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Rethinking Prisons And Public Safety During A Pandemic

May 7, 2020 Janai Nelson, Shondaland.com. , , ,
Of all the places one would not want to be during a pandemic, prison presumably ranks above nearly every other. The unsanitary conditions of prisons, jails, and other places of forced confinement create what amounts to a petri dish ripe for viral transmission. Correctional facilities are epicenters for COVID-19 because people who are incarcerated endure unavoidable close contact in often overcrowded, poorly ventilated, and unhygienic facilities, coupled with limited access to health care services. These conditions make compliance with essential viral mitigation measures — social distancing, frequent hand washing, and respiratory masking — challenging, if not, in many cases, impossible. In the nation’s federal prisons alone, approximately 800 incarcerated individuals and over 300 staff have already tested positive for COVID-19.

Here’s Why We Must Decarcerate Now

April 30, 2020 Henry Cervantes, Waging Nonviolence. , , ,
My neighborhood in Chicago, “Little Village,” is the single largest jail site in the United States. The Cook County Jail is usually known as a place where violence occurs, like attacks on inmates and correctional officers, suicides and shootings outside of the courthouse. It has also become what the New York Times called a top national “hot spot” for the coronavirus in recent weeks. As of this writing a staggering 491 inmates and over 360 staff have tested positive for COVID-19. Six inmates have recently died because of the virus, and the numbers of cases continue to grow.  There are several important efforts taking place locally, like the Chicago Community Bond Fund and The Bail Project, to reduce the number of people behind bars during this pandemic.

Happy Birthday, Mumia!

April 28, 2020 Workers World Philadelphia Bureau. , , ,
The press conference launched four days of virtual events celebrating Abu-Jamal’s 66th birthday, including a teach-in, “U.S. Empire v. Political Prisoners,” on April 24; a virtual dance party, “Mumia Libre,” on April 25; and a 24-hour, “Poetry in Motion,” reading from Abu-Jamal’s writings from noon to noon April 26-27. Links for all events can be found at Mobilization4Mumia.com. Opening the press conference, Pam Africa, of International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, began the 90-minute YouTube event (youtu.be/m4WzmXD1RiI) with an appreciation of the unwavering, almost four-decades-long movement to free Abu-Jamal, imprisoned when he was just 27 years old. Santiago Alvarez, University of California, Santa Cruz student calling in from San Francisco, recounted hearing the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections’ “sick and wicked” false claim on April 15 that Abu-Jamal was being hospitalized with COVID-19.

100,000 People Could Die In Jails From COVID-19

April 24, 2020 ACLU. , , ,
COVID-19 could claim the lives of approximately 100,000 more people than current projections stipulate if jail populations are not dramatically and immediately reduced, according to a new epidemiological model released by the ACLU and academic research partners. The findings indicate that — even if communities across the United States continue practicing social distancing and following public health guidance — we will still experience much higher death rates if no substantial action is taken to reduce jail populations. The United States' unique obsession with incarceration has become our Achilles heel when it comes to combatting the spread of COVID-19.  The ACLU model used data pulled from more than 1,200 midsize and large jail systems around the country, whose surrounding communities account for 90 percent of the U.S. population.

73 Inmates Test Positive For COVID-19 At One Ohio Prison

April 21, 2020 Catherine Garcia, The Week. , , ,
The COVID-19 coronavirus is hitting prisons in Ohio hard, especially the Marion Correctional Institution, where 73 percent of the inmate population has tested positive for the virus. The Ohio Department of Health reported Sunday that there are 11,602 confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases in the state, with 471 deaths. The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction shared its own numbers, saying that 2,426 inmates in the state's prison system have tested positive for COVID-19, accounting for 21 percent of all confirmed cases in Ohio. Most of the cases are at Marion Correctional Institution, where 1,828 inmates have tested positive for COVID-19. The prisoners who are not infected by the virus have been placed in quarantine. No prisoners have died of COVID-19.

‘Scared For Their Lives’: Inside The Coronavirus Outbreak In Philadelphia’s Jails

April 21, 2020 By Max Marin and Aaron Moselle, BillyPenn.com. , , ,
The last thing Andre Coach saw before he left jail was a riot. It was April 3 at the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center, one of four city jails. Over 120 incarcerated people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in these county detention centers to date — more than every state-run prison in Pennsylvania combined. Coach says life had been untenable for weeks under the Philadelphia Department of Prisons’ pandemic lockdown to quell the spread of the virus. City officials maintain all inmates are taken out of their cells once per day, but Coach and others said they sometimes went two or more days without reprieve. On his discharge day, Coach saw the anxieties erupt into chaos. Locked in their cells, he said his fellow inmates tried to break their windows. They banged on the bars.

The Failing Four: Prison Officials Attempt To “Stop The Spread Of Coronavirus”

April 16, 2020 Amani Sawari, Sawarimi.org. , , ,
The Coronavirus pandemic has had a dramatic impact on the lives of people all over the world, especially those in prison. While the CDC has posted their recommendations for all people to follow, prisoners have no freedom to protect themselves from the spread. People in prison are limited in their ability to keep a safe distance from others, receive medical care, keep in contact with their loved ones or even get access to preventative products like hand sanitizers and soaps. The situation in prison is getting worse by the week. Over the past month the number of cases in prison have more than doubled each week. In order to adequately address this critically dangerous situation, we must shift from expecting prison officials to manage overcrowded populations to passing immediate aggressive policies that will dramatically reduce the number of people in prison to more manageable levels.

Caravan Protests Demand ‘Decarcerate Now!’

April 4, 2020 Joe Piette, Workers.org. , , ,
A broad coalition of prison abolition activists took to Philadelphia’s streets in over 120 cars—most with just one occupant—to demand officials massively decarcerate jails, prisons and detention centers in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. Four separate car caravans—decorated with signs and banners—circled City Hall, the Criminal Justice Center, Gov. Tom Wolf’s Philadelphia office and the federal court building near the Liberty Bell.  Sarah Morris with the #No215Jail Coalition stated:  “It is completely unacceptable that elected officials have not taken sufficient steps to release people in Philadelphia’s prisons, jails, and detention centers.”  Morris, who also represents the Youth Art and Self Empowerment Project, continued: “Their inaction is putting thousands of incarcerated people, workers and their family members at extreme and unnecessary risk. "

Corona Crisis Creates Opportunities For Decarceration Nationwide

March 29, 2020 Amani Sawari, SawariMi.org. , , ,
We are only as safe from an epidemic as our most vulnerable are. At this time communities across the country are aware of the risks of not practicing the five habits that help to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. We have been encouraged to self-quarantine and many have been “locked down” for weeks. Some people have have expressed solidarity with people in prison as a result. Now that many have become more sensitive to the effects of isolation because of forced quarantine, let’s think about how are (not) people in prison being protected. Understanding that prison health is apart of public health I want to outline the ways that prisoners are not effectively able to protect themselves.

Social Distancing Is Impossible In Prisons, People Should Be Freed

March 22, 2020 Victoria Law, Truthout. , , ,
In early March, Michelle Tran drove 1,500 miles from her home in Wichita, Kansas, to visit her husband Thai at California’s Avenal State Prison. It’s a trek that Tran makes every 45 to 60 days. She typically spends a week in California so that she can visit her husband for two weekends. During the week, she visits family in Fresno and drives to Los Angeles to check on Thai’s mother, who is battling Stage IV cancer. That first weekend, the couple sat at the small round tables in the prison’s visiting room. They were able to hold hands, hug, kiss and eat snacks from the prison’s vending machines. On Sunday, Tran ended their visit after two hours to drive to Sacramento for a Drop LWOP rally urging lawmakers to change laws and end sentences of life without the possibility of parole.

Chelsea Manning’s Lawyers Demand Her Release

February 20, 2020 Andrea Germanos, Commondreams. , , ,
Lawyers for Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning on Wednesday filed a motion for her release, saying her continued incarceration for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury is unlawful. The motion, filed in the Alexandria, Virginia-based federal district court for the eastern district of Virginia, says that Manning's "incarceration is not serving its only permissible purpose"—to coerce her testimony. Rather, the motion argues, the detention is clearly punitive. Manning has been held in contempt of court and locked away at the Alexandria Detention Center nearly continuously since March 2019. She may be held as long as 18 months unless she agrees to testify to a grand jury about WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, who remains at a London prison as the U.S. government seeks his extradition.

Belmarsh Prisoners Remind Us Of Our Duty Of Civil Disobedience

February 2, 2020 Nozomi Hayase, Commondreams. , , ,
On January 24, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is detained in London’s Belmarsh prison solely for the purposes of the US extradition request, was moved out of solitary confinement. He is now placed into a different wing of the prison, where he can interact with other inmates. In a statement, WikiLeaks Ambassador Joseph Farrell indicated, “The move is a huge victory for Assange’s legal team and for campaigners who have been insisting for weeks that the prison authorities must end the punitive treatment of Assange.” Assange has been charged with 17 counts of Espionage related to WikiLeaks’ 2010-11 publication concerning U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, embarrassing US diplomatic details, and torture in the Guantanamo Bay Prison.

Palestinian Child Prisoner Reveals Horrible Details About His Detention

January 26, 2020 Palestine Chronicle. , , ,
A Palestinian child prisoner revealed horrible details about his detention to the Committee of Prisoners. 17-year-old Ishaq Abu Hitteh from Hebron (Al-Khalil) was arrested near the Ibrahimi mosque on January 18, while he was heading to the mosque to pray. Abu Hitteh told the Committee that he was assaulted by a group of Jewish settlers, who surrounded and threatened him, before a large number of Israeli soldiers arrived and brutally beat him, claiming that he had tried to stab the settlers. The soldiers forced Abu Hitteh to sit on his knees and left him for three hours in the freezing weather.

Activist Marty Gottesfeld Silenced For Writing About Prison Corruption While Serving Time

December 24, 2019 Barrett Brown, Counterpunch. , ,
As I’ve recently learned from his wife, activist and prison journalist Marty Gottesfeld — recently sentenced to ten years for a denial of service attack on the website of the Boston hospital that was holding a young girl against her will and that of her family while denying her treatment for the painful condition they claimed was all in her head — has been held incommunicado from his family by the Bureau of Prisons for well over seven months. This act of totalitarian retaliation, shocking even to many of us who have likewise been illicitly silenced by the BOP both in and out of prison, began shortly after Marty was suddenly and irregularly shipped from the notorious New York BOP facility where Epstein would later die of pretend suicide.

British Judge Jails Assange Indefinitely, Despite End Of Sentence

September 15, 2019 Oscar Grenfell, WSWS.org. , , ,
In a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court yesterday morning, British District Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled that WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange will remain in prison, despite the fact that his custodial sentence for “absconding” bail expires on September 22. The ruling is the latest in a series of attacks on Assange’s legal and democratic rights by the British judiciary. It means that the publisher and journalist will be detained until court proceedings next February for his extradition to the US, where he faces 175 years imprisonment for exposing American war crimes. Given that the extradition proceedings will likely involve a protracted legal battle, Baraitser’s decision potentially confines Assange to the maximum-security Belmarsh Prison for years to come.
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