Hundreds of prisoners released from Rikers Correctional Center due to COVID concerns are re-offending repeatedly without consequences, according to law enforcement officials.
“We’re continuing to see people get arrested over and over and let right back out. And it really defies common sense,” NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said in an interview with NBC4 New York.
At least 250 convicts released from Rikers due to COVID safety measures have been arrested again since, according to Michael LiPetri, chief of Crime Control Strategies for the NYPD.
Chief LiPetri tells NBC4 New York 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.