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Prisoners Released From Rikers Island To Deliver Thanksgiving Meals

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A group of prisoners at Rikers Island were released Wednesday so they could deliver 700 Thanksgiving meals to the needy in Manhattan.

The men cooked up the hundreds of turkey dinners in a jail kitchen on Tuesday, and delivered them Wednesday, to two churches on the Upper East Side.

Parishioners and volunteers at the Church of the Holy Trinity, 316 E. 88th St., and Church of the Heavenly Rest, 2 E. 90th St., planned to serve them on Thanksgiving Day to the homeless and elderly shut-ins.

The inmates dropped off the meals while wearing their jail-issued, orange-striped jumpsuits.

All the prisoners are participants in a program run by the Osborne Association that seeks to prepare inmates for their re-entry into society with skills training, including instruction in culinary arts.

An Associated Press report did not specify the crimes with which the men had been charged.

Do you think this was an appropriate reason to release the prisoners temporarily? Leave your comments below...

(TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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