The Legal Aid Society decried an outbreak of COVID-19 positive cases among New Yorkers currently incarcerated at New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) facilities, including Shawangunk (Ulster Co), Wallkill (Ulster Co), Fishkill (Dutchess Co) and Green Haven (Dutchess Co), as reported in today’s New York Daily News.

In Shawangunk alone, for example, the number of incarcerated people found to be infected with COVID-19 more than doubled (from 47 to 101 people) between the DOCCS reports of August 7, 2020 and August 8, 2020. These new results are particularly troubling because DOCCS has still tested only about 20% of the people held in its facilities, likely making the actual number of afflicted people far higher than DOCCS has yet acknowledged.

“As we have said since the beginning of this crisis, prisons and jails are breeding grounds for COVID-19, and DOCCS does not have a plan to protect the most vulnerable in its custody,” reads a statement from The Legal Aid Society. “This is also especially alarming because COVID-19 cases are at record lows throughout the state. We demand that Governor Cuomo and DOCCS release our most vulnerable clients immediately who are at imminent danger of contracting this virus.”