COVID-19 and "Corrections": A Dangerous Combination

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By Nikki Bambauer

In the United States, COVID-19 has highlighted the glaring inequities between the rich and poor and between white people and BIPOC.[1]  Compared to white communities, Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities face staggering rates of infection and morbidity. As COVID-19 continues to ravage the country, the recommendations for prevention have been clear. But what about the people who don’t have the ability to follow these recommendations, even if they want to?

This issue affects “essential workers” and people who do not have the option of working from home, people who have no option but to use public transportation, and others. Race and socioeconomic class play important roles in who has the ability to follow recommendations closely, as Black, Brown, and Indigenous people are disproportionately impacted by these conditions. Nowhere are these dynamics more obvious than in the incarcerated population.

PANDEMIC IN U.S. JAILS AND PRISONS

Lack of PPE and inability to social distance is the reality for many people incarcerated at detention facilities around the country. As of July 14, more than 64,000 people have been infected with COVID-19 in U.S. prisons and at least 586 have died as a result. According to The New York Times, “the five largest known clusters of the virus in the United States are not at nursing homes or meatpacking plants, but inside correction institutions.”[2]

Conditions in jails and prisons – overcrowding, inability to social distance, unsanitary quarters, and lack of cleaning supplies or personal protective equipment – make incarceration facilities viral hotbeds. Unlike people on the outside, incarcerated people have almost no means of protecting themselves from potential infection.

INCARCERATION & INTERNATIONAL LAW

Human rights are universal – everyone is supposed to have them, regardless of race, class, gender, religion, or criminal convictions – but we do not always treat them as such. By continuing to allow COVID-19 to ravage jails and prisons, our society and leaders are actively denying human rights to more than two million people.[3]

According to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR, 1966) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR, 1966), all people have:

  • The inherent right to life (ICCPR, Article 6)
    By allowing and maintaining dangerous conditions which allow the virus to spread, incarcerated people are vulnerable to contracting COVID-19. For those with underlying conditions (and even those without), the disease may be a death sentence.

  • Freedom from cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment (ICCPR, Article 7)
    Earlier this month, Adnan Khan, Executive Director of Re:Store Justice and formerly incarcerated person, tweeted about an incarcerated “essential worker” who was forced to clean cells used for COVID patients. He wanted to refuse work but couldn’t without being written up and receiving denials from the parole board for a minimum of three years. “He had to risk covid for a possibility of going home one day,” wrote Khan.

  • The right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standards of physical and mental health, including prevention, treatment, and control of diseases and the creation of conditions which would assure that everyone has medical service/attention in the event of sickness (ICESCR, Article 12)
    In many facilities, incarcerated people who seek medical treatment for COVID-19 are instead simply put back into a cell with a non-infected person, sent to solitary confinement, or both. Few receive any meaningful medical treatment inside of the facilities.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

Around the country, incarcerated people are sharing information about conditions on the inside. They are engaging in acts of resistance such as hunger strikes and they are trying to survive. Community organizations and coalitions on the outside are working in solidarity with incarcerated people to put pressure on the people and system(s) responsible for the ongoing health crisis in U.S. jails and prisons.

Throughout California, groups are calling for Governor Gavin Newsom and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to grant releases to reduce the prison population, stop the transfer of incarcerated individuals between facilities, and provide ongoing and adequate testing to people inside. On July 10, Newsom announced that 8,000 incarcerated people would be released by the end of August, though many believe that this measure does not go far enough and will not stop the spread of COVID in the California prison system.

All of us have a role to play in the fight to stop the spread of the disease in our communities and in detention facilities. What organizations are advocating for the health and safety of incarcerated people in your community? How are incarcerated people involved in the shaping and leadership of those campaigns?

Together, we can defend human rights by helping to lessen the effect of COVID-19 on our incarcerated neighbors and community members.

RESOURCES

Notes

[1] Black, Indigenous, People of Color

[2] Timothy Williams, Libby Seline and Rebecca Griesbach, “Coronavirus Cases Rise Sharply in Prisons Even as They Plateau Nationwide,” The New York Times, June 16, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/16/us/coronavirus-inmates-prisons-jails.html.

[3] Approximately 2.3 million people are currently incarcerated in U.S. prisons, jails, and other detention centers.