Advocates Call For Release Of LIC Prisoners Amid Pandemic

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — Criminal justice advocates are lobbying the governor's office to free the prisoners incarcerated at the Queensboro Correctional Facility in Long Island City to protect them from the spread of the new coronavirus.

Advocates say one employee has died of the coronavirus and at least six prisoners have tested positive inside the state-run facility, which is located on Van Dam Street and 47th Avenue and houses more than a hundred inmates serving the last 120 days of their sentences.

Inmates and their family members told NY1 last week that one floor of the six-floor prison is quarantined and that they sleep just two feet away from each other, making social distancing next-to-impossible.

"I am literally talking to you right now with a shirt wrapped around my face because we don’t have masks," James Castro, who is incarcerated at the facility, told NY1. "We don’t have the proper protection we need to avoid being in contact with this virus."

Lazara Almonte, who is Castro's mother, and criminal justice advocates from across the city donned masks for a rally Tuesday outside Queensboro Correctional Facility calling on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to grant clemency to the prisoners inside.

Speakers included New York State Assembly Member Latrice Walker, two men who were previously incarcerated at Queensboro Correctional Facility and representatives from the Release Aging People from Prison Campaign, the Center for Community Alternatives, Brooklyn Defender Services, New York County Defender Services and the NYC Board of Corrections.

A spokesperson for the state Department of Corrections said the agency "continues to evaluate all options in response to this public health crisis while preserving public safety."

At least 150 prisoners, 618 workers and 24 parolees in the state's correctional system had confirmed cases of the new coronavirus as of Tuesday, according to the agency. Officials have refused to provide data for individual facilities due to "security reasons," a spokesperson said.

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