Public defenders warn of another Rikers Island COVID crisis
/
Public defenders have warned of another COVID-19 outbreak on Rikers Island. AP Photo/Seth Wenig
By David Brand
New York City public defenders are once again calling for the release of inmates vulnerable to COVID-19 before the coronavirus resurges inside Rikers Island jails.
After the virus infected hundreds of guards and inmates in March and April, city officials, prosecutors and judges — prodded by attorneys and advocates — mobilized to release a record number of defendants from Rikers Island. The effort drove New York City’s jail population to its lowest level since the 1940s, with many of defendants placed in community supervision programs.
But since July, the number of detainees has gradually increased to pre-pandemic levels, placing Rikers Island jails at risk of another major outbreak as COVID-19 rates spike citywide, attorneys from the Legal Aid Society wrote in a letter to New York City’s jails oversight board Thursday.
“The City has not acted strongly enough in the face of these increasingly dangerous conditions, despite escalating warnings from advocates, Board Members, and other leaders that a resurgence of COVID-19 in the jails was imminent,” Legal AId wrote to the nine-member Board of Correction.
The number of Department of Correction and Correctional Health Services staff members testing positive for COVID-19 reached 31 last week, according to Board of Correction data, up from a handful of cases per week over much of the past few months.
The number of detainees locked in housing units where staff or detainees have tested positive for COVID-19 tripled in the last week of November, Legal Aid wrote. Meanwhile, correction officers and inmates frequently decline to wear masks — if they can access them.
An inmate at the Robert N. Davoren Complex who contacted the Eagle Friday said he was struggling to find a mask and had asked his family to send him one in the mail.
The Department of Corrections points to recent data indicating that the COVID positivity rate remains below 1 percent among inmates in city jails. Correctional Health Services staff administer a COVID test to every newly admitted defendant and DOC houses people exposed to the illness in a separate unit, they said.
“We are committed to ensuring that those who work and live in our facilities are as safe as possible, and we have implemented a successful and extensive COVID Plan which includes comprehensive testing by Correctional Health Services,” said DOC spokesperson Peter Thorne. “We adapt our housing strategies according to changing data the same way the city does outside of the jails.”
But Legal Aid’s top criminal defense attorney said the rising number of people behind bars will again lead to a deadly outbreak.
Tina Luongo, head of Legal Aid’s criminal defense unit, called for the release of inmates at risk of dying from COVID-19.
“We need Governor Cuomo, Mayor de Blasio, local District Attorneys, correction departments and other relevant actors to prioritize the immediate release of our vulnerable clients. Lives hang in the balance,” Luongo said. “Failing to swiftly and meaningfully act will perpetuate the spread of the virus to a point where it will be impossible to contain.”
