[link removed] [[link removed]]Dear John:

Everything we are hearing about conditions inside NY jails and prisons, particularly Rikers Island, has been incredibly disturbing. 30 staff and 54 incarcerated people have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

There isn't enough hand sanitizer or soap. Inmates are still kept in close quarters, even as COVID-19 cases rise. As Rikers' Chief Physician Ross MacDonald put it, "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."

Thanks to public outcry -- including from many of you reading this email -- Mayor de Blasio announced the release of 75 inmates from Rikers Island prison, as well as the rapid review of hundreds more.

But there are still more than 5,200 inmates at Rikers, many of whom are there for small technical parole violations, short-term sentences for-low level offenses, or held on bail before trial. Over 900 people are older than 50, and more than two-thirds have chronic health conditions. Rikers is a fundamentally unhealthy place, with limited access to basic sanitation and physical distancing.

The City needs to move faster to release the 475 people who are city-sentenced, but the Mayor can only do so much about inmates on parole warrants, which require action at the state level. More than 600 people still detained at Rikers are there for technical parole violations, often things as small as missing a mandatory curfew or other parole rules.

If Governor Cuomo acts now, many more people can be let out immediately. Click to tweet at @NYGovCuomo and @NYCMayor to urge them do everything in their power to relieve the situation at Rikers → [[link removed]]

TWEET NOW >> [[link removed]] Tweet Text : [[link removed]] @NYGovCuomo & @NYCMayor: The situation at #RikersIsland is a humanitarian disaster in motion! New Jersey is releasing 1000 people, you can act now to save hundreds of lives. (via @BradLander)While the situation at Rikers is especially dire, these problems extend throughout our country's prisons and jails.

On Sunday, I joined U.S. Reps. Jerry Nadler, Nydia Velazquez, and Hakeem Jeffries, and correctional staff leaders outside Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center, where an inmate was just tested positive for COVID-19 .

I couldn't help but remember how thousands of us stood out there one year ago, making noise so that the people inside -- who did not have heat in the dead of winter -- could hear that we were with them.

That was a humanitarian crisis for those inside, while the guards and those of us outside could go home and escape the cold. With COVID-19, the people coming and going from their jobs at correctional facilities can bring the virus with them.

This pandemic reminds us that the walls that we build to try to separate are a whole lot more permeable than we think.

The virus does not respect prison walls. We see today that the conditions we impose on people in there -- unsafe, unsanitary, and crowded -- also put the guards, the lawyers, the doctors, and all of us at risk. We have to raise our voices and demand action to protect everyone.

Governor Cuomo, who has shown the country great leadership in recent days, needs to lead on this issue, too. Click to tweet at @NYGovCuomo and @NYCMayor to tell them to do everything in their power to ensure safety for inmates and staff at NY prisons and jails → [[link removed]]

Thank you so much,

-- Brad

Lander for NYC
456 Fifth Avenue, 3rd Floor, Suite 2
Brooklyn, NY 11215
[email protected]

[link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]]

unsubscribe: [link removed]