July 23, 2020: New York, New York
The Group Demands Every Incarcerated New Yorker Have Access to COVID Testing and Timely Results, and Calls on Leaders of the State Senate and Assembly to Hold a Hearing on COVID-19 in NYS Prisons
The Release Aging People in Prison Campaign released the following statement in response to breaking news by the Daily Star that Governor Cuomo and the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) have not
provided the results of 1,118 COVID-19 tests taken by incarcerated older people and others with serious health issues weeks ago:
“Governor Cuomo continues to prove that he does not value the lives of incarcerated people and their families. He says Black Lives Matter but clearly his words don’t extend to the lives of Black people and other New Yorkers incarcerated in his state prisons. The Cuomo administration has made clear their ability to easily turn around test results in one to three days yet more than a thousand older and sick New Yorkers in prison have been waiting for their test results for weeks. There cannot be two standards of COVID-19 care in New York State. We’re calling on the Governor to immediately provide us with answers for these pending COVID tests and demand that his prison system ensure every single incarcerated person has access to testing and is provided with the results in a timely manner. We also call on Senate Majority Leaders Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to hold a hearing and investigation on COVID-19 in NY State prisons. Our neighbors and loved ones in prison deserve basic and essential care, and we as the public deserve answers.”