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Michael Powers, the president of the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, urged Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to suspend visitation and non-essential inmate movement. For incarcerated individuals in prison dormitory settings, he requested that they be placed in every other cubical. 

There has been an increasing number of positive COVID-19 cases in prisons. An outbreak at Elmira Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in the Southern Tier, resulted in 605 positive cases — the most in the DOCCS system. At Greene Correctional Facility, there have been 160 confirmed cases. 

The two state prisons in Cayuga County have largely avoided major outbreaks among their incarcerated populations. Auburn Correctional Facility has one positive case out of 1,035 inmates. Cayuga Correctional Facility had 44 cases in October and reported four more this month. 

According to DOCCS, there have been 1,737 incarcerated individuals who have tested positive for the virus since March. As of Tuesday, there were 116 active cases. 

The department has 1,705 employees who have tested positive for COVID-19. It's unknown how many of those are active cases. Facility-level data isn't released due to security concerns. 

Powers credited the union's efforts in urging DOCCS to implement safety measures early in the pandemic. The department took several actions to prevent the spread of COVID-19, including suspending visitation and inmate transfers. 

"However, the recent easing of these restrictions has resulted in virus outbreaks inside the prison walls of several prisons in New York," Powers said. 

When there were outbreaks at Elmira and Greene correctional facilities, DOCCS responded by suspending visitation and non-essential inmate transfers. The department also suspended visitation at Southport Correctional Facility because it's located within an orange micro-cluster zone. An orange zone is designated when there are higher positivity rates in an area. 

DOCCS also recently completed testing in each of its 52 correctional facilities. The entire statewide prison population — more than 35,000 inmates — have been tested for COVID-19. 

Powers thinks it's time for DOCCS to take further action to prevent the spread of the virus. 

"New York should once again heed NYSCOPBA's call to put immediate safeguards in place before additional outbreaks occur," he said.