A Republican member of the House Oversight Committee raised concerns about New York City’s plan to release prisoners during the coronavirus pandemic, just as Mayor Bill de Blasio announced hundreds of inmates have been let go so far.
Georgia Rep. Jody Hice, the ranking member of Oversight’s Subcommittee on Government Operations, wrote to New York City Department of Correction Commissioner Cynthia Brann on Tuesday, telling her “we are concerned about the New York City Department of Correction’s recent efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19 by releasing potentially dangerous and contagious inmates back into the city.” The Georgia Republican said he wants information about “what mitigation efforts are in place to ensure public health and safety.”
As part of an effort meant to stop the spread of the coronavirus among inmates, de Blasio said during a Tuesday afternoon press conference that 900 prisoners have been released as of late Monday night.
The pandemic has hit New York particularly hard. The New York Times reported the statewide number of confirmed cases increased by 9,298 to 75,795 on Tuesday, with 43,139 of the cases in New York City. There are more than 10,900 hospitalized patients, including 2,710 in intensive care rooms that have ventilators.
As of Tuesday afternoon, there were more than 838,000 confirmed coronavirus cases around the world, and more than 40,700 deaths tied to the infection, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. In the United States, there were more than 177,000 cases, which have resulted in more than 3,440 deaths.
Hice’s letter to Brann expressed concern about how “some of these inmates may have been exposed to the virus in prison” and “despite being asymptomatic, these inmates may be carriers of the virus and possibly transfer it to others in what is the most highly populated area of the country.”
“The City’s law enforcement officers are at unique risk of contracting COVID-19 because of their high amounts of interaction with the general public,” the lawmaker added.
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said Tuesday his department lost five members in the last week due to the coronavirus.
“Not only have we lost five members, but our members have lost family members. This thing does not discriminate,” Shea said. “We’re at about 15% of the uniformed forces out sick. I can tell you that translates to over 5600 people out sick.”
“We’re going to get through this,” Shea emphasized, adding that the NYPD was still prepared to carry out its law enforcement duties. “We’re not just enforcing social distancing. We’re making gun arrests. We’re still closing out homicides. And in our spare time we’re delivering babies,” he said.
Hice warned Brann that “increasing the number of convicted criminals on the streets — some of whom may even be carriers of the virus — while there is a significant reduction in law enforcement capacity is likely a recipe for disaster.”
The House Oversight member asked the New York City prison chief to provide the committee with “all documents and communications between the Mayor’s Office and the New York City Department of Correction regarding releasing inmates due to COVID-19” as well as an anonymous list of all the inmates that have been and are planned to be released, including their charges and convictions, the time left in their sentences, and whether they had been tested for COVID-19. Hice also asked for a teleconference briefing by next week.
“Americans are already worried enough about their well-being as a result of the coronavirus emergency, and now is not the time to put their health and safety at further risk,” Hice told the Washington Examiner. “This is also not the time to make things more difficult and dangerous for the heroic law enforcement officers on the front lines of this fight. If Mayor de Blasio intends to release hundreds of inmates, the public deserves to know what steps his administration is taking — if any — to keep them safe in return.”
Hice isn’t the only one worried about the prisoner releases. District attorneys in New York City criticized de Blasio and Brann on Monday for proposing a “haphazard process” for releasing “high-risk” criminals.
De Blasio defended his plan on Monday.
“The only way to achieve social distancing in our facilities and clinically monitor those most at risk for COVID-19 related illness is to release as many people as possible,” and “that’s why we have chosen to pursue the release of medically vulnerable individuals and those with lower-level offenses,” the Democrat argued.
Last week, Attorney General William Barr said, “We want to make sure that our institutions don’t become Petri dishes.”
Barr also released a Justice Department memorandum “to ensure that we utilize home confinement, where appropriate, to protect the health and safety of Bureau of Prisons personnel and the people in our custody.”
