U.S. District Judge Margo K. Brodie ruled on Friday that the Federal Bureau of Prisons was failing to provide proper phone access to counsel for inmates in New York City detention centers, criticizing them for barring sick inmates from speaking to attorneys during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She pointed out that the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan and the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn [the latter houses Keith Alan Raniere] are not making proper arrangements for phone calls from sick inmates to lawyers.
During the pandemic, when most prisoners are on lock-down, and there are quarantine areas for the sick and potentially sick, MDC officials claimed that they were only able to accommodate a maximum of 20 phone calls a day for its 1,700 inmates.
Normally, inmates speak to attorneys on so-called “federal defender” phones in hallways, or in office phones arranged for that purpose. The hallway phones are not private and anyone can listen. It is not known if these phones are tapped.
Offices phones are now out of the question since BOP officers do not want to bring infectious inmates into offices to make calls.
Judge Brodie came up with a novel idea.
Judge Brodie, however, is demanding that the BOP figure out a way for isolated inmates to make calls to lawyers. [All in-person visits have been suspended.]
At the MDC, most inmates are innocent [until proven guilty] since they are defendants awaiting trial. Some, like Raniere, are awaiting sentencing.
MK10ART’s painting of Keith Alan Raniere in a setting where he belongs.
Raniere is in lock-down and Frank Report is trying to confirm if he is in quarantine because of an actual infection of COVID-19.
Raniere was also unable to contact his attorneys by phone, prompting his lead attorney, Marc Agnifilo, to petition the court to make a phone call available to him, which was granted. It is not known if the call has been made.
Raniere, who faces sentencing in May, needs to review – and then prepare objections to – the presentencing report prior to his sentencing, currently scheduled for May 21.
After Judge Brodie made her rebuke of the BOP’s management of the MDC and MCC, Deirdre von Dornum, of the Federal Defenders, reported that some calls were being permitted through she heard nothing from inmates who had fallen ill.
Deidre von Dornum of the Federal Defenders thinks that even sick inmates ought to be able to contact their lawyers.
Von Dornum said that attorneys know nothing about their clients’ condition once they are isolated for showing symptoms of COVID-19 or testing positive for coronavirus.
“We learn that they’re infected or symptomatic. We ask if we can speak to them so that we can know how they are, speak to their families, make bail applications as necessary, and we are told that that is not possible,” von Dornum said.
The judge agreed this is a problem.
“That is an issue that BOP needs to resolve,” said Judge Brodie. “Lawyers should have access, even if their inmates are isolated.”
Jeffrey Oestericher, an attorney for the Orwellian-named Department of Justice, had a different view than the judge.
He argued that inmates don’t need to make phone calls during the time they are quarantined since they will either get better or die fairly soon. If they die, they don’t need a lawyer, and if they get well, the lawyer can wait the few weeks the prisoner is in quarantine.
“Inmates in isolation often have a certain time period that they’ll be in isolation and then they’ll be released,” Oestericher said. “And each inmate is in a different situation where they might be actively very sick, near the end, awaiting test results, etc.”
Judge Brodie did not completely buy into that argument, saying that the BOP should not decide when an inmate was too sick to take a call from his attorney.
“Clearly, if the inmate is that sick, they should be in a hospital,” Judge Brodie said.
Still, the BOP argued, it is an impossible problem to solve. The sick or potentially sick cannot make calls because staffing is down 10% since COVID-19 and janitorial staffing, which would clean the affected areas in the halls, is down 20%.
How could they solve such a thing?
The judge says they should make calls to lawyers; the BOP says they cannot bring them out to make the calls and risk infection.
The BOP and management at MDC and MCC were stymied.
They’d like to go along with the judge, but they simply can’t bring out sick or quarantined prisoners to where the phones are; that would risk infection to others.
There is a reason why Margo K. Brodie became a federal judge: Her ability to solve complex legal and logistical issues.
She came up with a stroke of pure genius: How about bringing a cell phone to them?
MDC Prisoners
“I appreciate the circumstances, and I know how challenging it is, but even if it does mean that you have to take a cellphone to an area where this isolated inmate is, BOP must figure out a way to make this happen,” Judge Brodie added.
After this brilliant and innovative thought was articulated, legal counsel for MDC agreed it was both a novel and stupendous idea.
“We absolutely will,” said MDC lawyer Seth D. Eichenholtz, adding that BOP would “make sure there is a method by which this can happen.”
But counsel for the MCC pushed back.
“MCC views the protocol a little differently….,” said Oestericher.
He felt negotiations should take place over the actual need for an inmate to talk to an attorney before a call was actually approved.
“We agree to a procedure where we would confer with the Federal Defenders about the timing and need for the call,” said Oestericher.
Judge Brodie did not buy into this argument completely either. She further said that the inmates, when they do talk to their attorneys, should not have to make calls in the halls, but should be allowed to speak privately to their attorneys.
Which brings us back to the cell phone idea.
A simple cell phone cost less than $50 a month.
Why didn’t anybody at the BOP think of this sooner?
How do you make sure that the prisoners only use the cell phones for lawyer calls if they are allowed to operate the phones themselves? If the cell phones are made available for lawyer calls to other prisoners in other isolation wards or other separate wards to ensure the respective separation of prisoners with different quarantine statuses, who ensures that the hygiene and quarantine requirements, for example the disinfection of the cell phones, are prescribed, monitored and carried out? There are no rules or regulations for this yet. And these regulations are necessary to implement such a plan and to effectively maintain the quarantine, which counteract the possible transmission of the infection. Information from the BOP’s management MDC and MCC is lacking and journalists should ask the right questions, and those responsible should give the right answers and take action.
NiceGuy7.21
3 years ago
To the naysayers & un-American losers,
The United States of America has a constitution for a reason…
Even people accused of crimes have rights!
Is everyone guilty because the FBI/DOJ say so?
Think Frank Parlato & Roger Stone!
Do Process? Ever hear of it?
Mitch Garrity
3 years ago
I thought cell phones in a federal or state prison was a felony? If so the law would need to be changed.
You do realize that Judges are supposed to be impartial between the government and the defendant?
Moreover Judges are there to ensure that defendants receive fair trials and adequate representation by attorneys.
His work has been cited in hundreds of news outlets, like The New York Times, The Daily Mail, VICE News, CBS News, Fox News, New York Post, New York Daily News, Oxygen, Rolling Stone, People Magazine, The Sun, The Times of London, CBS Inside Edition, among many others in all five continents.
His work to expose and take down NXIVM is featured in books like “Captive” by Catherine Oxenberg, “Scarred” by Sarah Edmonson, “The Program” by Toni Natalie, and “NXIVM. La Secta Que Sedujo al Poder en México” by Juan Alberto Vasquez.
Parlato has been prominently featured on HBO’s docuseries “The Vow” and was the lead investigator and coordinating producer for Investigation Discovery’s “The Lost Women of NXIVM.” Parlato was also credited in the Starz docuseries "Seduced" for saving 'slave' women from being branded and escaping the sex-slave cult known as DOS.
Additionally, Parlato’s coverage of the group OneTaste, starting in 2018, helped spark an FBI investigation, which led to indictments of two of its leaders in 2023.
Parlato appeared on the Nancy Grace Show, Beyond the Headlines with Gretchen Carlson, Dr. Oz, American Greed, Dateline NBC, and NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, where Parlato conducted the first-ever interview with Keith Raniere after his arrest. This was ironic, as many credit Parlato as one of the primary architects of his arrest and the cratering of the cult he founded.
Parlato is a consulting producer and appears in TNT's The Heiress and the Sex Cult, which premiered on May 22, 2022. Most recently, he consulted and appeared on Tubi's "Branded and Brainwashed: Inside NXIVM," which aired January, 2023.
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How do you make sure that the prisoners only use the cell phones for lawyer calls if they are allowed to operate the phones themselves? If the cell phones are made available for lawyer calls to other prisoners in other isolation wards or other separate wards to ensure the respective separation of prisoners with different quarantine statuses, who ensures that the hygiene and quarantine requirements, for example the disinfection of the cell phones, are prescribed, monitored and carried out? There are no rules or regulations for this yet. And these regulations are necessary to implement such a plan and to effectively maintain the quarantine, which counteract the possible transmission of the infection. Information from the BOP’s management MDC and MCC is lacking and journalists should ask the right questions, and those responsible should give the right answers and take action.
To the naysayers & un-American losers,
The United States of America has a constitution for a reason…
Even people accused of crimes have rights!
Is everyone guilty because the FBI/DOJ say so?
Think Frank Parlato & Roger Stone!
Do Process? Ever hear of it?
I thought cell phones in a federal or state prison was a felony? If so the law would need to be changed.
Mitch…
…..My, my, my
How is it you know all about prison rules?
I find it a bit peculiar.
“A simple cell phone cost less than $50 a month.
Why didn’t anybody at the BOP think of this sooner?”
There are three ways to do things.
The Right Way
The Wrong Way
and
The Government Way.
Invariably The Government Way is THE WORST WAY.
You realize the judge is also part of the government?
You do realize that Judges are supposed to be impartial between the government and the defendant?
Moreover Judges are there to ensure that defendants receive fair trials and adequate representation by attorneys.
No. The judge is part of the government. They are there between the prosecutor and defense and the jury to ensure a fair trial
Does that mean you work for the government?