Recommended reading on how COVID-19 is impacting incarcerated populations and what must be done to avoid catastrophe: "Let the People Go" by Joseph Margulies in the Boston Review.
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COVID-19 has exposed systemic injustice and institutional failures at every level of society, and nowhere more than in the criminal justice system. Incarcerated people are already being hit hard by the pandemic, but the situation is rapidly deteriorating -- and the effects will be felt beyond the walls of prisons and jails.
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Squalid and unhealthy even in the best of times, prisons and especially jails are especially vulnerable during a pandemic. That's not just a danger to incarcerated people -- it's a disaster for public health.
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Prisons in the U.S. frequently use long-term solitary confinement, even though the evidence makes clear that solitary has devastating effects on prisoners’ mental and physical health. Some authorities call long-term solitary nothing short of torture. So what can we make of our prisons using solitary for people with significant disabilities? If solitary devastates so-called normal prisoners, what does it do to those with severe physical or cognitive impairments?
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