The Legal Aid Society condemns Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Department of Correction and Community Supervision (DOCCS) for failing to quickly release pregnant women currently incarcerated at Bedford Hills Correction Facility in Westchester County, New York, as reported by the New York Daily News.

On April 28, 2020, Legal Aid issued a demand letter calling on the Governor and the DOCCS to immediately release ten pregnant women currently incarcerated at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County, New York to protect them and their unborn children from serious complications from COVID-19.

On April 30, 2020, Governor Cuomo’s secretary announced that DOCCS would release incarcerated women who are pregnant or postpartum if they have not committed a violent felony or sex offense and are within six months of release. On May 5, 2020, DOCCS announced that eight pregnant women would be released.

“Two weeks after (Cuomo’s) announcement … several such women remain incarcerated, including one about to give birth,” said Sophie Gebrselassie, a staff attorney with the Prisoners’ Rights Project at The Legal Aid Society. “We do not know if it is bureaucratic incompetence, disingenuous interpretation of Cuomo’s direction, or simply the criminal justice system’s inhumane rigidity that is keeping these women locked up.”