a hearing last June in a lawsuit charging the NYPD with violating New York state’s 24-hour arrest-to-arraignment requirement, NYPD Assistant Deputy Commissioner Janine
Gilbert described cells that hold 150 people, but have only one toilet and no beds.
Some cells had running water, but none had hand sanitizer, Gilbert said.
Infected prisoners in holding cells aren’t just a safety risk to their fellow detainees or jail and court staff. After their time in the crowded cells and courtroom appearances, many are released.
And defendants will join everyone else in the courtroom when in-person criminal and civil trials resume on March 22.
“It’s just a bunch of finger pointing and nobody doing what is really very simple, serious updates to air filters that they’ve already done in dozens of courthouses throughout the city in public areas,” said Goodman.
“I think it tells us what we already know, which is that the lives of people that are charged with crimes are not valued. It is playing out in a very stark and very visible way in the courthouses as well as in the jails and prisons around the state.”