No Soap. Broken Sinks. We Will All Pay for Coronavirus Ravaging Prisons
As the nation toils to control the coronavirus pandemic, we each are called upon to do our part: wash hands, disinfect surfaces, practice social distancing. Yet those simple steps are an out-of-reach expectation, often even against the rules, for people who are behind bars in America—more than 2.1 million incarcerated in jails and prisons, in addition to the approximately 37,000 held in immigration detention.
In the name of public safety, local jails across the country are considering the release of individuals who have committed low-level, nonviolent offenses and pose little threat. California's Alameda County Sheriff's Office sent home more than 300 prisoners last week, and New Jersey is freeing as many as 1,000 people deemed eligible for release. Meanwhile, prosecutors are urging local officials to stop admitting people to jail absent a serious risk to the physical safety of the community. At the federal level, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators is imploring the attorney general and Bureau of Prisons to transfer those who are most vulnerable—the elderly and sick—to home confinement. President Donald Trump is considering issuing an executive order to accomplish the same.
It's vital that we release our most vulnerable citizens from jails and prisons during this horrific pandemic. But given that early release is not an option for all prisoners, corrections facilities must also immediately reform their hygiene policies to protect those who are incarcerated—and indeed, all of us—from further spread of the virus.
In New York City, now the epicenter of COVID-19 cases, as of Wednesday, 75 incarcerated individuals, 21 corrections employees and eight people who work in health services have tested positive across the city's jail system, including at its largest complex on Rikers Island; officials are now ordering the population there to sleep head-to-toe as a way to maintain 3 feet of distance from one another.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/no-soap-broken-sinks-we-will-all-pay-for-coronavirus-ravaging-prisons/ar-BB11KiOL?ocid=msn360