Inmates are banging on S-O-S on windows in Brooklyn to get reporters attention.

[MelissaB]

We're outside MDC. Inmates are banging on S-O-S on windows to get our attention. This is surreal.

Link to tweet

What's the about? Glad you asked!

These prisoners do not have the basic human necessities, temps range from 40 to 38 degrees. No electricity. No heat. Limited food

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[dewsgirl]

1. OMG how is this happening in America? I know that is the question of the day everyday.

[FirstLight]

2. No court date till TUESDAY? WTF!

Inmates or not, people will die in that kind of situation...or they will have a riot on their hands...Hell, Id light a fire or two to keep warm! this is insane, and inhumane

Which corporate entity owns that place? or is this actually State-run? Fucked up either way to wait till fucking Tuesday to even hear evidence!

[MelissaB]

3. NY Times article

No Heat for Days at a Jail in Brooklyn Where Hundreds of Inmates Are Sick and ‘Frantic’

More than a thousand inmates have been stuck in freezing cells at a federal jail on the Brooklyn waterfront that has had limited power and heat for at least this week, according to federal public defenders and leaders of the union representing the jail’s corrections officers.

“They just stay huddled up in the bed,” said June Bencebi, a case manager at the jail and the treasurer of the local chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents about 500 corrections officers at the jail.

... snip

On Thursday, Rachel Bass, a paralegal at the Brooklyn office of the federal defenders, said that she had fielded calls from about 15 inmates. “In the past hour I have gotten 11 calls,” she said. “People are frantic. They’re really, really scared. They don’t have extra blankets. They don’t have access to the commissary to buy an extra sweatshirt.”

... snip

The president of the local chapter of the union, Anthony Sanon, said the problems began around Jan. 5 when the jail first lost power. The heating issues began last week, leaving inmates and staff to face freezing weather for the first time. “We didn’t have heat in the building, we didn’t have light,” Mr. Sanon said. “The weather was actually unbearable.”

More: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/01/nyregion/mdc-brooklyn-jail-heat.html

[cwydro]

4. Inmates know Morse code?

Doubtful, but I’d be banging too.

[kag]

5. FWIW...SOS is easy.

...---...

That's why they chose "SOS" as the sign for distress--because it's so easy to remember. You don't really have "know morse code" to tap out SOS.

[cwydro]

8. Yeah, but even my friends of a certain age don't know SOS.

It IS Morse code.

My father taught it to me at a young age.

[Mariana]

19. I'm sure "even your friends" could learn it from you

if they had some motivation to do so, and if you were willing to teach them.

[KelleyKramer]

7. And whoever heard the banging also knows Morse?

If you offered me a million dollars I couldn't tell you what it was

[Chemisse]

9. I thought pretty much everybody knew Morse Code for SOS.

Maybe it's because I grew up in a military family.

Everybody should learn it though. You never know when a situation might arise when you'd need it.

[EffieBlack]

11. It only takes one person on either side to know it - they can tell everyone else how to do it

or what it means ...

[Mr.Bill]

12. Yes. Anyone who was in the military would know it.

I learned it in the Boy Scouts.

[OriginalGeek]

22. I'm 55

And it never even occurred to me there was anybody who didn't know SOS. I've never been in the military and was in cub scouts for maybe a month but SOS has been in at least one episode of damn near every cartoon and kids show I've ever seen.. hell, it's the name of an ABBA song.

[demigoddess]

10. three long, three short, three long

if I remember right.

[Throckmorton]

13. Other way around

S is three dots, O is three dashes.

OSO is however Spanish for Bear.

[USALiberal]

15. So you assume of course all criminals are stupid and clueless? Not educated? nt

[Mariana]

18. Does this really seem all that unlikely to you?

Only one inmate needs to know how to tap out SOS, to begin with. The others can learn it from him.

[Fla_Democrat]

20. Maybe they are Metallica fans

[NJCher]

6. take action thread

hey, everybody, I put up this thread with email addresses to ask our political representatives for help. Also to express your disgust directly to the prison.

Please, please take a moment. Public outrage counts!!!!

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211765155

[Delmette2.0]

16. This is what is called an emergency!

Drag a Judge into court, now.

[pazzyanne]

14. E-mail sent!

This is outrageous. The incarcerated cannot make this better without the people in charge working to solve the problem and improve the conditions.

[Honeycombe8]

17. Oh, no. Why? What's going on there? nt

[NJCher]

21. heat's been out for a month

and they are lying about it. The prisoners don't have the clothing or blankets they need to keep warm.