OUR DEMANDS

During Sexual Violence Awareness Month, Survived and Punished New York​ RAPP and New Hour demand that Governor Hochul grant mass clemencies with immediate release and no further delays for criminalized survivors and others currently imprisoned in New York State, with the priority release of people who are immunocompromised or have chronic health conditions; pregnant people and people who have recently given birth; elderly people, and trans people. New York State can start this process by passing parole justice bills -- elder and fair and timely parole -- this session, no delays!

The very nature of prison - close quarters, disregard for basic needs, lack of health and safety oversight, sexual and other forms of violence by prison guards, control of movement - and where the average age of death is 58 years old, irrefutably show that prisons themselves are the public health crisis. With this in mind, and building on recent efforts in May 2020, August 2021, and September 2021, we also demand the NY Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) and NY Department of Health immediately: 

1. Provide booster shots for people incarcerated by New York State who want them in a timely manner. The current delays are not acceptable; 
2. Provide N95 or KN95 masks every other day to all people incarcerated by New York State, in line with CDC and New York State Department of Health guidance and protocol. As governments irresponsibly lift mask mandates & other precautions in NY and the nation - These precautions must be maintained and strengthened in prisons - where the most vulnerable reside;
3. Provide free rapid tests with PCR follow up tests to confirm results, as is happening and standard practice outside of prisons, to all people incarcerated by New York State, and allow all people inside prisons to see and obtain copies of test results;
   Provide people incarcerated by New York State with needed medical care and other essential resources;
4. Ensure all units are regularly sanitized by personnel trained in public health guidelines under COVID -19 for proper cleaning in line with CDC guidance - especially after COVID infected women leave a unit and other women move into those units;
5. Ensure incarcerated people infected with COVID-19 receive all meals, phone calls, clean and safe water, and that the terms of their quarantine follow CDC guidance. People at Bedford who test positive for COVID-19 and were sent to quarantine in the infirmary have reported being denied phone calls, not receiving meals, and being kept in the infirmary for more than a week after not having symptoms without being re-tested; 
6. Take action to ensure correctional officers wear N95 or KN95 masks and are regularly tested for COVID 19, in line with CDC and NY State Department of Health guidance. People incarcerated at Bedford Hills and Taconic continue to report correctional officers are not following COVID-19 safety best practices;
7. End all retaliation now and in the future, including 23-hour lockdown, threats to put people in the SHU, and blocking and delaying email correspondence on JPay. People at Rikers, Bedford and Taconic have faced retaliation for advocating for basic human rights. We demand that prison staff stop using widespread deprivation to punish and control people in prisons

BACKGROUND

COVID -19 continues to rampage through NY State prisons, who continuously fail to provide vital protections including, but not limited to: booster shots, effective PPE, proper testing, essential medical care and other services.  It must be noted that incarcerated people at Bedford and Taconic have been denied booster shots for months without explanation. This comes after recent bail and parole rollbacks were passed as part of the governor's budget agreement, threatening to lock more New Yorkers behind bars and further exacerbate this crisis.

Our organizations have received several accounts from people incarcerated at Bedford Hills and Taconic Correctional Facilities highlighting the severe breakdown of services, facility operations, and basic safety/needs being met. Additionally, the transfer of people from Rikers Island in the fall of 2021 has only made conditions at Bedford Correctional Facility worse. The ongoing crisis of dangerous and inhumane conditions combined with the extremely high level of COVID-19 infections inside prisons have already resulted in severe illnesses and deaths.

Governor Hochul has committed to honoring the requests of organizations working with people inside NY State prisons. She has the power to grant mass clemencies, despite her claims to only have the authority to grant individual clemencies. We call on her to prevent unnecessary illness and death, and free people inside NYS prisons.

 

UPLIFTING THE VOICES OF OUR INSIDE COMRADES

These demands are raised directly from first-person accounts of conditions inside NY State prisons, some of which - but not all - are shared below:

On rapid test confirmations:

“We are told by prison personnel and DOH that they will not administer  second rapid tests because the superintendent is not prepared to answer questions if false negatives come back for those who tested positive and were quarantined based on false positives“ 

- April Stone (Bedford Hills)

On the need for safety and sanitation per CDC guidelines:

SANITATION CONDITIONS

“When an incarcerated individual tests positive for COVID, their belongings are packed up, and they are moved to a quarantine unit for 14 days. At this point a team of trained individuals should be sent to sanitize the room of the individual whom tested positive, but this has not been the case on several occasions. For example, there are 4 room on my unit that once housed individuals who tested positive for COVID, and none of them where cleaned when the individual was removed. As a matter of fact administration moved another individual into one of the rooms the day after the previous individual was removed due to a positive test result” 

- Brittney  Austin

“Although the CDC recommends everyone wear a surgical mask, they are refusing to provide us with these masks. I was given a Tier 3 report for wearing an N-95 mask this summer. There’s a lack of staff because everyone is getting COVID. The bleach that they allow us to use to clean is only 15% bleach and 85% water, how could that clean anything well enough during a pandemic?!” 

- Joy Powell (Bedford Hills)

 

“When people leave a quarantined unit and others move into that unit – staff have asked the women to clean up the units without being provided cleaning supplies – other times staff have used harsh chemicals themselves to clean units. “

- April Stone (Bedford Hills)

SAFETY (INCLUDING PPE) CONDITIONS

“I asked Nurse Adoe to change her gloves before doing my test and she refused.So the person or possibly many persons' bodily fluids and her own as well was on the gloves. I was given a direct order to be quiet and remove my mask and get tested by both nurses, and told if I was difficult I would be put in the infirmary”. 

- April Stone (Bedford Hills)

“They come into our rooms with no masks , touching our food , clothes , sheets , everything and have no gloves on and won't let us clean afterwards. And they don't wear masks. So we are vulnerable”

- April Stone (Bedford Hills)

"It's still spreading like wildfire. We just had 3 more people test positive on my unit alone, its really bad. They're starting to let people out of quarantine though, they just don't know where to put everybody. It's really crazy in here lately. The masks are super important! We have cloth masks, they don't protect us from anything. It was just on the news that cloth masks are nothing but decorative face accessories. There are women who work in highly contagious areas. We're not being protected at all. Even if we could be able to have our loved ones send masks in a package, that would even be helpful, if the state didn't want to provide us with them. It's really important that we somehow get the right protection, whether the state provides it or if we get donations, or if our families can send it. One way or another, we just need help."

- Lexa B (Taconic)

ON RETALIATION  

“ So for 4 days they kept us locked in the little room and only opened the door to give us food . They never let us use the phone because they said they didn't need our families and friends calling here and asking unwanted questions either. 

April Stone (Bedford Hills)

“They threatened to put me and 17 other women in the Shu for “protesting” during master count because we did not get meds, showers and recreation when quarantined. I was given a tier 3 ticket for standing up for my human rights “. Note - Franeisha recently told us she just was released from the SHU after being there for 32 days. Prison staff are denying her recreation time. Franeisha told us ”I’ve  been deprived of my human rights to shower, to utilize the phone , kiosk, etc” 

Franeisha

“Some visitors were turned away as prison personnel claimed we were under quarantine during times we were not in quarantine .” 

- Franeisha

“There was about 40 of them [rats] in my cell when I came back from solitary because the evil officers who packed my cell when I went to solitary poured food on my floor [and] moved the books I had set up to deter rodents. They had made themselves comfortable! It took me 45 minutes to get them all out.”

- Joy Powell (Bedford Hills)

 

ON OVERALL CONDITIONS INSIDE NY STATE PRISONS

“The officers are very nasty and disrespectful, we have a lot of mice running around even in the day time, but the jail talking about covid and keep our mask up, yet these nasty ass mice around the eating through the metal lockers eating food, we have 2 broke toilet seats, and a clogged toilet I have spoke to the superintendent last week about, and nothing happened yet, we don't have a washer or dryer to clean our clothes, they want us to send our clothes to laundry here where they wash the dogs stuff and every other units clothes that's not sanitary for no one and again covid is still going on. report this to the news and twitter, everyone. the superintendents name is E. RUSSELL AND THE DEPT OF SECURITY IS ARTUZ please get them ... have a bless day!!!"

-  Simone Gardner (he/him) (Bedford Hills)

From Joy Powell (Bedford Hills):

“These conditions are beyond inhumane. The prison is so filthy, no matter how much I try to clean the unit, the jail as a whole is filled with trash. The place is atrocious - overflowing with rodents, mice and big rats. The rats come out during the day and walk across peoples feet, come in peoples cells as like a family of rats! This one lady had to plug up her heater because they would come out of her heater and eat her food. Another lady said she was sleeping and one bit her on the foot and she was in the infirmary for 3 days… They are refusing to provide us with rodent traps and patch up holes even though the Health Dept has required it.”

“A lot of times the water is undrinkable. It’ll turn brown or have nasty smells and they refuse to admit there’s a problem.”

“They refuse to accommodate people who have disabilities. Especially those who are hearing impaired. We are not provided with proper hearing aids or shake weight clocks. Trying to get the accommodations I need is like going into a gunfight with a knife. The closed-captioning TV does not work, there’s no cable either to get up-to-date news.”

"Maintenance is horrible - a lot of our toilets overflow or don't flush. Other people's defecation will come into your toilet on the regular. They won't come out and fix it."

 

From Joy Powell (Bedford Hills):

“These conditions are beyond inhumane. The prison is so filthy, no matter how much I try to clean the unit, the jail as a whole is filled with trash. The place is atrocious - overflowing with rodents, mice and big rats. The rats come out during the day and walk across peoples feet, come in peoples cells as like a family of rats! This one lady had to plug up her heater because they would come out of her heater and eat her food. Another lady said she was sleeping and one bit her on the foot and she was in the infirmary for 3 days… They are refusing to provide us with rodent traps and patch up holes even though the Health Dept has required it.”

“A lot of times the water is undrinkable. It’ll turn brown or have nasty smells and they refuse to admit there’s a problem.”

“They refuse to accommodate people who have disabilities. Especially those who are hearing impaired. We are not provided with proper hearing aids or shake weight clocks. Trying to get the accommodations I need is like going into a gunfight with a knife. The closed-captioning TV does not work, there’s no cable either to get up-to-date news.”

"Maintenance is horrible - a lot of our toilets overflow or don't flush. Other people's defecation will come into your toilet on the regular. They won't come out and fix it."

 

From Brittney Austin

“The word corrections itself implies that prison is a place for the incorrect, which speaks volumes. Most individuals who commit crimes, do so because of their circumstances, not because of their character, or because they are genetically flawed. What incarcerated individuals need is rehabilitation. Not correction, "custody", or "control.“

 

From April Stone (Bedford Hills)

“We are human beings no matter the situation that brought us to prison; and we do deserve to be treated as all human beings are . We should be included and known to be of value and worth and that includes having proper medical treatment and proper food provisions ,and respect.” 

These demands are raised directly from first-person accounts of conditions inside NY State prisons.

To learn more about the COVID crisis in prisons, visit​ these​ links. #FreeThemAll !