The Legal Aid Society again condemned Governor Cuomo and the New York State Department of Community Supervision (DOCCS) for failing to promptly free vulnerable New Yorkers who qualify for New York’s early release initiative under which incarcerated individuals who are within 90 days of their release date and who are serving sentences for non-violent, non-sex offenses are eligible for immediate release.

In a new report in the New York Daily News, Cathy Citro, a Legal Aid client, described her experience of being held in DOCCS custody for 26 additional days despite qualifying for early release.

Legal Aid has long called on the Governor to use his powers to release more New Yorkers vulnerable to COVID-19 as the state grapples with a second wave of the virus.

“(The state is) certainly not making (these decisions) very quickly and certainly not at the 90-day mark, which is when we all understood that this would be happening. There’s an enormous amount of delay, and it’s leading to a lot of anxiety for people who are inside. It seems to be … a problem that really needs to be resolved as we go into a second wave,” said Erin Harrist, Supervising Attorney of the LGBTQ+ Law and Policy Unit at The Legal Aid Society.