Calls to provide further safeguards for prisons against the spread of coronavirus are heightening after the president of the state corrections officers' union tested positive for the disease. 

Meanwhile, criminal justice advocates have further urged Gov. Andrew Cuomo to release vulnerable inmates in New York over concerns prisons would be a breeding ground for the virus and spread quickly much in the same way it can through a nursing home. 

Powers, the president of the Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association, said corrections officers need more personal protective equipment at their disposal to guard against getting sick while on the job. 

"If the State cannot pay for it, then allow NYSCOPBA to help," Powers said. "Each day that our members are prohibited from wearing protective equipment, they are exposed to being infected and spreading the virus inside and outside of the facilities. We recognize and appreciate that some of our concerns have been addressed. However, further delays to our reasonable requests to protect staff must not continue."

Concurrent to this push has been calls from criminal justice advocates to grant clemencies for people who are in prison and could be vulnerable to the worst aspects of the virus. 

"Lives are on the line," said the group Vocal New York in a statement. "As the virus continues to spread throughout the state prison system, it is just a matter of time before a lack of action will turn fatal. We call on Governor Cuomo to immediately grant clemencies to the many elder New Yorkers and other immune-compromised people before it’s too late.”