A partial power outage has left a Brooklyn prison without heat or light for days

The Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York
(Image credit: Kathy Willens/Getty Images)

A partial power outage at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, has left inmates without lights or heat since Thursday, and authorities say the problem will not be fixed before Monday. Temperatures in the prison are as low as 49 degrees as outside temperatures dip below freezing.

"The reported conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center are appalling," said New York Attorney General Letitia A. James. "Prisoners and detainees have rights, and those rights must be enforced."

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.