Tina Luongo, the Attorney-in-Charge of the Criminal Defense Practice at The Legal Aid Society, recently joined Bobby Cuza on NY1’s Inside City Hall calling on judges, District Attorneys and elected officials to take immediate and comprehensive steps to decarcerate City jails following a warning from New York City Department of Correction Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi last week that health and safety conditions at Rikers Island had reached a “crisis level” due to surging COVID-19 infections.

“We need to act . . . The data shows that supervised release is the way to bring people back to communities safely without any negative affect on public safety,” Luongo said. “The mayor can execute his exclusive power under 6A to release people who are serving low level city sentences right now . . . Gov. Hochul can push the state to do more, to release people who are on parole revocation hearings.  The DA’s have to stop asking for unreasonable, excessive bail and judges need to start listening.”

Watch the full segment here.