Advocates at the Legal Aid Society are urging officials in New York City to release people from local jails amid a surge in COVID-19 cases across the country and in the state. 

The group in a letter made public to Mayor Bill de Blasio and district attorneys on Monday pointed to the rising trend of COVID-19 cases in corrections staff and among people who reside in the jails. 

At the same time, the jail population has risen in recent months to 4,805 people in November, around the same population as late March when the pandemic first surged in New York. 

“COVID-19 is surging at Rikers Island and other local jails at a rate that earned these facilities epicenter status earlier this year, infecting scores of incarcerated New Yorkers and correction staff alike,” said Tina Luongo, attorney-in-charge of the Criminal Defense Practice at The Legal Aid Society.

"The de Blasio Administration and New York’s District Attorneys must act now to prevent a repeat of the unacceptable rate of COVID-19 infection New York’s jails saw this past spring. Lives will be lost if our city’s leaders fail to act immediately and decisively."

Curtailing the spread of the virus among those living in congregate settings has been one of the major challenges of the pandemic. State prisons, too, have come under scrutiny from corrections officers unions and criminal justice reform advocates.