Inmate dies at Queensboro Correctional Facility, one of five state prison deaths so far
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DEMONSTRATORS OUTSIDE THE QUEENSBORO CORRECTIONAL FACILITY. PHOTO COURTESY OF CENTER FOR COMMUNITY ALTERNATIVES
By David Brand
UPDATE [April 21, 2020 at 11:45 a.m.] This story has been updated to include the name of the inmate who died, information first reported by the Daily News.
A 60-year-old inmate serving the final few weeks of his sentence at Queensboro Correctional Facility in Long Island City is among five New York state prisoners who have died as a result of the coronavirus, according to information published by the state Department of Correction and Community Supervision Monday.
The inmate, Leonard Carter, was serving the last six weeks of his sentence for second-degree murder and died on April 14, according to DOCCS, which lists him as “discharged” from the prison. Carter was convicted in 1996 and had been granted parole after serving more than 24 years of his 25-to-life sentence.
He was scheduled for release on May 26, according to DOCCS records.
Carter died the same day that advocates rallied outside the Long Island City prison to urge Gov. Andrew Cuomo to grant clemency to the people inside, each of whom are serving the final few months of their sentences.
“I woke up this morning thinking about what horror and trauma must be happening inside the New York State prison system,” said Mark Shervington, a formerly incarcerated man from Queens who now works with the Release Aging People in Prison, or RAPP, Campaign. “They’re sitting there practically waiting to die.”
Shervington was among a handful of demonstrators who rallied outside the prison on 47th Avenue and Van Dam Street Tuesday. Inmates at the “short stay” lockup are on the final 120 days of their sentences and sleep in open dormitories, where they say social distancing is all but impossible.
The report issued Monday was the first time the state released a breakdown of COVID-19 deaths and test results at individual prisons.
DOCCS did not immediately respond to a request for information about the dead detainee.
Three inmates have died from COVID-19 at Sing Sing and another at Otisville Correctional Facility, according to the DOCCS report, which is current as of 3 p.m. Sunday.
The report indicates the person who died at Queensboro was the prison’s only inmate tested for COVID-19.
DOCCS reported 211 total positive cases statewide. The results of 56 other tests are still pending, while 83 people tested negative, according to the report.
The coronavirus has spread rapidly through jails and prisons throughout the state.
Hundreds of Rikers Island inmates and staff members have confirmed cases of COVID-19. At least 36 inmates at a privately run detention facility in Springfield Gardens have tested positive for the illness, and the number keeps growing
