A 25-year-old man with  severe, persistent mental illness  has died in solitary confinement in the MDC Brooklyn federal jail - the second death in the notorious lock-up in the last three months.

Godfrie Cole was found unresponsive in his cell in the Sunset Park jail's segregated housing unit on Tuesday, with pills nearby according to sources familiar with his death. His cause of death isn't known, but sources said authorities suspect he overdosed on drugs.

Jail staff tried to revive him, and medics took him to a nearby hospital, but he couldn't be saved, according to a Bureau of Prisons statement.  No employees or other incarcerated individuals were injured and at no time was the public in danger,  the statement reads.

 Godfrie Cole was a healthy 25-year-old with his whole life ahead of him. His birthday was next month. Instead, he died in MDC's special housing unit, where he was supposed to be closely monitored,  said his lawyers, Siobhan Atkins and Benjamin Yaster of the Federal Defenders, in a statement  Mr. Cole's senseless death shows that MDC still cannot be trusted to protect the health and lives of its inmate population, even in its most secure areas. 

Atkins is asking MDC's legal staff to preserve all of its documents and medical records about Cole, including videos of the hallway outside his cell for the six hours before his death, and of Cole in his cell for the 24 hours leading up to his death.

 It's unacceptable,  Cole's twin sister, Angel Cole, told the Daily News.  Although it's jail, and it's a place for people to be locked down, I think that they still should be protected. Why does he even have access to drugs? 

Cole, who'd been locked up since January 2024, was sentenced on April 28 in Manhattan Federal Court to four years behind bars for a convenience store robbery in the Bronx.

He was still housed in MDC Brooklyn as he awaited prosecution for an alleged assault on another inmate.

In a Thursday letter about his death, Atkins referenced the sentencing judge, U.S. District Court Judge Paul Engelmayer, recognizing  how unsuitable MDC is for a defendant like Mr. Col

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