BRONX, New York — At least 17 workers and 21 inmates at Rikers Island and other New York City jails have tested positive for coronavirus, or COVID-19, according to the city Board of Correction.

In a letter to the city’s criminal justice leaders, dated Saturday, Board of Correction interim chair Jacqueline Sherman said the jails are facing a crisis. She urged the release of thousands of inmates to stem the spread of coronavirus.

In addition to the 21 inmates, 12 Department of Correction employees and five Correctional Health Services workers who tested positive, another 58 individuals are being monitored in quarantine units, according to Sherman.

“It is likely these people have been in hundreds of housing areas and common areas over recent weeks and have been in close contact with many other people in custody and staff,” Sherman wrote in the letter. “Given the nature of jails (e.g. dense housing areas and structural barriers to social distancing, hygiene, and sanitation), the number of patients diagnosed with COVID-19 is certain to rise exponentially.”

The board is calling on the city’s district attorneys and top judges to decrease the jail population to slow the spread of the virus. The letter identified four groups of inmates who should be released:



People over 50 years old

People with underlying health conditions

People detained for administrative reasons

People serving city sentences

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