‘The wrong call’
Family of parolee who died awaiting release angry
After nearly a quarter century behind bars, Leonard Carter was looking forward to May 26 — the day he was slated to taste freedom again and meet his grandson for the first time.
But instead of a homecoming party celebrating his parole, his family gathered around his open casket in a Brooklyn funeral home last week mourning his death.
With just weeks to go before his release, Carter, 60, caught coronavirus at a Queens jail and died in custody last month, leaving angry relatives slamming Gov. Cuomo and a state prison system they say unfairly kept him locked up as the disease spread.
“It was the wrong call not releasing him. It was just the wrong thing to do. He was going to be released anyway,” Carter’s niece, Keisha, told the Daily News.
Carter was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison in 1996 for a Brooklyn murder, but was granted parole in January and set to be released May 26 from the minimum security Queensboro Correctional Facility after being transferred downstate from Sing Sing, where he turned his life around.
He worked for years in Sing Sing’s Mental Health Crisis Unit, interacting with prisoners in distress and gaining the trust of corrections officers. Numerous prison staffers reached out to Carter’s sister after he died to express their condolences and praise the work he did behind bars.
Carter was especially looking forward to meeting his 17-year-old grandson for the first time.
“He missed the chance to hold him as a little baby. He wanted to hug him instead of shaking his hand,” said Carter’s sister, Cynthia Carter-Young, 64.
The last time the two siblings talked, just days before he died, Carter seemed healthy.
“He didn’t have a cough or anything and I guess when it hit him, it hit him very hard,” said CarterYoung (inset).
Days later, she was informed by the Department of Corrections that Carter had COVID-19 and was moved to a hospital. A doctor called her April 14 to tell her Carter was dead.
The family couldn’t afford a funeral. They started a GoFundMe, which raised some money, but not enough. Carter-Young had to spend most of her stimulus check to cover the cost of the burial.
“It’s outrageous that Mr. Carter died. It was wholly preventable,” said Insha Rahman, director of strategy and new initiatives at the Vera Institute of Justice. She said the governor must release more inmates from prison during the pandemic.
To be considered for early release due to COVID-19, inmates must be within 90 days of release and can’t be in for a violent felony or a sex offense. Carter’s murder conviction disqualified him.
Only 176 inmates of the more than 40,000 in the state have been released after meeting these criteria.
But Carter’s niece sees the requirements as too stringent, and the reason her uncle died.
“Cuomo made the wrong call,” said Keisha. “What if it had been his relative?”