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Hi everyone! I’m tweeting today about #FreeOurOhana and I hope you’ll share and RT for this very important call to action for our prisoners in Hawaii. A little 
below!
below!
On 3/31, Honolulu Mayor Caldwell stated that, “prison could actually be the safest place in terms of COVID-19.” Police Chief Ballard said, “There’s no reason in our minds anybody should be released out into the community,” https://www.staradvertiser.com/2020/03/31/breaking-news/honolulu-mayor-kirk-caldwell-to-discuss-citys-response-to-coronavirus/
This goes against every experience in other states and other counties. @CivilBeat puts it well: “Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s comments contradict the CDC and the experience of correctional facilities across the country where coronavirus is spreading rapidly.” https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/04/honolulu-mayor-prison-may-be-safest-place-to-ride-out-covid-19/
This NYT article overviews prison conditions and has a very concerning sentence in it: “A week ago, the Cook County jail in Chicago had two diagnoses; by Sunday, 101 inmates and a dozen employees had tested positive for the virus.” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/us/coronavirus-prisons-jails.html
California is already taking action and this article has a quote that speaks to the current vibe in prison: “He feels like he’s in a Nazi Germany death camp. They basically locked them all in the ‘sick’ dorm and are only taking guys out with a high fever” https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-31/coronavirus-california-release-3500-inmates-prisons
The parallels between an isolated prison population and an isolated island population are there. But Caldwell and Ballard are either completely out of the loop or they are pretending that prisons in Hawaii will be different than prisons everywhere else during this time.
Their response on this mirrors Ige’s slow response in shuttering tourism and this will come at the expense of a lot of our friends and families in the prison system. Moreover, this will disproportionately impact Native Hawaiians.
Native Hawaiians make up about 21% of the state population but make up 40-60% of the prison population here AND Arizona: https://olywip.org/native-hawaiian-mass-incarceration/
Settler colonial politics has a long history in Hawaii of Asians/settlers locking up Native Hawaiian people. Right now, settler colonial politics is playing with knowingly handing out death sentences via COVID-19.
So here’s who to tweet at about this:
@GovHawaii @LtGovJoshGreen @HawaiiPSD and
O’ahu: @MayorKirkHNL
Hawai’i: @MayorHarryKim @Mitch_Roth2020
Maui: @MayorVictorino @DonGuzmanMaui
Kaua’i: @JustinKollar (tho I hear @JustinKollar is on top of this already!)
@GovHawaii @LtGovJoshGreen @HawaiiPSD and
O’ahu: @MayorKirkHNL
Hawai’i: @MayorHarryKim @Mitch_Roth2020
Maui: @MayorVictorino @DonGuzmanMaui
Kaua’i: @JustinKollar (tho I hear @JustinKollar is on top of this already!)
And here are more resources for your online activism purposes:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OiRjqTYi6Y-igCyLyO7k4Al8hzJp9E6dCPqgAT1-mDs/mobilebasic
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OiRjqTYi6Y-igCyLyO7k4Al8hzJp9E6dCPqgAT1-mDs/mobilebasic
Thanks to @shaynalalex for organizing this and @acluhawaii!
