Maggot-infested meals being served to inmates at federal jail, lawyers say
New York — Brooklyn’s troubled federal jail has been serving maggotinfested beans to detainees, according to defense lawyers.
The apparent barfinducing food conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center were detailed in a letter sent on behalf of Joseph Elias, a convicted arsonist who’s asking for time served after being held at the Sunset Park jail for more than 20 months.
“The MDC had begun serving him maggot-infested food in the SHU (segregated housing unit) as well as food to which he is allergic, including fish, which is listed as an allergy in his medical records,” wrote defense lawyer Michael Robotti in a letter to Brooklyn Federal Court Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall, who’s scheduled to sentence Elias this week.
“Joseph showed us what appeared to be maggots that were in his food during a video call. As a result of the maggots and allergens, Joseph stopped eating the food being served to him.”
Elias’s lawyers asked MDC’s lawyers on March 15 and March 19 that he no longer receive infested food or fish, and that he be given Ensure to help him regain the weight he’d lost, but the agency blew off both requests, Robotti wrote.
“The ongoing harsh conditions of confinement at the MDC warrant time served here. Joseph needs mental-health and drug treatment; far from providing him the support that he needs, the MDC is exacerbating Joseph’s conditions,” he wrote.
His letter, and the request for leniency, comes on the heels of a Manhattan federal judge’s ruling that conditions at the MDC are so bad they constituted “extraordinary reasons” not to lock up another defendant awaiting sentencing in a drug case.
Elias isn’t the only one there dealing with maggot-infested meals.
“This is the worst I’ve ever known it to be,” said defense lawyer Esere Onaodowan. One of her clients, who she didn’t name, was served infested and spoiled food during a 20-day stay in the SHU, and he’s lost 15 pounds as a result, she said.
“Recently, within the last two weeks, there’s been maggots in the beans they gave them. The chicken is partially cooked, but then also spoiled, rotting meat,” she said. “The milk is served four days after the expiration date, so it’s often spoiled.”
The problems aren’t limited to solitary confinement — Onaodowan said her client has worked in the jail kitchen, where he would remove cockroaches and bug parts from the food before serving it to his fellow detainees.
Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesman Scott Taylor wouldn’t answer questions about the specific complaints about the MDC, though he offered general comment about how the federal prison system is committed to the safety and health of its inmates.