Covid-19 and The Debate Over Jail & Prison Conditions/Inmate Releases [Thread]

Once upon a time in my history, I didn't care one bit about what happened to people the police arrested for crimes of any kind.

I especially wouldn't have cared about anyone held in a jail/prison

There was a time when I would hear about people being abused in jails and prisons, I'd hear about horrid nightmare living conditions, and I'd think to myself "Good! People in jails and ptisons don't deserve to be cared about, nor do they deserve to have their rights defended"

Then I saw the difference between fact, bias, political thinking, and the misuse/abuse of our laws to impose widespread, dangerous beliefs on people that either ride the thin line of the 8th Amendment or totally disregards the 8th Amendment.

I realized something that is a fundamental truth.

ANYONE can be arrested at any time, and it is NOTORIOUSLY EASY to secure a conviction EVEN IF the accused invokes their 5th & 6th Amendment rights.

The rate of false convictions nationwide undermines the credibility of courts

Those facts alone should scare everybody!

Let's stay with the fundamentals here.

What is an arrest?

An arrest is merely the formal filing of criminal accusations in the criminal court. It means you were somehow identified as a criminal offender in whatever crime.

Well-meaning, but mistaken witnesses finger the wrong people ALL THE TIME.

Among those well-meaning witnesses are even the most ethical, upstanding, revered law enforcement pros.

There's an entire science dedicated to false witness identification of offenders.

Beyond this matter are matters pertaining to the dehumanization of criminal defendants. We are all taught to do this from a very young, impressionable age.

We are taught that we NEVER question the justice system, that the system is always above reproach....

You know what?

SURPRISE!! The jusrice system IS NOT ever above reproach!

0ur society is built on the false idea that when the court convicts and sentences people to jail or prison time, that the convicted is no longer human, they no longer have rights, and....

THE MOST DANGEROUS, false idea of all:

That jail/prison time comes with inadequate, dangerous, inhumane living conditions.

Fact:

No state law and no federal law says any such thing! As a matter of fact, the laws of all 50 states call for exactly the opposite!

Here is where I can get into Covid-19 and inmate safety, and why this impacts the non-incarcerated population

I've learned a lot from observing really good Twitter threads on this involving attorneys, families of the incarcerated, and formerly incarcerated people

The first and most important thing to be said is this:

No matter what your politics are, no matter what you think or how you feel, no matter what crime(s) you have been the victim of, convicted and incarcerated people ARE HUMAN BEINGS with constitutional and human rights

That last one was a hard thing for me to say since I'm a repeat survivor of heinous violent crimes and emotional abuse by offenders & abusers ranging the spectrum in age, race, socio-economic, and religious background

Covid-19 exposure WAS NOT part of the court's sentence given to ANY jail or prison inmate. The sentence was not a life of inadequate or negligent medical care by medical professionals with animus of any kind towards incarcerated people

The motions filed by public defenders, private attorneys, and others, are not about some nefarious agenda of sorts, it is about literally allowing the most medically vulnerable to have protection against what would be inhumane punishment

We as a society benefit when the constitutional and human rights of the incarcerated are protected. Society benefits from a system of justice and punishment that is tempered with humane treatment surpassing bare minimum requirements, and effective rehabilitation measures

In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and our nation's incarcerated people, if we don't lead by example, we risk some dangerous repercussions for public health and public safety

Protecting incarcerated people from deadly contagious pathogens protects law enforcement officers

Even the most hard-nosed politically conservative person wants law enforcement officers protected, right?

Right?

I thought so!

When the court sentences someone to a term of imprisonment, that is the ONLY sentence, not anything beyond that.

Protecting incarcerated people from Covid-19 is an act that protects wider society.

If, for instance, during this pandemic, people are granted parole or probation, supervised release, or they complete their sentence, and they go out into the public with Covid-19, it spreads

Earlier in this thread, I mentioned protecting the most medically vulnerable incarcerated people from Covid-19....they are the first priority, and the healthy population of incarcerated people can't be left in the wind since we know Covid-19 has killed perfectly healthy people