Queens Assembly candidates urge lawmakers to demand speedy jail release

Rikers Island. AP Photo by Seth Wenig

By David Brand 

Three progressive Assembly candidates from Western Queens have drafted an open letter to their would-be colleagues, urging the borough’s elected officials to use their influence to accelerate the release of detainees and inmates from New York jails as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases climbs. 

Zohran Mamdani, Mary Jobaida and Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas — left-wing candidates each challenging incumbents in the Queens assembly delegation — say Queens lawmakers must step up to pressure Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz to speed the release of vulnerable detainees on Rikers Island or other city jails. At least 21 detainees and 17 staff members in New York City had tested positive for COVID-19 as of Saturday.

“Although some elected officials in Queens have spoken out on this issue in general terms, none have publicly called on the three people with the power to enact the needed policy changes,” the three candidates wrote in a letter addressed to “city councilmembers, state assemblymembers and state senators of Queens.” The organization New York Communities for Change also signed the letter. 

“In a borough that has become a center of decarceral leadership and organizing, that is unacceptable,” they added. “This is unconscionable — and it’s going to get people killed.”

The city has so far released 23 detainees from its jails — far fewer than advocates and public health experts say is necessary to truly address the COVID-19 outbreak in the close confines of a detention facility. The city will consider releasing another 200 other detainees, Mayor Bill de Blasio said. 

There are roughly 7,000 detainees in city jails, most of whom are awaiting trial. An average of more than 700 people per day were detained in city jails for technical parole violations last year, according to state corrections data. Their release requires state action.

The Queens candidates are not alone in sounding the alarm for immediate release.

The physician who oversees health services at city jails on warned March 18 of a pending crisis in the jails.

“A storm is coming,” said Correctional Health Services Chief Medical Officer Ross MacDonald in a tweet thread that generated significant media attention. “We cannot change the fundamental nature of jail. We cannot socially distance dozens of elderly men living in a dorm, sharing a bathroom. Think of a cruise ship recklessly boarding more passengers each day.”

In a letter Saturday, the Board of Correction, which oversees city jails, urged New York’s “Criminal Justice Leaders” to “immediately remove from jail all people at high risk of dying of COVID-19 infection and rapidly decrease the jail population.”

The Queens DA’s Office has consented to reduce the sentences of at least five people in city jails, according to city officials and defense attorneys in Queens. Three Queens defendants were included on an initial list of 40 defendants that the city determined were particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, according to the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice. It is unclear whether any have been released. 

Katz did not respond to multiple emails and phone calls seeking comment on the number of people her office has consented to release.

Mamdani, who is challenging Assemblymember Aravella Simotas in District 36, said the city and state have done “next to nothing” to release people at risk of dying from COVID-19 and called on local lawmakers to step up their advocacy. “Our officials have a moral obligation to be leading the call for decarceration in this critical moment,” he said.

Mary Jobaida, who is challenging Assemblymember Cathy Nolan in District 37, said failure to intervene on behalf of detainees and jail staff “would be a grave injustice to us all and to the community as a whole.”