Pedro Espada, the former NY State Senator who, convicted on felony charges, spent time in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center [MDC], is, with five other white collar convicts, suing the US government for the filthy and inhumane conditions of this grotesque and medieval torture chamber that is euphemistically called a federal detention center.
Keith Raniere is presently an inmate there – being held without bail in the pre-trial detention section of the prison.
Espada and his co-plaintiffs are suing to change conditions at MDC – which, they say, violate American prisoners’ rights against cruel and unusual punishment.
From what I heard from former inmates, this appears to be a meritorious lawsuit. If any zoo in America were as cruel to monkeys or lions as MDC is to human prisoners, there would be intense public outrage. It is not known if Raniere will join in the lawsuit against the facility but he does have quite a history of suing people who he has defined as his enemies.
There is in this otherwise humorless story of a savage American prison system, a touch of irony as it relates to Raniere.
While MDC is bitterly destructive to the health and well-being of the human beings housed there [all wane in health from the day they arrive], Raniere’s abusive treatment of DOS slaves — with starvation diets, sleep deprivation, forced sex and excessive requirements to jog — was, in a sense, a form of human torture that resulted in a similar decline of health to what is being experienced by prisoners at MDC, including Raniere.
The lawsuit contends the facility – which mostly houses prisoners with pending cases – is “effectively a high-security prison”. There is no sunlight. No fresh air. It has “the constant presence of airborne fecal matter, mold, asbestos and other unknown particulate matter.”
At MDC, the food is also extremely low-quality — and, according to the lawsuit, very unhealthy. The preparation areas at MDC “are habitually contaminated by the visible presence and droppings of rats, mice, cockroaches and flies” which often end up in the meals of prisoners.
My MDC source tells me Raniere personally finds the food abhorrent. He is having great difficulty with the food there — which, again, is ironic since he punished so many women over their food and their attachment to food.
The lawsuit also alleges that the medical care at MDC – if provided at all – is administered in places filled with vermin droppings. Raniere recently had to spend some days in the MDC clinic – according to my source – because of high-blood pressure.
It is sad to ponder which is more dirty – his prison cell, the clinic there, or his sex lair on Hale Drive prior to Kathy Russell cleaning it up of course. Hmmm…I wonder if the Feds would let Kathy into MDC to clean up any of the areas that are frequented by Raniere. Not to worry, she may be there on her own soon enough.
According to the lawsuit, corrections staff would often say prisoners were “faking” sicknesses and give scant attention to their complaints. Some at MDC reportedly believed Raniere artificially raised his high blood pressure by obtaining one or more of the contraband substances that are available in prison. Raniere has a long history of hypochondria – and often told close followers such as Barb Jeske and Pam Cafritz that he was a death’s door and would die soon.
On June 12, Raniere made an appearance in court. Some said he looked red in the face. At least one observer thought he looked like a chipmunk.
One plaintiff in the lawsuit, David Crespo, 63, said jail staff insisted on performing a colonoscopy in the Special Housing Unit, which isolates inmates as punishment or for protection. Crespo cancelled the procedure, but was still kept in solitary confinement for three days.
A joke once made the rounds – among anti-Raniere people – that when doing a colonoscopy on Raniere, the doctor was not sure which orifice to examine since there was an abundance of shit coming out of his mouth.
All kidding aside – MDC is not fit for a Vanguard, let alone human beings. Not a one of us would put our cats or dogs there.
And when you consider that most of the people who are incarcerated there are simply waiting to go to trial [they haven’t been convicted of anything yet and are presumed innocent], you realize just how unfair it is for the Feds to house them there. This is cruel and unusual punishment and one wonders how Americans tolerate such barbaric conditions imposed on fellow human beings. Only a psychopath or a Vanguard would wish to see this kind of thing done to his enemies — and in Vanguard’s case, maybe even his followers.
“This is an important lawsuit to bring the prison conditions for minimum security sentenced prisoners up to basic, Eighth Amendment constitutional standards that everyone is entitled to in America, regardless of their underlying crimes, and to compensate inmates whose rights have been violated,” said attorney Eric Hochstadt, who’s taken the case pro bono.
The Bureau of Prisons declined comment.
A June 2016 report by the National Association of Women Judges faulted MDC’s lack of sunlight, fresh air and medical services.