Right now in my hometown of New York City, a human rights catastrophe is unfolding.

Not only because tens of thousands of people in our city have contracted the coronavirus,

but our governor, Governor Cuomo, and our mayor,

de Blasio ignored medical advice for months on end on how to best prevent a coronavirus outbreak at Rikers and they're still ignoring the

advice. I have to unpack and explain this. There's a lot of misinformation and it's spreading rapidly at Rikers at a rate 800%

faster than that in the city. Let me break it down. This is Sean King, and you are listening to

the breakdown.

The breakdown.

The breakdown.

The breakdown.

The breakdown.

The breakdown. I don't know if you know this but Iran decided to release 70,000 incarcerated people

so that they could prevent the spread of the coronavirus inside of their jails

and prisons. The United Nations right now is calling for

a massive reduction of prison populations to help halt the spread of the virus. Even Los Angeles has now released 1,700 people from their county

jail. But for months, months and months on end, ignoring the professional advice of virtually every

civil rights, human rights, and public health organization all over New York City, our Governor Andrew Cuomo and

our Mayor Bill DeBlazio have directly caused a completely avoidable catastrophe at the citywide hellhole of a jail known as

Rikers. For those of you who don't know, Riker's Correctional Facility is so broken, so disgusting, so beyond

repair from its actual physical design to its staff to its policies that a

nonpartisan blue ribbon panel of experts said it simply could not be saved. The New York City Council last year

agreed with the Blue Ribbon Panel and voted to close Rikers. The mayor agreed, but since the process of fully closing it

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