The Legal Aid Society called on leaders in Albany and at City Hall to prioritize efforts to decarcerate prisons and local jails as COVID-19 rates continue to sore to levels not seen since the spring, as reported by City Limits.

“One of our biggest criticisms of DOCCS and the city is how reactive they’ve been when they don’t need to be reactive, when they could be proactive, when they could be responding to the evolving understanding of how to manage the crisis,” said Kayla Simpson, a staff attorney with the Prisoners’ Rights Project at The Legal Aid Society.

“It is incredibly frustrating, and heartbreaking, especially for people who have loved ones in custody, to watch mistakes being made when they do not need to be made, to watch deaths happen when they are preventable,” she continued.