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May 27, 2020
Reviewing a handful of the latest ugly prison pandemic headlines
I have not done a round-up of stories on the spread of COVID-19 through state and federal prison populations lately, in part because this sad tale has already become just standard bad news. But some recent headlines and stories from this arena seemed especially worth flagging. So:
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From the Anchorage Daily News, "He tested positive for the coronavirus. One day later, a federal prison flew him home to Alaska."
- From The Guardian, "Pregnant inmates languish in US prisons despite promises of release"
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From HuffPost, "Inside A Federal Prison With A Deadly COVID-19 Outbreak, Compromised Men Beg For Help"
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From the Los Angeles Times, "'Powder keg’ at Chuckawalla Valley State Prison with 110 cases of COVID-19 in two weeks"
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From The Marshall Project, "How To Hide a COVID-19 Hotspot? Pretend Prisoners Don’t Exist"
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From NJ Spotlight, "NJ’s COVID-19 Release Program for Prisoners Is Slammed for Major Failings"
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From NPR, "As COVID-19 Cuts Deadly Path Through Indiana Prisons, Inmates Say Symptoms Ignored"
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From The Oregonian, "Oregon’s maximum-security prison in Salem now the site of state’s biggest single coronavirus outbreak"
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From USA Today, "In coronavirus crisis, lessons in humanity toward America's incarcerated"
May 27, 2020 at 01:07 PM | Permalink
Comments
And on Tuesday, the ACLU and Winston and Strawn Law Firm filed a class action lawsuit against the Warden and Bureau of Prisons over the huge Coronavirus outbreak at the Butner, North Carolina prison complex, with includes a Federal Medical Center. They have had 375 inmates infected (10 dead) and 44 staff members infected at Butlner, North Carolina. They are asking the Judge to appoint an expert to identify vulnerable inmates, so that the Judge can order them to be released to home confinement. Stay tuned to see if this lawsuit works. The 4th Circuit is not very inmate-friendly a place to litigate. In July 2000, I began serving my sentence at the Low Security Prison at Butner, so I know a lot about this place. Interetingly, Butner began as a German P.O.W. complex during World War II, and after the War, it was turned over to the then much smaller (4,000 total inmates in 1946?) Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Posted by: James Gormley | May 27, 2020 3:18:28 PM
