Gov. Cuomo’s New York: 250 Inmates Freed from Pr

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At least 250 convicted and accused criminals freed from New York’s Rikers Island prison have been rearrested 450 times thanks to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) jailbreak directive.

New York Police Department (NYPD) data reported by NBC New York’s Melissa Russo reveals that since Cuomo issued a statewide order demanding jails and prisons release inmates to abide by social distancing measures in late March, at least 250 inmates from Rikers Island have been rearrested.

Russo reports:

Of approximately 2,500 defendants sprung from Rikers early because of COVID safety planning, at least 250 have been arrested again since, according to Michael LiPetri, chief of Crime Control Strategies for the NYPD. [Emphasis added]

Chief LiPetri tells NBC New York the NYPD did not object to releasing older defendants, nor those with underlying medical conditions. But he says the consequences of the larger-scale release of prisoners are now showing up in the arrest data, with those 250 re-offenders being arrested 450 times so far during the pandemic. [Emphasis added]

One such case detailed by Russo involves 27-year-old Jonathan Martinez who has been charged in six incidents since November 2019 including forcible touching and allegedly robbing a Sephora store.

Martinez was previously convicted for strangling his girlfriend in 2014. On March 16, Martinez was released from Rikers Island under Cuomo’s directive.

Seven days later, Martinez was arrested by the NYPD for allegedly robbing a person at knifepoint. After his arrest, Martinez was released without ever having to pay bail thanks to Cuomo’s bail reform law that eliminated cash bail for a number of nonviolent and violent crimes.

About a month later, Martinez was again arrested by the NYPD for alleged robbery. Again, Martinez was released from jail. Then, this month, Martinez was twice arrested for vandalizing stores in Manhattan that the owners said they struggled to reopen due to the Chinese coronavirus crisis.

While the mass release of convicted and accused criminals in New York continues and violent crime surges, Mayor Bill de Blasio is vowing to cut NYPD funding. The reduction in funding for the police would come as murders have jumped 160 percent over the last week and burglaries are up 402 percent.

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