New York City has been hit by the nation’s largest coronavirus-infection jail outbreak to date.
New York City was hit by the nation’s largest coronavirus-infection jail outbreak to date this week, with at least 38 people testing positive at the notorious Rikers Island complex and nearby facilities — more than half of them incarcerated men, the board that oversees the city’s jail system said Saturday.In a letter to New York’s criminal justice leaders, Board of Correction interim chairwoman Jacqueline Sherman described a jail system in crisis.
New York officials have consistently downplayed the number of infections in its prisons and jails, the Associated Press has found in conversations with current and former inmates. “We asked one of the officers and they said, ‘That’s the process we are doing now for guys who have the virus,’” Giron said, adding that others who had had contact with the man have not been questioned or notified about his status.
The first positive tests from inside prisons and jails started trickling out just over a week ago, with fewer than two dozen officers and staff infected in other facilities from California and Michigan to Pennsylvania. “There are nearly 1,500 people incarcerated on Rikers Island for low level offenses or technical parole violations who can be released immediately,” she said. “Releasing them would reduce their risk of infection, reduce the risk for all those who remain incarcerated, and reduce the spread of the virus into the public.”
He was discharged from the hospital Friday and returned to the jail, where he was immediately placed in isolation, the agency said, adding that medical and psychiatric staff were visiting him routinely.
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