Advocates Fear That Existing Racial Disparities In Prison System Are Exacerbated By Outbreak Release Guidance
Most white-collar defendants get lighter sentences in less-secure facilities, making them better eligible for release in the pandemic. Advocates have been warning from the start that the prison system is a ticking time-bomb just waiting to explode.
The Associated Press:
Federal Inmates Battle Mixed Messages On Home Confinement
She never thought her husband’s punishment for selling drugs would be a death sentence. But as the new coronavirus rips through the U.S. prison system and into the facility where he is serving eight years, she fears it could be. The 24-year-old inmate suffers from severe asthma at the medium-security South Carolina prison. He has tried and failed to get released to home confinement, while his wife on the outside watches high-profile inmates go free. (Balsamo and Long, 4/28)
NPR:
'A Ticking Time Bomb': Advocates Warn COVID-19 Is Spreading Rapidly Behind Bars
In Arizona, a woman behind bars at the Perryville women's prison reports hearing coughing echoing through the warehouse-style dorms all night.In New Jersey, an immigrant detainee being held in the Essex County jail has been put on quarantine cleaning duty even though he's been sick. He fears he's spreading the coronavirus. And at the Etowah County jail in Alabama, Karim Golding, an immigrant detainee who's fighting deportation to Jamaica, says he's been feeling short of breath and worries he got coronavirus from the guards or new detainees coming in and out. (Jenkins and Katz, 4/28)
Las Vegas Review-Journal:
Coronavirus Crisis Changes Judges’ Views On Bail
In the midst of the coronavirus outbreak and a recent Nevada Supreme Court decision, criminal defense attorneys have begun to flood the Las Vegas justice system with requests for new bail hearings. They are asking for clients to be given a chance at freedom in a shuttered community, even those facing the most serious criminal charges. In some cases, judges have significantly reduced the amount of money needed for suspects to get out of jail. (Ferrara, 4/27)
And in news on immigration detention facilities —
The Washington Post:
U.S. Judge: ICE Must Justify Detentions Of Parents Held More Than 20 Days At Family Detention Centers
A federal judge on Monday required U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to individually justify the detention of parents held longer than 20 days at family detention centers amid the coronavirus outbreak, expanding on a ruling that had earlier applied only to children. U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg of the District of Columbia said in a teleconference hearing that he doubted he had jurisdiction to order emergency releases from ICE’s family detention facilities as sought by immigrant advocates who filed a class-action suit on March 31 arguing that the facilities lack hygiene and social distancing standards to prevent coronavirus spread. (Hsu, 4/27)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Coronavirus Behind Bars: Lawsuits Ask High Court To Stop Transfers From California Prisons To ICE Detention Centers
Immigrant advocates say migrants held in jails and prisons in California who are eligible for release are instead being shipped to dangerously overcrowded federal detention centers overseen by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They are urging the state Supreme Court to step in.“ICE’s abject failure to protect the lives of people in its custody from the deadly COVID-19 is inviting a calamity,” advocacy groups said in a lawsuit filed Friday. They asked the court to issue an order by next Monday prohibiting county jails and state prisons in California from transferring any inmates to ICE detention during the coronavirus pandemic. (Egelko, 4/27)
