The Legal Aid Society is decrying the lack of testing as well as the overall lack of urgency from officials that has allowed COVID-19 to disastrously spread through prisons across the state. As deaths mount and the virus continues to stalk prison complexes where social distancing is practically impossible, legal advocates fear that the true extent of the coronavirus outbreak is larger than New York State has acknowledged, reports Business Insider.

In an April petition for habeas corpus, Legal Aid wrote that the DOCCS numbers “likely drastically underestimate the number of incarcerated individuals who have contracted the virus. According to its protocol, DOCCS tests only those incarcerated individuals who are symptomatic and have received a medical evaluation.”

“We don’t see any indication that the department has prioritized people with medical vulnerabilities or provided them with any additional attention, despite the fact that this pathogen preys on people with those vulnerabilities,” Stefen Short, a lawyer at the Legal Aid Society, said.