NEW YORK .- Two prisoners from the maximum security prison Coxsackie , in Greene County , died last week of December from COVID – 19 , representing the fifth and sixth among incarcerated persons in New York State prisons who died from the virus in the last three weeks.
Information on deaths was released by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Oversight (DOCCS).
“Incarcerated people and their families are starting the new year with a COVID nightmare – 19. Six incarcerated New Yorkers have died from the virus in the last three weeks of 2020, ”reported the organizations Aging People in Prison Campaign, Parole Preparation Project, and HALTsolitary Campaign.
According to the activists, to despite these tragedies and the repeated calls from defenders and lawyers of people in prison, district attorneys, medical experts, legislators state and federal, philanthropists and even celebrities to the governor, asking for clemency that saves lives, Cuomo is not taking real action, they denounced.
Consequently, defense organizations demand that state legislators must step up and approve reforms related to the COVID pandemic – 19, including the Elderly Parole Act, the Fair and Timely Parole Act, and the Alte Humanitarian alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement (HALT) , to prevent further unnecessary deaths behind bars.
Bills in the Legislature
- Elderly Parole Act: would allow the State Parole Board to provide an evaluation for the possible release on parole to persons incarcerated for 55 years or more who have already served 15 years or more, including some of the oldest and sickest incarcerated people in the state.
- The Fair and Timely Parole Act: would provide more meaningful parole reviews for incarcerated individuals who are already eligible for release conditional.
- The Humanitarian Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act (HALT ) would end the torture of prolonged solitary confinement and replace it with more humane and effective alternatives, while allowing true medical isolation as needed.
According to figures that these organizations manage, so far they have died 24 people in the New York State Correctional System. This time two people at the Coxsackie Correctional Center, on 31 December 2020. Previously, DOCCS reported that an incarcerated person died of COVID – 19, on 29 December, another in Auburn on 24 December, another at Clinton Correctional Facility on 22 December and another at Woodbourne Correctional Facility on 17 December.
They also revealed that, since December 1, 1, 305 Incarcerated people have tested positive for COVID – 19. There are currently outbreaks of the virus in Attica, Bedford Hills, Bare Hill, Clinton, Woodbourne, Groveland, Cayuga and Walsh correctional facilities.
Over the nearly nine months of the pandemic thus far, Governor Andrew Cuomo has granted a total of ten pardons to New Yorkers in prison, less than the President Donald Trump and the governors of California, Illinois, Oklahoma, Kentucky and other states of the country. Activists insist that instead of granting pardons, Governor Cuomo sentenced thousands of people to solitary confinement, which only exacerbates the damage and spread of COVID – 19.
Who could be released
There are thousands of people in New York State prisons who are eligible for parole, of 50 years or more, or incarcerated for a non-criminal technical offense that may be paroled or that are within one year of their release date.
4.0 22 persons already eligible for parole
3, 305 persons arrested for technical violation of probation
8 people of 31 years or more
6 , 524 people within a year of release (including women with babies who are part of the Bedford Hills daycare program and the who are pregnant).