We are facing an unprecedented public health emergency in New Hampshire, one that calls for urgent, fact-informed and creative measures to protect the safety, health and civil rights of all Granite Staters.

COVID-19 presents unique challenges, particularly for individuals who are most vulnerable to infection.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization, adults 65 and older and people with serious medical conditions or who are otherwise immunocompromised are at higher risk for contracting and becoming very sick from COVID-19.

People involved in the criminal legal system are also at higher risk given close quarters and because those entering correctional facilities are often already in poor health. New Hampshire in particular has a disproportionately elderly prison population compared to other states. It is imperative that the state utilize all opportunities to reduce the incarceration of vulnerable people.

Like all public agencies, the entire criminal legal system – from policing and pretrial through sentencing, confinement and release – must take creative and urgent measures to reduce the spread and threat of COVID-19. An outbreak of COVID-19 inside our jails or prisons would threaten inmates, staff and our communities at large. It is in everyone’s best interest to reduce the real risks of infection inside the criminal legal system.

That’s why the ACLU of New Hampshire and the N.H. Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers are urging stakeholders in the criminal legal system to take immediate steps to prevent people from unnecessarily entering the criminal legal system and to ensure that jails and prisons do not needlessly keep people incarcerated, especially those most vulnerable to COVID-19.

We recognize the unprecedented nature of these asks and urge state and local officials to consider them in the context of the public health crisis we are all in together.

We are urging law enforcement to consciously limit the number of people who are arrested and detained, even if for a short time, in close quarters or in spaces where implementing recommended health practices is difficult.

We urge police to balance the need for arrest with the overwhelming public safety concerns presented by COVID-19, as some are already doing by issuing summonses instead of arresting when it does not threaten public safety to do so.

Similarly, we are asking prosecutors to use their immense discretion to dismiss cases involving minor offenses. In other cases, we are asking prosecutors to reduce their requests for pretrial detention and incarceration where possible.

With a special focus on populations identified as particularly vulnerable by the CDC, we are urging prosecutors to institute a review-and-release protocol in which pretrial detention was sought and imposed over the past 30 days.

Alternatives to incarceration and in-person processes should be readily used to reduce the risk of exposure and enable social distancing by staff and individuals in the criminal legal system. Contrary to what some have said, we are not advocating for release of “dangerous criminals,” but rather are urging the use of existing authorities and discretion to release people who do not threaten public safety.

We applaud the Department of Corrections for the steps it is already taking in this regard, including reviewing whom can be released to home confinement, moving from in-person checks to phone checks for people on parole or probation, and limiting parole violations unless public safety would be compromised.

For its part, the Parole Board could institute a presumption for release for people who have a parole hearing in this year and expedite the parole process when doing so does not threaten public safety.

Courts can vacate outstanding warrants or orders for unpaid court-appointed counsel fees and for failure to appear at hearings.

These steps are already being taken elsewhere. Baltimore is refraining from prosecuting drug possession and other minor offenses. New York City is considering releasing people currently detained with underlying medical issues, and Ohio is working on releasing hundreds of people from their jails. Boston is doing the same, with the Suffolk’s DA office working with defense attorneys to identify those appropriate for release.

We want to be clear: The measures we are recommending are not intended as permanent policy changes. Instead, these measures are being recommended on an interim basis in response to the unique circumstances of COVID-19.

We recognize that these steps would be extreme in ordinary circumstances. But, COVID-19 is anything but ordinary. We have to think outside the box and be willing to take previously unconsidered measures to protect vulnerable populations and the public welfare. Doing so increases, rather than threatens, public safety.

(Devon Chaffee is executive director of the ACLU of New Hampshire. Robin Melone is president of the N.H. Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.)