The Legal Aid Society sounded the alarm over the lack of any clear strategy governing state efforts to vaccinate the nearly 500,000 people incarcerated in the state’s prison and jails, as reported by The New York Times.

Public health experts broadly agree that incarcerated people – typically unable to safely socially distance – are at particularly high risk for contracting and spreading the COVID-19 virus.

“We have people dying on a weekly basis,” said Stefen Short, a lawyer for the Prisoners’ Rights Project at The Legal Aid Society. “What are the plans? There’s got to be a consistent message coming out of Albany and coming out of these agencies on this. Otherwise, you’re just generating a lot of fear.”