Jail oversight commissioner urges large-scale Rikers release — already a city goal
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Dr. Robert Cohen (fourth from right) and the Board of Correction have urged the city to release thousands of Rikers inmates. Eagle file photos by David Brand
By David Brand
A commissioner on the nine-member board that oversees the New York City jail system has called on Mayor Bill de Blasio to release thousands of Rikers Island detainees amid the COVID-19 outbreak in city jails — a reduction that is already in the mayor’s plans.
The extensive release would save the lives of inmates, staff and their families while enabling the city to meet a decarceration goal well ahead of schedule, said Board of Correction Commissioner Dr. Robert Cohen, a former director of the Montefiore Rikers Island Health Services.
The city has set a goal of reducing the jail population to 3,300 by 2026 as part of a plan to close Rikers Island jails and move pretrial defendants and people serving city sentences of less than a year to four new “borough-based” jails. About 7,000 people are currently detained in New York City jails.
“The number isn’t going to go down to 3,300 because people’s behavior changes, it’s going to go down because the city changes” how it treats defendants, Cohen said. The Board sent a letter to the city, state and local prosecutors urging the large-scale release of detainees on March 21.
Cohen said city officials, judges and district attorneys needed to take an all-hands-on-deck approach to the crisis in the jails in order to release at least 2,000 people.
“There are 2,000 [people who can be released] based on the number who are city-sentenced, the number who are seriously ill and the number of older people [behind bars],” Cohen said. “Those people have five to six medical problems. They’re on medications.”
The Board of Correction identified at least 2,185 detainees in their letter to city and state leaders, including 551 inmates serving city sentences, 906 detainees over age 60 and 666 people held on technical parole violations.
At least 75 inmates and jail staff have tested positive for coronavirus, prompting intense advocacy from public defender groups and local lawmakers to release thousands of people who are particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus.
“COVID-19 is spreading rapidly at Rikers Island and other local jails, endangering our clients, correction staff and all of New York City,” said Tina Luongo, the top attorney in the Legal Aid Society’s Criminal Defense Practice. “Stop sending people to Rikers and let these New Yorkers out immediately. Anything else is too little, too late.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday that the city would release 200 inmates by the end of the day and that the city will move to release another 300 “immediately.”
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz has so far consented to the release of “approximately” 30 inmates from Rikers Island, according to a statement from the Queens DA’s Office.
Prosecutors across the city have consented to the release of about 250 people so far, the Daily News reported. Nearly half of those detainees, 118, were charged in Brooklyn. Another 71 were charged in Manhattan and 28 were charged in the Bronx. The State Island DA’s Office did not share the number of inmates they had consented to release.
In Queens, a panel of “nearly a dozen prosecutors” has been considering defendants for release based on the age, criminal history, time left on their sentence and their current health, the Queens DA’s Office said in a statement.
“The panel has also reached out to the victims of the crimes committed by these defendants to consider their positions in making recommendations before presenting its findings to the District Attorney for her final decision,” the statement continued.
Even before COVID-19 swept through New York City, advocates sounded alarms about its likely impact in jails.
“They’re already quarantined and that will spread like wildfire,” Akeem Browder told the Eagle on March 3.
Browder, an advocate for the rights of the incarcerated, was detained on Rikers Island. He founded the Kalief Browder Foundation in honor of his brother, who committed suicide following a three-year stint on Rikers.
“I fear that if there were to be an outbreak, that our loved ones are not prepared, or the jails are not prepared to handle it,” he added
