As Coronavirus Soars In Prisons, Use Of Solitary Confinement Grows
While the national infection rate flattens, the number of inmates who have tested positive for COVID-19 has doubled, and some prisons are increasing their use of solitary confinement to stem the tide. Meanwhile, the federal government announced Monday it will end its nearly two-decade hiatus on executions. In other prison news: accusations of staff brutality against disabled inmates in California; New Orleans stops work on jail expansion; nonprofits helping inmates in Detroit jails; and how one California man's psychiatric crisis led to his death.
The New York Times:
Coronavirus Cases Rise Sharply In Prisons Even As They Plateau Nationwide
Cases of the coronavirus in prisons and jails across the United States have soared in recent weeks, even as the overall daily infection rate in the nation has remained relatively flat. The number of prison inmates known to be infected has doubled during the past month to more than 65,000. Prison deaths tied to the coronavirus have also risen, by 73 percent since mid-May. By now, the five largest known clusters of the virus in the United States are not at nursing homes or meatpacking plants, but inside correction institutions, according to data The New York Times has been collecting about confirmed coronavirus cases since the pandemic reached American shores. (Williams, Seline and Griesbach, 6/16)
The Washington Post:
Research Underscores How Our Punitive Criminal Justice System Is A Coronavirus Risk Factor
Early in the coronavirus pandemic, public health experts singled out prisons and jails as severe outbreak risks, prompting calls to release inmates to mitigate its spread. Those warnings proved prescient. Eight of the 10 largest clusters of the novel coronavirus in the United States are now in jails and correctional facilities, according to data compiled by the New York Times. And new peer-reviewed research, published in the journal Health Affairs, shows that those outbreaks have ripple effects that extend far beyond institutional walls. (Ingraham, 6/12)
ABC News:
Lawmakers Worry About COVID-19 Spread After Bureau Of Prisons Officers Deployed To Protests
With many federal prisons across the country grappling with sizable coronavirus outbreaks, some Democratic lawmakers are raising new questions about the deployment of Bureau of Prisons officers to recent protests against racism and police brutality. In a new letter to Bureau of Prisons Director Michael Carvajal, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Reps. Jamie Raskin, D-Md, Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., questioned whether the agency tested officers before their deployments to Washington, D.C., and Miami, and whether there were any plans to test them before they returned to their facilities. (Siegel and Barr, 6/15)
NPR:
U.S. Prisons Respond To Coronavirus With More Solitary Confinement
Prisons across the country have placed prisoners on lockdown — they're kept in their cells mostly around-the-clock — as a way to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Now prison reformers are worried that the response has increased the use of a practice they've long fought: solitary confinement."We're starting to see an alarming trend in light of COVID-19," says Jessica Sandoval of Unlock the Box, a coalition of groups fighting solitary confinement, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. (Shapiro, 6/15)
NPR:
4 Federal Prisoners Set To Be Executed This Summer
After nearly two decades, the federal government will once again begin executing criminals, the Justice Department announced Monday. Four convicted child-murderers are set to be put to death by lethal injection. "The four murderers whose executions are scheduled today have received full and fair proceedings under our Constitution and laws," said Attorney General William Barr in a statement. "We owe it to the victims of these horrific crimes, and to the families left behind, to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system." (Schwartz, 6/15)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Federal Judge In Oakland Hears Of Prison Staff Brutality Against Disabled Inmates
Conditions in California prisons have been dismal enough in the past decade to prompt U.S. Supreme Court intervention. The situation has gotten worse in many prisons during the coronavirus pandemic, but for thousands of physically and mentally disabled inmates, according to a recent court filing, things are downright terrifying. Citing more than 100 sworn declarations from inmates, lawyers told a federal judge in Oakland on June 3 that prison staff “routinely use unnecessary and excessive force against people with disabilities, often resulting in broken bones, loss of consciousness, stitches or injuries that require medical attention at outside hospitals.” (Egelko, 6/15)
Detroit Free Press:
How Nonprofits Get People Out Of Metro Detroit Jails During COVID-19 Pandemic
Jailed in Wayne County during the peak of the coronavirus crisis, Ivory Cross worried about contracting COVID-19. The 27-year-old from Inkster also feared for the health of her loved ones at home: her two young sons, her mother and her father, who has lung cancer. Several months passed with almost no communication with her family because she couldn’t afford phone calls from jail, she said. (Jackson, 6/16)
New Orleans Times-Picayune:
New Orleans Stops Work On Jail Expansion Plan, Calling It A 'waste Of Taxpayer Dollars'
New Orleans this month halted design work on a long-planned expansion of the parish jail for inmates with medical and mental health problems, casting the future of the facility into doubt and setting up a face-off between City Hall officials and a federal judge. In a legal brief, city attorneys said that spending any more money on the current plan for a new, $51 million building would be a “waste of taxpayer dollars” amid a steady decline in the jail population. (Sledge, 6/15)
ProPublica:
“Somebody’s Gotta Help Me”
Phillip Garcia was desperate to sit up. His wrists and ankles were bound to a hospital gurney and a hood covered his face. Garcia strained upward and then collapsed as he had countless times that day. It was shortly after 10 p.m. on March 23, 2017, and he was at the public hospital here in Riverside County in a special unit for inmates. Some 33 hours before, Garcia was led into a county jail, where he was almost immediately put in isolation for failing to follow orders and yelling irrational threats. When his mental condition worsened, deputies tied down the 51-year-old and eventually took him to Riverside University Health System Medical Center. “Somebody’s gotta help me. Somebody’s gotta help me. Please, man,” Garcia cried out, his voice raspy and muffled by the shield. (Beaty, Gabrielson, Sussman and Waldron, 6/16)
