NYC corrections union says inmate visits should stop over coronavirus

The head of New York City’s correction officers’ union Friday called for a temporary halt on all inmate visitations until the city gets a “better grip” on the coronavirus pandemic bringing the Big Apple to a standstill.
“All we need is one inmate,” Elias Husamudeen, president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, told The Post.
“It’s no secret that jail is a very contained environment,” Husamudeen said. “The reality is we have an environment where we don’t need one case, and anything we can do to reduce the probability until we get a handle on [the coronavirus outbreak], why not do it?
“No amount of masks or hand sanitizers can reverse the exposure of the virus to this very dense population.”
As of Friday afternoon, there have been no confirmed coronavirus cases in the city jails.
Currently, visitors are given a questionnaire asking them their current condition or if they are running a fever, according to Husamudeen.
But the union head, who said city jails open their doors to hundreds a day, is reluctant to just go on people’s word — especially after an inflected JetBlue passenger rode a flight out of JFK without saying a word until the plane landed in Florida.

 

Their concerns have been brought to both the mayor’s office and the city’s Department of Correction, but “they are all dragging their feet,” Husamudeen said.
“We think City Hall is being irresponsible by not shutting down the visitations until we get a better grip on things,” Husamudeen said.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said he would “ask agency heads to look at it.”
“I think it’s a fair concern were looking at a lot of different pieces right now I haven’t seen their full statement,” de Blasio said at a press conference.
The union’s anxiousness over its members’ well-being wasn’t the only criticism raised about the city’s response to prevent the spread of the virus through city jails.
The Legal Aid Society said Friday that it has received a number of complaints from inmates that they do not have access to soap, hand sanitizer or a way to disinfect their living quarters.
Tina Luongo, Legal Aid’s attorney-in-charge of its criminal-defense practice, said putting the cost of cleaning products on inmates “is both callous and reckless.”
“Public-health authorities are unanimous: We must clean communal areas with disinfectants, and thoroughly and frequently wash our hands with soap and water to slow transmission of this virus,” Luongo said.
https://nypost.com/2020/03/13/nyc-corrections-union-says-inmate-visits-should-stop-over-coronavirus/