Criminal Justice Reform Must Be Part of COVID Relief.
By Josh Mitman
As Senate, House, and White House leadership negotiate the best way to provide relief for populations who’ve impacted by the pandemic — from airlines and small businesses to the unemployed — there’s an incredibly vulnerable population that seems to have been forgotten. For people in prison, the horror of the pandemic is made far worse by their incarceration.
Imagine trying to social distance, but being forced to eat in tightly packed areas or sleep in a crowded open-concept dorm. While most of us have lost the ability to have visitors to our homes, we can still have video chats or call our family whenever we please. We can still walk around the block and listen to birds sing or feel raindrops fall as we rush back home. And on the outside, we can do our best to protect our elderly and immune compromised neighbors from exposure to the virus. Inside, it’s a very different story.
Unfortunately, for people in prison, COVID-19 is impossible to manage. In the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) alone, more than 10,000 people have been infected and over 100 have died. BOP Director Michael Carvajal recently told U.S. Senators that “prisons are not designed for social distancing. In fact, they are designed for just the opposite.” While we saw some steps to address this early in the pandemic, people in prison seem to have been left out in the following months. It is vital that any next steps from Congress to provide coronavirus assistance include relief for people in prison and their families.
Luckily, many members of Congress have introduced possible answers. The bipartisan COVID-19 Safer Detention Act, introduced by Sens. Durbin (D-Ill.) and Grassley (R-Iowa), would expand the federal elderly home detention program and expedite compassionate releases of elderly and immune compromised people. The BOP reported that 25 people have died in federal facilities this year while waiting for compassionate release requests to be processed. That’s a horrible fate, especially during a pandemic.
We should also seriously consider proposals to assist states and local governments that are working to reduce spread inside. The COVID-19 Correctional Facility Emergency Response Act, introduced by House Rep. Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Sens. Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Booker (D-N.J.), is one example of how we can use federal funds to protect incarcerated populations by supporting testing, treatment, re-entry, and release.
And now is an excellent time to be forward thinking. Lockdowns this year have highlighted the need to restore basic human dignity to people in prison. The House of Representatives recently passed an appropriations bill that would restore Pell Grants for incarcerated. This would provide broad access to college programs in state and federal prisons for the first time in decades. The Senate should follow the House’s lead and return access to education in prisons.
We must include measures to restore human dignity, release people at risk, and reduce the threat of uncontrolled spread inside in the next coronavirus package. People in prison just can’t wait.
Josh Mitman is FAMM’s Director of Federal Legislative Affairs.
Learn more about FAMM’s COVID-related work on our website: famm.org/CovidResponse
