AOC, Jeffries, Velazquez call on DOJ to release vulnerable prisoners

Advocates, family members and local lawmakers demonstrated for humane treatment at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn in February 2019. Eagle file photo by Todd Maisel

By Rachel Vick

Three members of Queens’ Congressional delegation have called on the U.S. government to release sick and elderly detainees from federal prison to protect the safety of inmates and employees.

U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Nydia Velazquez and Hakeem Jeffries stepped up their advocacy for the release of prisoners and detainees, building on a letter from Ocasio-Cortez and Velazquez demanding information about the Bureau of Prisons’ plans to prevent COVID-19 behind bars. 

In a joint statement with U.S. Reps. Ayana Pressley and Rashida Tlaib, Ocasio-Cortez and Velazquez asked the Department of Justice and BOP to “exercise existing authority to grant compassionate release of incarcerated people who are elderly or have underlying health conditions, and who pose no risk to public safety.”

Velazquez also joined U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries to urge the DOJ and the BOP to release detainees at a press conference Sunday, following a report that a detainee had tested positive for COVID-19. 

 “It will be a catastrophe if the Department of Justice continues to proceed as if everything is normal,” Jeffries said. “Nothing is normal in the era of the global pandemic surrounding the coronavirus.” 

“We should all be working together to provide relief to those individuals currently within an already strained system so we do not accelerate the spread of the coronavirus both within the prison system and certainly within the general public,” he added.

The members of Congress also called for the release of individuals in pretrial detention and for officers to make fewer arrests.

Velazquez called for “rapid, proactive department-wide steps” to keep staff and detainees safe.

“The bottom line is this — all of our institutions in the public and private sectors are having to make significant changes to their operations in order to address this unprecedented public health crisis,” she said.