Only 1 con didn’t recover: jail
A private jail for government cooperators that once held rapper Tekashi69 has been “ravaged” by coronavirus yet ceased testing inmates, a new lawsuit charges.
The Queens Detention Facility officially reports that 38 inmates have tested positive for coronavirus and all but one have recovered. The jail, operated by the publicly traded GEO Group, reports that 25 staff tested positive and 22 have recovered.
But a lawsuit charges that the extent of the ongoing outbreak remains unknown.
“Over 90% of the inmates tested at GEO Queens were positive for COVID-19. Despite this alarming statistic — or perhaps because of it — respondents have stopped testing altogether, ceased regular temperature checks or monitoring in any manner for the virus, and inexplicably declared that all but one inmate has ‘recovered’ from the virus. In reality, many inmates remain symptomatic and all remain at grave risk,” the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Brooklyn Federal Court reads.
The Daily News has previously reported that cooperating witnesses at the 222bed jail feel betrayed by the government they chose to help in the hopes of lighter sentences.
The relatively unknown jail grabbed headlines when it emerged that it held the feds’ highest-profile cooperator in years, Tekashi69. The asthmatic rapper was released in early April due to the risk of coronavirus.
The suit is similar to others filed over conditions at the city’s federal lockups, MDC Brooklyn and MCC in lower Manhattan during the pandemic. Those suits have resulted in rare inspections of the facilities by an outside expert.
“Our company has taken comprehensive steps at all our facilities to address and mitigate the risks of COVID-19 to all those in our care and our employees, who are on the front lines making daily sacrifices to provide care for all those in our facilities. We take our responsibility to ensure the health and safety of all those in our care and our employees with the utmost seriousness,” a GEO Group spokesman said. catching of