Nope, not fake news, I can personally attest to the Dept of Corrections buses filled with minimum security prisoners passing my elementary school and boarding the Michael Cosgrove ferry on its way to Hart Island. Exactly for how long, I’m too tired to look it up, but for far more than my 63 years. My Dad worked there in the ‘60s. I worked there in the ‘70s.
If they have been doing it for 150 years, and it increased only by a few more, it is fake news.