MISHA ERWITT/NY DAILY NEWS ARCHIVE VIA GETTY IMAGES
mor opened LeMarquis to former
inmates, federal inspectors from
the Bureau of Prisons found that
parts of the building were turning
to ruin. Inspectors documented
“low-paid, untrained employees,
poor building conditions, from vermin and leaky plumbing to exposed
electrical wires and other fire hazards, and inadequate, barely edible
food.” Federal prison officials were
close to canceling the contract in
1992, according to media accounts
at the time, but they said condi-
tions at the facility started to improve after frequent inspections.
In a federal lawsuit, one LeMarquis employee, Richard Moore,
alleged that he had been severely
beaten by another employee —
at the direction of management
— after he reported poor conditions to federal inspectors. In another federal lawsuit, four female
inmates asserted that they had
been raped and assaulted by Esmor’s “resident advocate” — the
employee who was supposed to
protect inmates by handling their
grievances. The female inmates’
cases were settled; Moore’s case
New York
City Mayor Ed
Koch (left)
with the
Rev. Jesse
Jackson
at a press
conference
discussing
the plight of
the homeless
in the wake of
four deaths at
the Brooklyn
Arms Welfare
Hotel in 1986.