It has been a little over a month since a worldwide pandemic was declared and carceral facilities are in the news a lot. I don't know about you, but I'm getting a little overwhelmed and having a difficult time keeping up (and not just because of the amount of things to read). This post is intended to compile resources about COVID-19 as it relates to prisons, jails, and the people who live and work therein. It is written for punishment scholars and others interested in getting a quick overview of public-facing literature on the situation.
First, the best quick clearinghouse of information
...on the status of jail/prison releases and other policy changes (like handling co-pays for medical expenses), along with links to other information, is the Prison Policy Initiative. Check their site before any other (including this blog post) as it has a lot of information and links to other pages with lots of information--including Sharon Dolovich's UCLA-based database of confirmed cases and deaths (as well as other information, like releases). This has since been expanded to a full website. Additionally, the Vera Institute of Justice has released a web tool that tracks the size of jail populations in nearly 400 counties, urging citizens to “Use this Data to Hold Your Local Jail Accountable During the Pandemic” by calling for more releases, especially in jurisdictions that have yet to take action. For a more comprehensive list of news articles relating to COVID-19 than I can provide, see the Marshall Project. Margo Schlanger's Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse is also maintaining a list of court cases relating to COVID-19, and this includes jail/prison conditions litigation. Additionally, Sheri-Lynn S. Kurisu is maintaining a google doc with a running list of resources relating to prisons and jails. The Defender Impact Initiative also maintains a running list of news articles about how coronavirus is impacting courts, jails, and prisons.As another source, you can also see the New York Times coverage, which includes a section on major US outbreaks. While the specific locations from day to day as new statistics come in, jail and prison facilities are often listed among elder care facilities and other common hot spots.
Second, some of the best and most consistent coverage
...of the issue (as well as how COVID-19 affects criminal justice more generally) is coming out of The Appeal. Here are some of their recent pieces, with other references below in the other categories.- Joshua Manson, "Surviving a Pandemic When Your Loved One is in Prison" (April 14)
- Oliver Hinds, "Emptying Prisons to Prevent the Spread of Coronavirus Will Save Lives on the Outside, Too" (April 15)
- Jay Willis, "The COVID-19 Prison Disaster is No Longer Hypothetical" (April 9)
- Nick Pinto, "If Coronavirus Deaths Start Piling up in Rikers Island Jails, We'll Know Who to Blame" (March 23)
- Akela Lacy, "The Coronavirus Pandemic Makes the Case for Criminal Justice Reform" (March 28)
- Ryan Grim "Rikers Island Prisoners are Being Offered PPE and $6 an Hour to Dig Mass Graves" (March 31)
- Liliana Segura, "As Virus Spreads in Federal Prisons, People Inside Describe Chaos, While Families are Left in the Dark" (April 15)
Third, a number of scholars have been contributing op-eds
...bringing their research to bear on the situation. Note that this list is mostly about prisons, punishment, and criminal justice, although it also touches on some issues beyond, and is limited to law and society/(socio)legal scholars.- Law profs have been contributing COVID-19-related articles since early March on the Sentencing Law and Policy Blog
- Premal Dharia was interviewed by NPR in "What Happens To People's Legal Cases As Coronavirus Shuts Down Courts?" (March 14)
- Hadar Aviram has been posting regularly about the situation on her blog, The California Correctional Crisis Blog, since mid-March.
- César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández and Carlos Moctezuma García wrote "Close Immigration Prisons Now: The coronavirus’s quick transmission and deadly track record is likely to worsen inside these institutions" for the New York Times (March 19)
- (see the Crimmigration Blog for more)
- Austin Sarat wrote "Will Coronavirus Stop America from Carrying Out Executions?" for Verdict (March 24).
- Robert F. Barsky wrote "Using the Rhetoric of Obscenity Against Vulnerable Migrants Amidst the Coronavirus Pandemic" for the Yale Journal of Regulation Blog (March 26).
- Brie Williams, Cyrus Ahalt, David Cloud, Dallas Augustine, Leah Rorvig, and David Sears wrote "Correctional Facilities In The Shadow Of COVID-19: Unique Challenges And Proposed Solutions" for Health Affairs (March 26).
- Margo Schlanger and Sonja Starr wrote "Four Things Every Prison System Must Do Today" for Slate (March 27).
- Gavin Yamey has written "We Must Act Now to Protect America's Most Vulnerable from Coronavirus" for Time (March 30).
- Katherine Kaufka Walts wrote "Deadly Consequences of 'Business as Usual' and Immigration Enforcement" for the Youth Circulations Blog (March 30)
- Nasrul Ismail wrote "COVID-19: Time to reduce the prison population in England and Wales" for the London School of Economics Blog (March 30)
- Katherine Beckett and Anjum Hajat wrote "With coronavirus, prison and jail sentences could become death sentences" for the Seattle Times (March 31)
- Vanessa Barker wrote "The Social Borders of Covid-19: From Social Darwinism to Social Recognition" for the Border Criminologies Blog (April 1).
- And check out the Border Criminologies Blog for more excellent coverage of immigration issues in Europe and beyond!
- Stephane D. Andrade, Brittany Pearl Battle, and Maretta McDonald wrote "The Stimulus Bill Punishes Parents Behind on Child Support. Now Is Not the Time." (Slate, April 1)
- Johann Koehler wrote a (March 31) piece on the London School of Economics Blog "COVID-19 recasts criminal justice reforms once deemed ‘unthinkable,’" which gives a much-needed multi-international perspective of what needs to be done.
- Charlotte Rosen writes for Belt Magazine about Pennsylvania facilities in the 1970s and 1980s when they also transferred prisoners due to unsafe conditions. The (April 3) article's tag line reads: "Facilities across the region have begun releasing incarcerated people due to dangerous conditions. It’s not the first time."
- David Johnson wrote an op-ed in the Honolulu Civil Beat (April 3) making the case for early releases of Hawaii's prisoners, both at home and abroad (since many are imprisoned on the Continent and not on the Islands). "Hawaii Needs To Release Inmates Soon, And On A Large Scale."
- Joss Soss was interviewed by Dissent Magazine (April 6) about his book with Josh Page and about the pandemic and criminal justice predation.
- Shaun Ossei-Owusu wrote for the Boston Review (April 8) about the effect of the pandemic on vulnerable populations, including incarcerated people. "Coronavirus and the Politics of Disposability."
- Ian Loader wrote "Coronavirus: why we must tackle hard questions about police power" for The Conversation (April 8).
- Sharon Dolovich writes for The Appeal (April 10), linking the argument for necessary (for public health and humanitarian reasons) releases with the larger decarceration project. The title and tag line read: "Every public official with the power to decarcerate must exercise that power now[.] Doing so will save countless lives, and in the process, they may show us by example how to begin, finally, to dismantle mass incarceration for good."
- John Pfaff wrote "The forever bars: With the virus rampaging, too many people are in prison. But if we fail to free anyone locked up for violence, we won’t save enough lives" for The Washington Post.
- Sahar Aziz wrote "Anti-Asian racism must be stopped before it is normalised" for Al Jazeera (April 12).
- Heather Elliot wrote "Parole hearings should be resumed for public health" for AL.com (April 13).
- J.J. Prescott, Benjamin Pyle, and Sonja Starr writes for Slate about their research on recidivism and make the case for why people convicted of violent crimes need to be released. "It’s Time to Start Releasing Some Prisoners With Violent Records" (April 13).
- Rachel Ellis has written "Underpaid and unprotected: Prison labor in the age of coronavirus" for the Contexts Blog (April 13).
- Zoha Waseem wrote "Covid-19 in South Asia: ‘Hard policing’ approach has left police ill-prepared to respond to a pandemic" for Policing Insight (April 14)
- Candace McCoy wrote for The American Prospect "Why the Pandemic Won’t Increase Violent Crime Even If It Triggers a Depression" (April 15).
- Ashley Rubin (that's me!) wrote a (April 15) piece in The Conversation offering some 18th century historical perspective on the situation, contrasting the intentions for early prison design to the situation today. "Prisons and jails are coronavirus epicenters – but they were once designed to prevent disease outbreaks."
- Olga Zeveleva has written "Prison Riots and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Global Uprising?" on the Gulag Echoes Blog (April 15).
- Jamie Rowen wrote "8 ways veterans are particularly at risk from the coronavirus pandemic," which includes a discussion of how the situation is playing out with veterans courts and justice-involved veterans (The Conversation, April 16).
- Lucius Couloute has written "Prisons as a public health threat during covid-19" for the Contexts Blog (April 16)
- Tyler Winkelman, Michelle S. Phelps, Kelly Lyn Mithcell, Latasha Jennings, Rebecca Shlafer have posted "Community Supervision and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Why We Need to Build a More Integrated Health System" to the Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Blog (April 17).
- Eve Hanan wrote "It’s time to release some inmates to reduce the coronavirus risk in prisons" for the The Nevada Independent (April 18).
- Adelina Iftene wrote "We must decarcerate across the country, then fix the prison system" for Policy Options (April 20). The tag line reads "COVID-19 is a match in a tinderbox created by years of overcrowding in appalling conditions in our prisons. We have a responsibility to do better."
- Mitra Sharafi wrote "Pandemic or poison? How epidemics shaped Southasia's legal history" for Himal Southasian (April 20).
- John Eason wrote "Why are black folks dying of COVID?: The Simple Answer" for the Punishment & Society Blog (April 22)
- Lisa Kerr wrote "Coronavirus in prisons: How and why to release inmates in a pandemic" for The Conversation (April 21)
- Hilary Marland, Clare Anderson, and William Murphy wrote "Coronavirus: a history of pandemics in prison" for The Conversation (April 22)
There have been some helpful twitter threads (although I'm biased, since I'm including some of mine below) as well as some regular helpful sources of information, including DC-based defense attorney @jameskzeigler and the account @prison_health.
- Here's a short thread from Nicole Gonzales Van Cleve about how the pandemic-related lockdowns (and not-lockdowns) are affecting courts.
- Here's a long thread from me discussing the role of disease in penal reform throughout US history.
- Here's another, medium thread from me using examples from the punishment and society literature to illustrate how our thinking about the pandemic trends are hurting our response.
- Here's yet another, sort of short thread from me discussing releases from prisons in light of the research.
Fourth, there are a number of stories in mainstream and local news
...that have been covering these stories since the beginning. While the number of articles has accelerated, pretty much keeping pace with the scale of the pandemic (hence the "overwhelming" comment above), some early stories warned about a disaster waiting happen.- February 29: "4 ways to protect our jails and prisons from coronavirus" (Homer Venters, The Hill)
- March 3: "Coronavirus could pose big problem for Pennsylvania prisons and jails: Applying lessons from the 2009 H1N1 pandemic" (Joseph Darius Jaafar, PA Post)
- March 5: "Prisons Called ‘Fertile Ground’ for Spread of COVID-19 Virus" (Andrea Cipriano, The Crime Report)
- March 5: "Coronavirus plan for California prisons raises inmate and advocate concerns" (Paige St. John, LA Times)
- March 6: "U.S. prisons are not ready for coronavirus" (P. Leila Barghouty, The Outline)
- March 7: "Prisons and jails are vulnerable to COVID-19 outbreaks" (Nicole Wetsman, The Verge)
- March 7: "Soap and sanitizer can keep coronavirus at bay, but many prisoners can't get them" (Keri Blakinger and Beth Schwartzapfel, USA Today)
- March 9: "New York Will Use Prison Labor to Make Hand Sanitizer" (Aaron Mak, Slate)
- March 10: "Elizabeth Warren Just Told Private Prisons to Release Their Coronavirus Plans" (Nathalie Baptiste, Mother Jones)
- March 11: "The Coronavirus Could Spark a Humanitarian Disaster in Jails and Prisons" (Premal Dharia, Slate)
- March 11: "State prisons prepare for coronavirus but federal prisons not providing significant guidance, sources say Prisons could face major hurdles if officers or prisoners contract COVID-19" (Luke Barr and Christina Carrega, ABC News)
- [Worldwide pandemic declared on March 11]
- March 12: "Justice Is Blind. What if She Also Has the Coronavirus?" (Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Serge F. Kovaleski, New York Times)
- March 13: "Nearly 500,000 People Who Have Not Been Convicted Are In Jail At High Coronavirus Risk" (Jessica Schulberg, Huffington Post)
- March 13: "Why Jails are Key to 'Flattening the Curve' of Coronavirus" (Kelsey Kauffman, The Appeal)
- March 13: "Staffer at Monroe state prison tests positive for coronavirus, DOC says" (Jim Brunner, Seattle Times)
- March 16: "An Epicenter of the Pandemic Will Be Jails and Prisons, if Inaction Continues" (Amanda Klonsky, New York Times - Opinion)
- March 17: "A coronavirus outbreak in jails or prisons could turn into a nightmare" (German Lopez, Vox)
- March 18: "Coronavirus has arrived at Rikers Island: Inside New York City Jails, Where the Pandemic is Set to Explode" (Nick Pinto, The Intercept)
- March 24: "Covid-19 Poses a Heightened Threat in Jails and Prisons" (Emma Grey Ellis, Wired)
- Offering a more international perspective: March 25: "Lock 'em up or let 'em out? Coronavirus prompts wave of prisoner releases" (Luke Baker, Reuters)
- March 30: "‘Jails Are Petri Dishes’: Inmates Freed as the Virus Spreads Behind Bars" (Timothy Williams, Benjamin Weiser and William K. Rashbaum, New York Times)
Perhaps the first warning sign that tipped us off was the release of prisoners in Iran in early March. On this, see:
A lot of the stories, both early and more recent, have documented what we (scholars) already knew about the poor hygiene and health care in jails and prisons and that is documented in our research. These new stories show that things are not necessarily getting better and there have been insufficient changes in many facilities. - Buzzfeed "This Man Says Inmates At His Prison Are Getting No Medical Care For COVID-19" (Melissa Segura, April 10)
- LA Times "L.A. jail inmates say lack of soap and toilet paper heightens coronavirus fear: ‘Like slow torture’" (Alene Tchekmedyian and Matt Hamilton, March 30)
- ABC News "Shampoo, watery soap to disinfect: Conditions on Rikers Island during COVID-19 unsafe, some inmates say" (Christina Carrega, March 29)
- The Intercept: "Louisiana's Coronavirus Plan for Prisons Could Create Death Camps" (Alice Speri and Akela Lacy, April 7)
- Marshall Project: "I Was at Rikers While Coronavirus Spread. Getting Out Was Just as Surreal." (Donald Kagan as told to Nicole Lewis, April 8)
- Washington Post: "Inside the deadliest federal prison, the seeping coronavirus creates fear and danger" (Kimberly Kindy, April 10)
- ABC News: "3rd Cook County Jail detainee dies after testing positive for COVID-19" (April 12)
Another trend worth emphasizing is the growing use of incarcerated people as labor sources, often with cruel twists (like creating hygiene supplies they are forbidden from using themselves). These articles are also listed above.
Punishment scholars: let me know if you have written something I can post here!
Also, if you can't find a good home for an op-ed, or you want a faster turnaround, please email me to post a blog piece on here.
- March 9: "New York Will Use Prison Labor to Make Hand Sanitizer" (Aaron Mak, Slate)
- Ryan Grim "Rikers Island Prisoners are Being Offered PPE and $6 an Hour to Dig Mass Graves" (March 31)
- Rachel Ellis "Underpaid and unprotected: Prison labor in the age of coronavirus" for the Contexts Blog (April 13).
Punishment scholars: let me know if you have written something I can post here!
Also, if you can't find a good home for an op-ed, or you want a faster turnaround, please email me to post a blog piece on here.
No comments:
Post a Comment