Federal judge begs Congress to pass forgiveness for offenders as COVID-19 risk in prisons grows

In an opinion released on Tuesday, Manhattan-based federal judge Jesse Furman begged Congress and the White House to come together to pass a bill granting relief to low-level prisoners, as the coronavirus pandemic threatens to ravage the prison system.

The plea came in the course of his findings on the case of Dr. Nkanga Nkanga, a former Staten Island doctor who pleaded guilty in 2018 to running an illegal opioid "pill mill." 67 years old and suffering from asthma, Nkanga recently survived a stroke in a Brooklyn federal prison and is extremely vulnerable to COVID-19 if it spreads in his facility.

Furman is convinced that keeping him in prison is effectively a death sentence — but laid out in his ruling that he has no authority to release him, and Congress must take action to pass new legislation removing vulnerable offenders from overcrowded prisons, for the sake of everyone's health.

"Realistically, the best — perhaps the only — way to mitigate the damage and reduce the death toll is to decrease the jail and prison population by releasing as many people as possible," wrote Furman. "Dr. Nkanga's case is a vivid illustration of why the dangers posed by COVID-19 to the imprisoned population cry out for action by Congress and the Executive Branch. For the most part, judges are limited to granting release in individual cases — an approach that is too slow and ad hoc to do much good against the unprecedented dangers posed by COVID-19."

Although prisons isolate offenders from the outside world, they are not sterile facilities and viruses can spread rapidly between inmates and guards.

"Only the political branches can do what this moment requires," warned Furman. "The question is whether they will do so — and, if they do, whether their actions will be too late for Dr. Nkanga and other inmates like him."

Read the full opinion below: