Top doctor at Rikers Island calls the jail a 'public health disaster unfolding before our eyes'

The chief doctor at Rikers Island sent an unsettling warning to law enforcement officials on Monday night, saying it’s “unlikely” that even herculean efforts by health professionals inside the New York jail can quell the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus within its walls. Rikers is a “public health disaster unfolding before our eyes,” he wrote.

In a Twitter thread addressed to the district attorneys in the city’s five boroughs, the doctor, Ross MacDonald, urged prosecutors to support the continued release of vulnerable inmates to avoid a public health disaster. At least 167 inmates and 137 corrections staff and health workers have tested positive for the virus, according to the New York Times.

“I am raising this alarm for a reason,” MacDonald, chief medical officer of New York City’s correctional health services, wrote. “I simply ask that in this time of crisis the focus remain on releasing as many vulnerable people as possible.”

MacDonald was responding to a letter the district attorneys in all five of the city’s boroughs sent to Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) and his corrections commissioner on Monday, which was reported in the New York Times and New York Post. The prosecutors said they did not feel the mayor or city officials were heeding their public safety concerns for some releases, reflecting an ongoing debate about how to best balance public safety against public health.

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