Advocates urge Cuomo to release older prisoners as COVID surges behind bars

Assemblymember-elect Zohran Mamdani called on Gov. Cuomo to grant clemency to older adults behind bars Monday. Photo courtesy of RAPP

By David Brand

Dozens of advocates, elected officials and family members of incarcerated New Yorkers rallied in Manhattan Monday to urge Gov. Andrew Cuomo to release older adult inmates as COVID once again surges inside state prisons.

Since the start of the pandemic, at least 18 inmates and five Department of Corrections and Community Supervision staff members have died from the coronavirus, including one man detained at Queensboro Correctional Facility, according to state data. A total of 1,705 staff members and 1, 737 inmates have tested positive for the illness, the state reports. There were 560 active cases as of late October, the Daily News reported.

Nawanna Tucker, a Queens community leader with the organization Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP) Campaign, urged Cuomo to grant clemency for her husband, who has been behind bars for more than three decades. 

“I’m standing with my 10-year-old daughter who hasn’t seen her father since February,” Tucker said. “We don’t want our loved ones making masks, coffins, and hand sanitizer. We want them home with us.”

RAPP organized the event outside Cuomo’s office, attracting a handful of Queens elected officials, including Assemblymembers-elect Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas and Zohran Mamdani.

Roughly 9,000 New York inmates are serving life or virtual life sentences, meaning they will likely die before they are eligible for parole.

Cuomo, they pointed out, has commuted inmates’ sentences just three times since March and 24 times during his nearly 10-year tenure.

“Clemency can be done with the stroke of a pen,” Mamdani said. “If you are wondering why people have not been granted clemency now, it’s because of two words: Andrew Cuomo.”

The Governor’s Office did not provide a response to questions about Cuomo’s plans to grant clemency to additional inmates, but shared statistics on the number of individuals released from prisons during the COVID crisis.

Nearly 800 individuals have had their low-level parole violations cancelled and roughly 2,350 people convicted of non-violent, non-sex offenses were released if they were within 90 days of their parole date.