In an op-ed in today’s New York Daily News, Tina Luongo, Attorney-in-Charge of The Legal Aid Society’s Criminal Defense Practice, joins with representatives from New York defender organizations to demand an expansion of the release of vulnerable prisoners from local jails and prisons.

While Gov. Cuomo has in recent days authorized the release of select groups of individuals deemed “at-risk” of infection to the coronavirus, thousands more remain susceptible due to their age or pre-existing medical conditions. The Legal Aid Society and its partner organizations estimate that “more than 10,000 are at grave risk from the COVID-19 virus” in city and local jails.

“By acting, the governor would not only protect at-risk individuals, sparing them the terror of spending this crisis incarcerated; he would protect us all,” the op-ed states. “By reducing prison overcrowding, he would lower the infection risk for the corrections officers who work in these facilities each day and return to their families and communities each night. He would ease the pressure on the doctors and ill-equipped local medical facilities that otherwise will be forced to care for incarcerated individuals who fall ill. He would save lives.”

Read the full piece here.