Attorneys from The Legal Aid Society penned a joint op-ed in today’s Times Union calling on Governor Andrew Cuomo to “vigorously” use his power to grant clemency and order the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to free vulnerable New Yorkers from state prisons in the face of surging COVID infections.

The attorneys – Stefen R. Short, Supervising Attorney with the Prisoners’ Rights Project; Rachel Pecker, a staff attorney with the Criminal Appeals Bureau; and Alex Lesman, a staff attorney with the Special Litigation Unit – warned that a failure to take decisive action could result in “needless suffering and death.”

“At a minimum, New York should release, without delay, all those deemed eligible under the modest early release plan the governor created in the spring,” they write. “But the state must not stop there. For the sake of all New Yorkers, not just people in custody but also staff and the family, friends, and neighbors they come in contact with, the state must expand its meager release initiative and drastically reduce its prison population.”

Read the full piece here.