We Demand the Immediate Release of People in New York State Prisons

• Grant immediate executive clemency to vulnerable people without excluding broad categories of people based on crime of convictions

• Grant parole release to parole-eligible people, including: vulnerable people and people who have been granted parole but haven’t yet been released. 

• Ensure all future parole board interviews continue in a timely and consistent manner. 

• Release people serving determinate sentences who are one year or less from their scheduled conditional release date or maximum expiration date and grant all time allowances.

We Demand Healthy Reentry

• Expedite field investigations of residences and residential treatment programs to ensure swift release of incarcerated people.

• Develop a comprehensive housing and healthcare plan for all returning people.

• Partner with existing reentry and community-based organizations who are ready to support people released during the pandemic

• Instruct the city and state housing authorities to lift the current ban on formerly incarcerated people living in public housing.

We Demand Safe and Just Supervision

• Lift all travel restrictions for people on parole so they may travel to their preferred location for self-isolation.

• Remove electronic monitoring systems from the bodies/homes of people on supervision.

• Suspend all programming requirements for people on supervision.

• Suspend all remaining technical violations immediately and indefinitely.

• Terminate all parole and probation supervision for people who have successfully completed one year of supervision.

• Train parole and probation staff in current healthcare practices and statewide orders.

We Demand Improved Conditions Inside New York State Correctional Facilities 

Testing and Prevention: Testing must be readily available to all incarcerated people and staff, and DOCCS must immediately implement measures to prevent the spread of the virus within state correctional facilities.

Treatment and Care: DOCCS must immediately develop a medical quarantine and treatment plan to prevent a catastrophic loss of life in our state prisons.

Communication and Visits: Free and unlimited access to phone calls, emails and letters will ensure incarcerated people can stay in touch with family members and loved ones during the pandemic. Unlimited access to legal counsel and the courts is a fundamental right and must not be compromised.

Confinement and Movement: Freedom of movement and access to the outdoors is essential to the dignity, physical health and mental well-being of all people, especially those incarcerated. DOCCS must institute facility-wide policies that curb the spread of COVID-19, while ensuring that measures do not deprive anyone of their basic liberties. Especially in this moment, DOCCS must end the use of solitary confinement, lifting any keeplock mandates and remove all people from solitary confinement and return them to individual cells. 

Access to Services: Regular and uninterrupted access to supportive services ensures that incarcerated people can meet their basic needs and survive a pandemic.

Prison Labor: Incarcerated workers must be protected and justly compensated if they chose to provide invaluable labor to the state.

Further Criminalization: State and local officials must not abuse public health orders to further criminalize our communities as they attempt to survive this pandemic.

Monitoring and Transparency: Guarantee transparency and access to information regarding the conditions in prison and preparations made to address the danger of coronavirus and its spread.