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Let’s talk about the proverbial elephant in the room RE #CompassionateRelease of persons incarcerated in #prisons in the midst of #COVID19. A [long] thread with thanks to @briewsf @DrNovisky @GeriPowerMD 1/21
While a partnership between @FAMMFoundation @NACDL @WashLaw4CR is tackling petitions in the @OfficialFBOP Why don’t we see governors and other leadership extending release to many of the #vulnerable housed in state #prisons? 2/21
By #vulnerable, I mean those persons who meet #CDC guidelines for greatest risk of serious illness due to #COVID19 -- persons over 65 ( #olderadults), those with #chronichealth problems including severe #asthma #liverdisease or are #immunocompromised ( #hepatitis) 3/21
In fact, individuals age 50 or older who are incarcerated share the biophysiological characteristics of their free counterparts roughly 10 years senior. Check out @briewsf efforts here https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-0-387-71695-4_5 4/21
And a great body of work points to gaping #health #disparities found between persons incarcerated in #jails and #prisons and persons in the #community (Dated national portrait here https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/mpsfpji1112.pdf ) 5/21
That means that #olderadults in #prisons, facing a heavy burden of disease, are at great risk of complications borne of #COVID19 Further, we know #SocialDistance is nearly impossible in #prisons – 6/21
And though many institutions are trying to adapt (see @AmendatUCSF for resources), #prisons remain #COVID19 hotspots. So, why stall? 7/21
The reality is this—many existing state #CompassionateRelease policies include stringent exclusion criteria RE minimum age, % time served, but most importantly, charges (violent & sexual offenses) See https://famm.org/our-work/compassionate-release/ and https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30080113/ 8/21
I do not claim to know the exact proportion of persons age 65 or older incarcerated in state #prisons who carry charges linked to violent or sexual crimes, but I gather this may very well be a driving factor in what is a large and mounting #publichealth crisis 9/21
In our recent work, we found 1 in 4 #olderadults in one sample was serving a #lifesentence or #virtuallife (50 years+) – sentences oft linked to egregious crimes... 10/21
That’s nearly twice as high as the rate reported by @sentencingproj in their report, Still Life https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/still-life-americas-increasing-use-life-long-term-sentences/ 11/21
So, it is plausible that the very persons at greatest risk of #morbidity and #mortality in the #pandemic in #prisons have been sentenced to death by #COVID19 12/21
But this is, in part, our fault. Our collective failure to wade in the deepest waters of #restorativejustice has brought us to a #pandemic precipice 13/21
We find it easier to support the release persons under #pretrial detention, even those with charges linked to substance use concerns—those who are deserving. 14/21
But to make the move from lower-level #propertyoffenses to #pornography --especially if minors are involved-- causes great societal distress. The jump from #misdemeanor to #murder is canyon wide. 15/21
This is not to make light of victims’ experiences; in fact, #restorativejustice calls the wounded, the ‘wounders,’ and the community in which they are nested to navigate pain brought by crime together. 16/21
Often causing grief initially, #restorativejustice, when facilitated appropriately, can enhance individual and collective lives ( #socialworkers do yo thang). 17/21
I recognize this may not sit well with all, but we do not have time to wait—if you are unwilling to advocate for #CompassionateRelease because of the potentially grave harm caused, consider advocating for yourself. 18/21
We already know that #outbreaks behind bars bleed into the community and #COVID19 has spread within #prisons throughout the country ( @CovidPrison @CovidPrisonData)
19/21
19/21
#COVID19 may fade from view as restaurants, retail, and parks #reopen, but the infection rages on behind bars. This elephant in the room, then, will be coming to a community near you. 20/21
This #MemorialDayWeekend , I suggest we all don our symbolic swimming suits and dive into the deep end of #restorativejustice – as this approach, cold and dark and difficult as it may be at first, will support us all. 21/21
