Three members of New York’s congressional delegation Friday urged the federal Bureau of Prisons to significantly reduce the number of inmates at two New York jails and called for “aggressive and immediate” steps to prevent the facilities from becoming “epicenters of COVID-19 contagion.” 

The call from Democratic Reps. Jerrold Nadler, Hakeem Jeffries and Nydia Velázquez came as officials had begun taking steps elsewhere within the vast federal prison system to release inmates, including Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, to home confinement amid the pandemic.