The nation’s federal detention facilities remain coronavirus-free, a prosecutor told a Brooklyn federal judge.
In a letter this week, attorneys for Darin Hamilton — a 61-year-old facing murder charges for several 1990s slayings — insisted he should be released from Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center because his age and poor health put him at high risk of catching the virus.
But Assistant US Attorney Tanya Hajjar said in an opposition letter that Hamilton is still a danger to the community — and that no inmates at MDC or any other federal facility have tested positive for COVID-19.
MDC inmates are being screened for possible coronavirus symptoms — if they show signs they’ve contracted the virus, they are quarantined and tested, Hajjar’s letter said.
Additionally, there is a 30-day suspension in place for inmate transfers and social visits to MDC, the letter states.
On Tuesday, Brooklyn federal Judge Margo Brodie denied Hamilton’s request to be sprung from the slammer, court records show.
Other federal inmates have also asked for release for fear of contracting COVID-19.
An attorney for another MDC inmate who faces robbery and drug charges and who is HIV positive submitted a request on Tuesday for his client to be held on house arrest while he awaits trial.
Last week, a federal judge declined to send an accused meth dealer to MDC due to the outbreak, arguing that the “more people we crowd into that facility the more we’re increasing the risk to the community.”
On Tuesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said city officials are considering releasing certain high-risk suspects from local custody.