PLEASE READ: My office has been hearing from our terrified clients & their families: the conditions are even worse than we initially thought on Rikers. This is looking like we’re going to see mass death. Read this thread for a breakdown of what were now hearing from those inside: 
Overflowing sewage running through a housing unit, which continued to house people before, during, and after the incident. In addition to the general inhabitability of these conditions, COVID-19 is believed to spread through fecal matter.
Squalid conditions, including units that have not been sanitized, and staff who refuse to clean out of concern for their own exposure to COVID-19.
Being turned away from the medical unit due to lack of available appointments.
Requests for medical attention (also known as “sick calls”) for people who cannot leave their cells going unanswered for as long as two weeks.
Symptomatic people not being tested for COVID-19 or having their temperature checked.
🚨Housing sick people who have not been confirmed to have COVID-19, as well as with people who are considered “high risk” due to underlying health issues, in close proximity to people with confirmed cases in newly reopened housing units.
Placing sick people in solitary confinement in lieu of medical treatment for the duration of their symptoms.
No precautions taken for people who were regularly in contact with a guard who is believed to have COVID-19 --even while people in that unit are now symptomatic.
Phones are not being sanitized between use, and people who request supplies to sanitize the phones themselves are being told that none are available.
People exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms may be provided one single-use face mask by medical staff before being sent back to their housing units without being tested, only to have those masks confiscated by guards upon their return to their units.
Sick people preparing food for general consumption.
No masks provided to people preparing food and food being served on dirty trays.
Soap is unavailable, both because it is not being provided or replaced in the communal bathrooms and because it is sold out at commissary.
Sleeping in communal dorms of roughly 50 people less than two feet apart from one another.
Guards who are coughing at work and failing to take precautions to protect the people they have contact with.
And a general panic, among both incarcerated people and staff, as this dangerous situation quickly escalates.
“Incarceration is devastating to personal and public health under normal circumstances, and inadequate access to medical care has long been and continues to be a concern for incarcerated people. This pandemic raises the stakes.”
“As jails are uniquely poor environments for stopping or containing viral outbreaks. Jail medical personnel have made this clear: the only way to truly protect people is to release them.”
Recommendations:
@NYCMayor’s proposed release of some people serving sentences of under one year from Rikers is helpful, but there are hundreds more not being released at this time who also deserve to stay healthy and be with their families during this unprecedented crisis.
@NYCMayor’s proposed release of some people serving sentences of under one year from Rikers is helpful, but there are hundreds more not being released at this time who also deserve to stay healthy and be with their families during this unprecedented crisis.
Cuomo @NYGovCuomo & state legislature must leave our bail laws intact. Now is not the time to increase jail population, just as we have already reduced the total number in jails across the state by nearly 7,000 & reduced the number of older people in Rikers by nearly half.
Governor Cuomo must use his staff resources to expedite and issue clemency for older, sick, and pregnant people and to order the release of all people detained on technical parole violations at Rikers and other local jails. 6000 people!
What can you do?
1. Visit JusticeNotFear.org and demand that @NYGovCuomo & @NYSenDems don’t repeal bail reform and send thousands more to jail. The only good news in all of this is that bail reform just enacted has saved thousands already from Rikers
1. Visit JusticeNotFear.org and demand that @NYGovCuomo & @NYSenDems don’t repeal bail reform and send thousands more to jail. The only good news in all of this is that bail reform just enacted has saved thousands already from Rikers
2. Call on @NYGovCuomo to release all the 6000 people caged on Rikers and other jails prehearing on non-criminal technical parole violations, or inside state prisons serving time for the same.
3. Call on @NYCMayor to release ALL those serving less than 1 year jail terms on Rikers for low level offenses. Somehow he found a way to distinguish between those who deserve to die & don’t in even this politically easy category.
4. Call on @NYGovCuomo to use his clemency power to get as many people who are older, have ailments or otherwise compromised, or within the last couple years of their sentences, out immediately.
