Lawmakers are calling for action after thousands of inmates in a Brooklyn jail went without electricity and heat during the polar vortex

Kathy Willens, File via AP

• Inmates in a Brooklyn federal jail have reportedly endured freezing temperatures for more than a week.
• Onlookers saw inmates flashing lights and banging the windows of the Metropolitan Detention Center after having gone more than a week without electricity, heat, or warm food.
• Some heat was apparently functional, but a protest moved forward Saturday afternoon to demand full restoration of electricity, heat, hot water, and warm meals or relocation for inmates. 
• Local and federal lawmakers called for immediate action from the Bureau of Prisons regarding the facility, which houses more than 1,600 inmates. 

Inmates in a Brooklyn federal jail have reportedly endured freezing temperatures for more than a week, during which there has been no electricity, heat, or warm food.

Onlookers saw inmates flashing lights and banging the windows of the Metropolitan Detention Center in the borough's Sunset Park neighborhood about a week after the heat and power issues became known.

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from Business Insider https://read.bi/2G5rpOx