Attorneys from The Legal Aid Society’s Parole Revocation Defense Unit have issued a call for Governor Andrew M. Cuomo to release prisoners held on parole violations from incarceration at Riker’s Island in today’s City Limits.

Attorneys Laura Eraso, Kevin Lerman, Caitlin Miller, and Melanie Robinson released the statement in a bid to spare vulnerable inmates from exposure to COVID-19. New York’s parole violation system is run by the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (“DOCCS”).

“DOCCs has failed to take action commensurate with the public health emergency we face,” the attorneys write. “The agency’s inaction amounts to reckless indifference to our clients’ fate and is an act of violence jeopardizing not only the lives of prisoners, but those who work on Rikers, their families, and all of us who depend on New York City’s limited medical infrastructure.”

Read the full piece here.