You are reading

Rikers Inmate Tests Positive for COVID-19; City to Release 40 Vulnerable Inmates

Stock Photo Unsplash

March 20, 2020 By Allie Griffin

New York City will release 40 inmates on Rikers Island who are vulnerable of complications associated with the novel coronavirus, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Thursday.

The individuals have been chosen based on specific health vulnerabilities and their low-risk status, as non-threatening and unlikely to reoffend.

The NYPD and the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice are reviewing more potential cases for release, which must be signed off on by the relevant district attorney and/or the state of New York, de Blasio said.

The City also confirmed its first case of an inmate on Rikers Island who tested positive for COVID-19.

The inmate is in his early 30s and is doing okay, health-wise, de Blasio said. He is currently in isolation at the facility’s communicable disease unit.

Eight fellow inmates who shared a housing unit with the man have exhibited symptoms of COVID-19 and are also in isolation in the communicable disease unit.

On Wednesday, the Chief Physician of Rikers Island Ross MacDonald warned that “a storm is coming,” should coronavirus reach the island’s sprawling prison system.

He asked that the City let out as many inmates as possible.

“A storm is coming and I know what I’ll be doing when it claims my first patient. What will you be doing? What will you have done? We have told you who is at risk,” MacDonald wrote on Twitter. “Please let as many out as you possibly can.”

Meanwhile, Tiffany Caban, who was narrowly defeated by Melinda Katz in last year’s Democratic primary to be Queens District Attorney, called on the Mayor to release more prisoners given the crisis.

email the author: news@queenspost.com
No comments yet

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Scooter-riding robbers sought for gunpoint chain-snatching inside Woodhaven playground: NYPD

Police from the 102nd Precinct in Richmond Hill are looking for a scooter-riding armed robber and his accomplice who allegedly held up a 25-year-old man at gunpoint in broad daylight at a Woodhaven playground late last month.

The incident occurred just before noon on Wednesday, Sept. 25, when the two strangers rode a two-wheeled scooter onto the basketball court inside London Planetree Playground on Atlantic Avenue and approached the victim. One of the perpetrators pulled out a firearm and forcibly removed two gold chains from the victim’s neck and $100 in cash, police said. The bandits rode off northbound on 89th Street toward Jamaica Avenue. The victim was not injured during the encounter.

Flushing man busted for pushing an 82-year-old woman off the platform at the Main Street 7 train station in Wednesday: NYPD

A Flushing man was arrested Monday and charged with attempted murder for allegedly shoving an 82-year-old woman onto the tracks at the Main Street 7 train station during a random attack on Wednesday, Oct. 2.

Brandon Harris, 35, who lives directly across the street from the bustling subway station, was booked at the Transit District 20 headquarters at the Briarwood subway station in Jamaica on Monday.

City completes $106M sewer project in Maspeth using micro-tunneling techniques to reduce disruptions

The city announced on Monday the completion of a $106 million infrastructure project in Maspeth, the second of three phases to create a new drainage system through central Queens. The project also upgraded over a mile of water mains and replaced smaller, local combined sanitary sewers.

The city’s Department of Design and Construction managed the project for the Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Transportation and successfully used micro-tunneling technology throughout large parts of it to minimize construction impacts during work.