By Michele Evans / NYweeklyRecord.com / Date: 9/29/2026
Category: Corrections / Criminal Justice / Public Safety / Accountability
NEW YORK CITY, NY –
Two people held at Brooklyn’s federal jail say smoke filled their cell while an emergency call button failed to bring help, according to the Federal Defenders of New York. Their account puts a basic safety question back in front of the Bureau of Prisons: What happens when someone in a locked cell cannot reach an officer?
The incident occurred Sept. 18 at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park, Gothamist reported. Federal Defenders said another person in custody set toilet paper on fire and pushed it under the cell door. The two men inside pressed the emergency button, shouted and kicked the door, but no officer responded for roughly 30 minutes, the defense organization said.
The Bureau of Prisons gave a different account of the response. Spokesperson Scott Taylor confirmed that a detainee ignited toilet paper and said staff responded promptly, opened the affected cell and cleared the smoke. Taylor said no one was injured. The agency did not directly answer Gothamist’s questions about how many emergency buttons at MDC Brooklyn were broken or what was being done to fix them.
Those unresolved questions matter because the Sept. 18 account is not isolated. Lawyers and federal judges have documented complaints about unresponsive or malfunctioning emergency buttons at MDC Brooklyn for years. In a 2020 visit connected to a class-action case, U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres tested buttons that did not work. Defense lawyers later reported similar problems during the COVID-19 pandemic and after.
A January 2024 opinion by U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman described broader failures at the jail, including severe staffing shortages, prolonged lockdowns and delayed medical care. Furman wrote that the record raised grave concerns about conditions inside the facility. His opinion followed the death of a person in custody and detailed evidence that emergency medical needs were not consistently handled with the urgency they required.
The latest smoke incident presents a narrower but immediate test. A working call button is not a convenience in a locked cell. It is the only direct line many detained people have when smoke spreads, someone collapses or violence erupts outside an officer’s view. If the button does not work, the jail’s safety system depends on staff hearing screams through steel doors and responding in time.
No independent public report has yet established exactly how long the men waited, whether the button malfunctioned or whether an officer saw the alert and failed to respond. Those points remain disputed. The absence of a public accounting leaves families, defense lawyers and the courts without a clear answer about whether the same failure could happen again.
The Bureau of Prisons should disclose the condition of MDC Brooklyn’s emergency-call system, how often each unit tests it, how quickly failed devices are repaired and what backup procedure is required when a button does not work. A federal jail that locks people behind heavy doors also assumes responsibility for giving them a reliable way to summon help.
This case is about more than one smoky cell. It is a measure of whether the federal government has corrected conditions that judges and attorneys have warned about for years. Until the agency answers the operational questions, the people inside are being asked to trust a safety system that they say failed at the moment they needed it.
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