issues In January and February 2019, over 1,600 inmates were kept with little to no heat and power for a week during the January 2019 North American cold wave. Numerous inmates reported ill health and were seen banging on windows for help. Activists and some New York officials became involved in seeking to improve conditions. The incident started on the weekend of January 26–27 with a power outage. A problematic electrical panel was repaired but caught fire the next day. Power was restored on the evening of February 3, and the Department of Justice planned to investigate the incident. Inmates, family members and lawyers have said that those inmates involved in protesting these harsh conditions through non-violent disobedience and hunger strikes have faced draconian reprisals from jail staff, including being pepper sprayed, subjected to solitary confinement and having toilets shut off. According to a report in The Intercept: On all three of those housing units where men collectively refused food, jail staff shut off the valves to the toilets in all of the cells, according to accounts relayed to lawyers. Confined to their cells on lockdown, deprived of light, the men on these units now found themselves shivering on their bunks with their heads inches from toilet bowls nearly overflowing with festering feces. Notable inmates See also List of U.S. federal prisons Federal Bureau of Prisons Incarceration in the United States References External links MDC Brooklyn Admission and Orientation Manual Prison Information Brooklyn Government buildings in Brooklyn Detention centers Prisons in New York (state) Sunset Park, Brooklyn 1991 establishments in New York City