Overcrowded MDC Facility Puts Added Strain of Shorthanded Federal Officers

As a result of Federal budget cuts, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons has shifted hundreds of inmates into one of the two buildings that comprise the Metropolitan Detention Center Brooklyn campus, according to union officials with the American Federation of Government Employees who represent the facility’s Correction Officers and other employees.

The concentrating of 95 percent of the facility’s inmates into just one building puts both inmates and the staff at risk, warned Anthony Sanon, president of Local 2005 Council of Prisons. At the same time, a continued shortage of Correction Officers is forcing management to fall back on shifting employees from their normal duties as teachers, medical professionals and counselors to fill Correction Officer assignments.