items not on today's agenda but within the jurisdiction of the mdc. each speaker is limited to three minutes. please approach the microphone for give your comment card to the mod staff. item 10. information item. correspondence. item 11, discussion item. council member comments and announcements. item 12, adjournment. >> thank you, heather. i'm going to ask for motion for approving of today's agenda. >> i move that the minutes be approved. >> thank you, co-chair blacksten. all in favor? okay. go ahead and approve the minutes. sei so we're going to move onto agenda number 3, public comment, items not on today's agenda but within the jurisdiction of the mdc. i believe we have a speaker card. >> actually, two. the first speaker is eileen. >> good afternoon, thank you for this opportunity to bring to your attention a problem my family is facing with the city planning department. my husband and i have three children, 12, 5 and 3. one with profound multiple disabilities and the other on the autism spectrum. my husband has grown up in san francisco for the p

amy: voices from the protest outside mdc.fficials said that electricity was restored, but many cells still lack heat. brad lander is a new york city council member. he is with us now. it has the electricity been restored? brad: it was restored last night at 6:30, around one full week after it happened. it is cold in that facility. amy: how can there have been no plan, with this polar vortex, people freezing inside? brad: no emergency provisions. when the power went out a weeeek ago, they did not act with any urgency. had there been a round-the-clock contractor, the power could have been back tuesday. amy: the mayor's in hundreds of blankets. they did not distribute them? brad: that was from the prison staff, no sense of urgency, no sense that there were human beings in those cells, that needed light. their toilets were in their cells, they couldn't shower for 48 hours. amy: who is responsible? brad: the federal bureau of prisons. there will be hearings. amy:

. >> victor, putting it in context, the mdc is cold under normal circumstances.anyone who has been there, certainly. so that is problematic to begin with. i've been there several times, clients there, et cetera. you have a number of hoops for inmates to jump through before they can have viable lawsuits. there is any parade of horrible circumstances that can happen, obviously, when you lack heat and hot water but a number of things they are up against, specifically like what? because you addressed the issue of remedy. there is no heat, no hot water and incidentally before moving on, everyone is blaming each other. the warden says there is heat and hot water and hot meals, right? then you have the issue where they are blaming conedison and they are saying it's a electrical problem and we have nothing to do with it. beside that because it goes to the specific facts how do you redress it? so many federal laws that are anti-suing the federal government, it becomes problematic, like what? like the prisoners litigation reform that went into effect i think mid '90s so ma

what happens, the conditions in both mdc and brooklyn and mcc, which is in manhattan, plus other jailswater, lock downs, no access to information, those are common things we hear a lot. >> could you as you were there, it's haunting hearing the clanging, but could you hear crea screams? >> yesterday, people starting to hear some things b, but otherwise, it was just that silent sos clanging on the windows from inside. >> there's a lawsuit now that's been filed in federal court to restore constitutional rights to these inmates. as we said, they have the heat on. i know you guys fully support this. what does justice look like you here? >> like the warden ludsi inlosi his job. a plan that makes sure this doesn't happen again and frankly, justice when we talk about jail and prison conditions, we have to talk about mass incarceration. dekars rating. you know, the fact is that as haunting as those sounds were, at least the people loved ones and advocates on the street heard. but in many facilities, rikers, upstate new york, in immigration detention centers that are behind hurricafence, you don

. >> reporter: a heated protest outside mdc, demanding to know why inmates inside are freezing, reportedly stuck in cold, dark cells for days. >> these are families in here. >> reporter: the problem began with a fire last sunday, elected officials who toured the facility today say some prisoners still have no heat, others have too much. some have not showered in days, many receiving no medical attention. no one, they say, has electricity or telephones to communicate with loved ones. >> the people who are there have no sense of emergency. >> we are fixing the situation right now as we speak. we got electricians working around the clock. >> reporter: that's what the union president told us, but congressman jerry nadler said the warden allowed contractors to leave at 2:30 many they ran out of materials. >> we are eager to solve this situation that the contractors left for the day and won't be back until monday. >> reporter: the city's offer to help fell on deaf ears. >> the city of new york tried to give generators, tried to give blankets, but the warden has not accepted it. we ask them why a