Advocates Demand Governor Cuomo Grant Emergency Clemencies as COVID-19 Numbers in State Prisons Continue to Skyrocket

For Immediate Release

Contact: Dave George, (631)885-3565 - ddgeorge23@gmail.com 

(New York, NY) -- Today, the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign, Parole Preparation Project, #HALTsolitary Campaign, VOCAL-NY, Worth Rises, and Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club released the following statement as COVID-19 cases in New York state prisons continue to break record numbers:

“Governor Cuomo’s lack of action and leadership is turning New York’s prisons into COVID-19 cesspools. New data published today shows that 81 incarcerated people and 424 staff in the Governor’s prisons have tested positive for the virus. Cuomo is creating prison death camps. He is destroying lives, ripping apart families, and proving once again that he does not care about communities, especially communities of color, across New York State impacted by his prison system. If the Governor doesn’t take immediate action to broadly grant clemency, especially to older people and many others in prison vulnerable to COVID-19, then his legacy in this moment will be defined by the preventable and needless deaths of New Yorkers behind bars.”

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