Mayor Bill de Blasio finally visited Rikers Island on Monday to witness firsthand the crisis unfolding in City jails, as reported by the Queens Daily Eagle. Legal Aid continues to demand that the Mayor use this power to remove New Yorkers from an extremely dangerous situation, twelve people have already died in Department of Correction custody this year.

The policy is already in place for the Mayor to release a significant number of individuals. Through the Early Release (6A) Program, City Hall has the power to immediately release more than 250 people serving less than a year for low-level crimes, requiring them to serve the remainder of their short sentences on work-release.

“While this visit is definitely a day late and a dollar short, if Mayor de Blasio has eyes to see, he just witnessed an unprecedented humanitarian crisis affecting thousands of his fellow New Yorkers at a facility under his own purview,” said Tina Luongo, Attorney-in-Charge of the Criminal Defense Practice at The Legal Aid Society. “We hope that the Mayor will finally move post-haste to release as many New Yorkers as possible, as dictated by the law and his authority.”

“Too many of our clients and others have passed at Rikers Island this year, and all of City Hall should be focused on preventing another avoidable death on this administration’s watch,” Luongo said.