An inmate tells The New York Times about lying ”back to back” with other men like on a “slave ship” and being guarded by men who had little protective gear. So far, about 170 prisoners have tested positive in the city. Officials around the country grapple with how to respond to the crisis as at least 8 states have inmates who tested positive. News on the prison system is from California, Illinois, Indiana and Georgia, as well.
NBC News: Prisoners In New York City Jails Sound Alarm As Coronavirus Spreads: ‘I Fear For My Life’
On the morning of March 15, amid escalating fears about the COVID-19 outbreak, a 62-year-old educational consultant showed up at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York for a flight to Trinidad, where he planned to attend a funeral, he said. But police stopped the consultant at the gate and arrested him under a year-old warrant, alleging he’d given bogus information for a state identification card in New Jersey. The arrest led the consultant into New York‘s notoriously brutal and unsanitary jail system, where COVID-19 was beginning to spread. (Schuppe, 3/30)
ABC News: One Of The Largest Single-Site Jails In The US Grapples With 134 Coronavirus Cases
The number of detainees testing positive for coronavirus at the Cook County Jail in Chicago skyrocketed over the weekend, leaving Sheriff Tom Dart grabbling with a dilemma that runs against the very grain of a veteran lawman and former prosecutor: whether to free alleged criminals instead of keeping them locked up. As of Monday afternoon, one of America’s largest single-site jails had 134 inmates who have tested positive for COVID-19, up from just 38 on Friday, Dart told ABC News. Of all the inmates tested so far only nine were negative, he said. (Hutchinson, 3/31)
Indianapolis Star: Coronavirus In Indiana: ACLU Calls For Early Releases For Some Inmates
The ACLU of Indiana has called on the Indiana Supreme Court to “immediately issue emergency steps” to reduce the number of inmates in the state’s prisons and jails to thwart what could be a devastating spread of coronavirus behind bars.”We’re asking the Supreme Court to, among other things, direct trial courts to review persons out of their courts who are either in the DOC or in county jails to determine if they can be released to try and avoid the spread of the COVID-19,” said Ken Falk, legal director at the ACLU of Indiana. (Evans, 3/30)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Coronavirus Is Spreading In Georgia Prisons
COVID-19 continues to spread in Georgia’s jails and prisons.The disease caused by the novel coronavirus is present in eight of the state’s prisons. Twenty-two people — split evenly among staff and offenders — have tested positive at 10 different facilities, most located in south Georgia. At Lee State Prison, 14 miles north of one of the state’s worst hot spots for the virus, five staff members and seven inmates have tested positive. (Boone, 3/30)
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