NYC jail population dips to lowest since 1946 after coronavirus releases

The jails are getting emptier as the coronavirus pandemic continues to hit New York City hard — but empty hotel rooms will soon start to fill up.
The city’s jail population dipped below 4,000 inmates, the lowest level since shortly after WWII, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Thursday as he also said 11,000 hotel rooms are being prepared to quarantine coronavirus victims.
“The jail population is now under 4,000 inmates,” de Blasio said during a City Hall conference call with reporters.
“That is the lowest in 74 years, since 1946, the year after World War II ended,” de Blasio said.
Since early March city officials have released over 1,400 inmates who were vulnerable to contracting the coronavirus as well those who were deemed low-risk for reoffending or had only short periods left of their sentences. The decreased population allows for more social distancing inside the jails to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, de Blasio said.

The jail population has plummeted since de Blasio took office in 2014 when it surpassed 11,000 inmates. The city plans to close its largest lockup, the Rikers Island jail complex, by 2026 and move inmates to smaller, borough-based facilities.
On Thursday the mayor also announced over $250 million in cuts to the city’s Dept. of Correction in the next few years. The cuts include over $6 million to train new DOC officers and to provide support services because of the reduced jail population. The city expects to save another $244 million over the next few years from closing Rikers, slashing overtime for Correction officers and reducing postings.

In the meantime, de Blasio said he’s gearing up to fill 11,000 rooms in hotels across the city with sick New Yorkers who need a space to quarantine.
The rooms will be reserved for “people who need a place because of the reality of their living circumstances,” the mayor said, citing largely poor New Yorkers living in cramped, multi-generational households who could infect one another.
Public hospitals and local health clinics will determine who gets the accommodations, de Blasio said. The rooms are also available to health care workers and the homeless who have tested positive for or been exposed to the virus.

The hotels, which de Blasio did not name, were preparing to become makeshift hospitals just a couple of weeks ago.

“Bluntly at this point I had expected a number of these hotels to already be converted to field hospitals,” de Blasio said during the press briefing.

“So far thank god that has not been the case,” he said. He later said he agrees with Governor Andrew Cuomo’s assessment Monday that the “worst is over” for New York’s coronavirus pandemic.

“I do think when you say something like the worst is over there’s a truth to that in terms of what we thought was going to happen for sure,” said de Blasio. Earlier this month he was projecting the city would need thousands of more ventilators, hospital beds and health care workers to get through the crisis.