From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.

Today, a Times investigation found that inside of Brooklyn jail, more than 1,000 inmates were

locked inside freezing cells with no heat for 23 hours a day, prompting an investigation

by the Department of Justice, why the involvement of the Department of Justice may not be the

turning point. It appears to be. It's Wednesday, February 13th.

And when do you first hear about this story?

So it's the end of January and like much of the country, New York is heading into a deep cold spell.

Mm hmm. Hi, Stefan Holt. And this is news for now for Thursday, January 31st.

First up, yes, the weather. I don't even have to tell you it's cold out there.

It was just four degrees when we shot this this morning with a wind chill of more than 12 below.

Other parts of the area felt like negative 30.

It's after midnight on January 31st. I take a look at my email and there's an email from an unfamiliar address.

The subject line is MDC Brooklyn without power and it says no heat, no power, no proper food.

Over 72 hours in lockdown goes on to say, please help.

Can't complain at the prison with our names as they retaliate against inmates and block our visits.

Any Coriol covers New York for the times.

I immediately thought if this is real, there must be some sign of it, especially in New York.

It's hard for anything to happen without it being tweeted.

So what I do see is one tweet from a lawyer who said two weeks before that she had been turned away

because the jail said that it was testing a generator.

So I sent her a message and she writes back saying, yes, there is an issue.

She's getting information that there is no power since Sunday afternoon when there was an electrical fire.

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