(dramatic orchestral music)
- [Narrator] Across the country,
local governments are releasing thousands of inmates
to stop the spread of the coronavirus within their jails.
- We are looking to release the inmates
that we think are appropriate to release.
- Our population within our jail is a vulnerable population
just by virtue of who they are and where they're located.
- [Narrator] More than a dozen states, including California,
Ohio, and New York, are removing prisoners
to create space in crowded facilities.
In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio has coordinated
the release of hundreds of inmates.
Governor Andrew Cuomo has also stepped in,
with plans to release more than 1000 inmates in the state,
400 of them in New York City, according to the state's
Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.
The city is now the epicenter for the virus,
with more than 23,000 cases.
In its jails, the coronavirus is also spreading quickly.
- The virus is spreading especially fast in Rikers Island
because of the close proximity
that the prisoners have to one another.
They might be sharing a cell or in a bunk bed
or in beds that are placed close to each other,
and that's really what's driving the spread
of the disease there according to the people who work there.
- [Narrator] The Department of Correction said
that as of Friday, 183 people had tested positive
for the virus in the city's jails.
Just over a week earlier, on March 18th,
there were three cases.
The virus has killed one department employee so far.
- They've eliminated outside visits to the jail,
they're placing the inmates who are sick with the virus
into a contained area, and they're also trying to practice
social distancing and the use of protective gear for staff,
but the virus continues you to spread there
at an alarming rate. (dramatic orchestral music)
- [Narrator] Board of Correction,
the department's oversight agency,
has sent multiple letters urging city officials
to release even more inmates.
It says officials should prioritize people
over 50 years old, people with underlying health conditions,
people detained for administrative reasons,
and people serving so-called city sentences
or sentences of a year or less.
Dr. Robert Cohen, who has worked for 40 years
as a physician in jails, now sits on the Board.
- What will happen too quickly in the jails
if we don't decrease the population rapidly enough
is that people will be locked down
and it will create a dangerous situation,
so as many as possible should be released right now.
- [Narrator] There are less than 5,000 people
currently in the city's jail system.
While hundreds have already been released
with plans for more,
the Board's letter identified more than 2500 people
it says should be considered for release.
- In order to release the inmates,
the mayor, the city's district attorneys,
the state parole board, and the Office of Criminal Justice,
which manages the jails, would all have to agree
on the release of these prisoners.
- [Narrator] In October, before the coronavirus,
the city approved plans to both close Rikers
and cut the number of people in the city's jails
down to 3300 by 2026.
Cohen says the Board is asking the city
to speed up that plan.
- Time is not on our side,
because over time, people staying in the jails
are at great risk for getting infected.
- [Narrator] Cohen was the Director
of Medical and Mental Health Services at Rikers Island
when the AIDS epidemic began in 1981.
He was on the Board during the H1N1 flu epidemic,
and he said he's never seen anything like this.
(siren wailing)
Dr. Ross MacDonald, the current chief physician
of Rikers Island, also urged the city
to release as many inmates as possible.
On March 18th, he tweeted,
we cannot socially distance dozens of elderly men
living in a dorm, sharing a bathroom.
On this topic, de Blasio told reporters Tuesday
that the jail system,
which was built to hold 20,000 inmates, has space.
Rikers Island has entire buildings not currently in use.
- And we're using the space we have
to create some distancing in general,
to certainly be able to isolate anyone
who needs to be isolated purposefully.
- [Narrator] When someone is presenting symptoms
in a New York jail right now,
department staff inform correctional health services
who then screen that inmate.
If clinically indicated, the inmate is then placed
in special housing, so-called contagious disease units.
- Eventually, staff are saying that that facility
is gonna fill up, and then,
the plan is to probably open up additional buildings
on the island for the housing of these inmates
who may have the virus, but the issue is
that these other buildings are decrepit
and they may not have the facilities
that are needed for people to live in them.
That's according to city officials I spoke to
and experts on criminal justice in New York.
- [Narrator] Removing people from jails
would be a logistical challenge.
Each inmate the city decides to release
is considered individually,
sometimes with input from multiple officials,
and that takes time,
but it's more than a logistical challenge for the city.
- Trying to strike this balance
between the humanitarian need to get everyone
that we can get appropriately out of our jail system out
and be mindful that there are also
real public safety concerns here.
- [Narrator] Aside from releasing inmates
and creating space in jails,
the city is also taken efforts
to stop inmates being sent to Rikers
as they may enter the jail with the coronavirus.
- There's every indication that this is an issue
that may become more severe in the coming weeks,
and so it's really a multi-faceted approach
to fixing this problem of a contagion
in the city's largest jail.
- [Narrator] Both the city's Department of Correction
and Correctional Health Services said they were not able
to accommodate interview requests at this time.
(humming bass tones)