Prison and Jail Policies
There has been a huge push to protect the health of incarcerated people by releasing as many people as possible from prison and jail, moving individuals to home confinement, and changing visitation rules. However, there are different policies on the city, state, and Federal levels.
Federal Prison
Release and/or movement to home confinement:
3/26/2020 William Barr issued a memo ordering the Bureau of Prisons to begin to consider who can be released for home confinement
health , age, criminal history behavior and potential for transmission of virus to the outside community are factors being determined for release
Working towards transferring people behind bars to home confinement
Prosecutors instructed to utilize teleconferencing to seek continuances in non-violent offender cases for those awaiting sentencing
States have chosen when/if they would be releasing elders and those with pre-existing conditions
4/2/2020 President Trump announced during his daily press briefing that he would be looking into options to prevent the release of those from jails and prisons.
BOP Modified Operations:
Visitation is suspended
500 minutes of phone time allowed for those behind bars
Restrictions on moving people with some exceptions: check the BOP Modified Operations Statement here
Legal Visits are Suspended-case by case approval may be considered
Health Screenings of staff, volunteers, contractors and newly arrived people who are incarcerated
Newly arrived asymptomatic inmates with risk exposure are quarantined
Symptomatic inmates with exposure risk factors will be isolated and tested for COVID-19
Staggered meal times and recreation times
New York State Prison
Gov. Cuomo has announced the release of over 1,000 people who have violated parole. In addition to the release of low-level technical parole violators from local jails, which was announced Friday, DOCCS has initiated a number of measures to protect prison populations:
Suspending all intake of incarcerated individuals from county facilities.
Suspending internal transfers of incarcerated individuals except for medical and other exigent circumstances.
Temporarily suspending visitations. With the suspension of visitation for the next month, DOCCS said it will provide incarcerated individuals with five free stamps per week for letters, two free secure messages per week on their electronic tablets and one free phone call per week.
Requiring non-security and other civilian staff to remain home for two weeks.
Implementing a health/travel questionnaire for all staff entering facilities.
Regularly distributing guidance from the Department of Health to all staff and population about the important steps to take to combat the virus
Displaying posters with information on COVID-19 and safety tips throughout DOCCS facilities and offices statewide
Regularly showing a video to the incarcerated population and staff at the facilities on proper handwashing entitled “Put your hands together”
Issued enhanced cleaning/sanitizing measures, consistent with CDC guidelines, for office surfaces, devices and disinfecting procedures.
Deployed hand sanitizer dispensers to all facilities for use by staff and the incarcerated population."
Read More: NY State Department of Corrections Responds To COVID-19 Concerns
New York City Jails
900 people have been released to date.
DOC Service reductions:
Records Room, the Shield Room (responsible for issuing Shields and Legal Passes) has limited hours.
DOC's Application Investigation Division has postponed conducting candidate psychological and medical exams.
Training/Academy has curtailed 75% of training activity thru the Training and Development operation.
DOC Service cancellations:
Contract and volunteer in-person programs are suspended but are being transitioned to remote methods to the greatest extent feasible; other modifications made to the provision of programming by DOC staff to increase social distancing.