The Legal Aid Society called on the City to immediately fix the New York Department of Correction’s (DOC) inmate lookup, which has been down for roughly two weeks, as reported by the New York Daily News.

Inmate lookup is a website essential for attorneys to review a client’s release status, parole or out of jurisdictions holds, and bail amount. For families or loved ones of incarcerated clients, it is widely used to pay bail and make deposits to commissary accounts.

“We rely on it heavily. It has all the information that we need to conduct business on a day to day basis — and now that it’s not available, it’s really a hindrance on our work. It’s cutting off an avenue for release for people,” said Marie Ndiaye, Supervising Attorney of the Decarceration Project at The Legal Aid Society, noting people who want to post bail online must now do so in person. “We want people to stay home, we want people to stay safe as much as possible. If things can be done remotely or automated, we want that to happen.”