Coronavirus
spreads where humans congregate. With rare exception, COVID-19 preys on the
weakest among people—the infirm, the sick, the elderly—which is the reason why
it’s so harmful in places of detention. A disproportionate quantity of inmates
are unwell, elderly, or both, and prisons are
always unsanitary and frequently
overcrowded. Many of the biggest outbreaks around the country are
in places of detention.
However,
the official response to COVID-19 in the prison system has been positively
anemic. Most states have created guidelines meant to restrict the spread of the
virus in their prisons, but most have thereby far resisted the most morally immediate
solution: let inmates go. And not by the hundreds. Not even by the thousands. But
hundreds of thousands of prisoners ought to be released from jail.
We
give pause when we ask the question, “Who is, but shouldn’t be, in the prison
system?” Even before coronavirus, we only had one available narrative which gave
us a prepared answer to that question—the one given by The New Jim Crow, the
most influential novel about criminal justice in the 21st century. By the
author’s reasoning, the bulk of the ones who should not be incarcerated are war
on drug victims, the majority of whom were brown and black, non-violent,
low-level offenders. If we only could release those individuals, the mass
incarceration problem could be solved—and the COVID-19 crisis averted.
But
as most have seen, the author’s main
contention is merely mistaken. We have more than 1.5M individuals inside our prisons alone,
and an additional 630,000 inside jails, which together yields the greatest per capita rate of imprisonment around
the world. However, most prisoners within this country—seventeen of every twenty—are held by the
states, and the majority of state prisoners were convicted of a violent crime. Only around 15% are
there for drug crimes, and the majority of these were convicted of trafficking
or possessing with the intent to distribute. It is difficult to tell precisely
how many folks in prison are non-violent, low-level drug offenders, yet oft-cited research from 2004 placed the figure
somewhere between 1 – 2% of the imprisoned population, or between 15,000 to
30,000 individuals.
The
governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Wolf, recently issued an executive order that directed the
department of corrections to identify appropriate candidates for release, and noted
in the preamble that ‘minimizing the quantity of people inside correctional
facilities decreases the risk of rapid transmission of coronavirus between
staff and residents . . . by better permitting for the institution of social
distancing and additional mitigation efforts.’
To
accomplish this goal, Wolf, a Dem who thinks of himself as a criminal justice
reformer,
ordered that the department identify “vulnerable” inmates eligible for
release within the following 12 months. By “vulnerable,” Wolf meant anyone who’s
at risk based on age, has an autoimmune disorder, is pregnant, or suffers with
a “severe chronic medical condition” like heart disease or diabetes. In
addition, he asked the department to identify prison inmates eligible for
release within the following 9 months, irrespective of vulnerability. From that
fraction, he then excluded anyone, irrespective of how vulnerable or how close their
release was, serving time for a crime that involved personal injury, violence, drug
trafficking, a deadly weapon, as well as anybody who was denied parole or has
an outstanding felony or misdemeanor warrant. No matter how old the conviction
might’ve been and irrespective of their present behavioral profile, if inmates
in Pennsylvania fall into one of those additional categories, they aren’t qualified
for release under his order.
Because
of those carve-outs, the order will do basically nothing. The state estimates that 1,500 - 1,800 prison
inmates come inside the literal terms of the order, although it predicts that
fewer will eventually be released. The state of Pennsylvania incarcerates a
little over 44,000 inmates, which means Wolf’s plan will decrease
Pennsylvania’s population in prison by approximately
3 – 4%. At the end of March 2020, Pennsylvania’s prisons were operating at 94.5% capacity, and 10 of 25
facilities in Pennsylvania were above or at 100% capacity, according to the
Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.
The
order by Wolf won’t make a dent in the coronavirus crisis in PA prisons, although
it’ll at least improve over the plan that was proposed by the state legislature that had the desire to cap releases at 450.
Decreasing
prison populations by a few percentage points is akin to asking a couple of folks
in the back row of an overcrowded movie theater to exit then telling everybody
who is left to spread out.
Elderly
offenders are less likely to recidivate. Osborne Association research found
that around the nation, over 43% of all released people recidivate within 3
years, although only 7% of the ones aged 50 to 64, and only 4% of the ones over
age 65, go back to prison for brand-new convictions—the lowest rates of all imprisoned
age demographics.
If
we wish to provide for social distancing in the prison system, the safest,
surest method includes releasing everyone over age 50.
The
New Jim Crow provided a painless prescription: quit sending young brown and
black males to prison for minor drug crimes. The step could end mass
incarceration and reverse years of racial injustice. Plus, the measure would be
simple, since the crack epidemic ended by the time the novel appeared. Most
importantly, if we took this measure, we would be able to double down on
everything else.
We
would be able to increase sentences for violent crimes, as
that wasn’t part of the problem. We would be able to sentence more individuals
to life in prison, because that wasn’t
part of the problem. We would be able to keep hundreds of thousands of individuals
in prison until they pass away, because this too wasn’t part of the problem.
The issue was the nonviolent, low-level offender. And since we weren’t sending
these folks to prison, concentrating our attention on them didn’t require that
we actually do anything differently. More importantly, we didn’t need to
release lots of individuals. In short, we can sympathetically gaze at the
mental image of a young brown or black man languishing in the prison system for
a trivial drug crime because it isn’t real.
While
we have your attention...
...we’re
asking for your help. Confronting the myriad of challenges of coronavirus—from
the economic to the medical, the political to the social—demands all the moral
and clarity we can muster. Recently, an open letter to Governor Ron DeSantis in
Florida was written about how black people constituted 17% of state residents,
but there were 39% of people in jail and 47% of people in prison. Since 1970,
the total jail population has increased 513%.
The letter would apply to many governors as many of the Afro-American
prisoners languishing in prisons are non-violent offenders and now with
COVID-19 approaching, they’re sitting ducks in their cell blocks. You can read
the open letter here.
The New Journey Super Pac
Our group, The New
Journey Pac is one of America's leading Republican Conservative Afro-American
groups in the USA. Our goal is to get more Afro-Americans to vote for President
Trump and for other congressional Republicans in November. The GOP must
regain The House to de-throne her Majesty Nancy Pelosi. Plus keep the Senate
and re-elect Donald Trump.
We are the GOOD GUYS and
we want to give hope and help to many less fortunate Blacks in poor areas by
replacing the Democratic positions that have failed to fulfill their promises.
Donald Trump has over delivered on his promises and that is why so many
millions follow and support him. But he ONLY received 8%, yes only EIGHT
PERCENT of the Black Vote in 2016. We aim to get that number MUCH MUCH higher.
HOW...
Through EDUCATION and
the power of their vote is what matters. That will enable things to change in
their favor. Our website www.BlackCovid-19News.com keeps up with why and how COVID-19 has
had such a negative effect on the Black Nation and what they can do about
protecting themselves.
If YOU want to help make
a difference and can help please give what you can. Now. Every dollar makes a
difference. We are still short of our $500,000 goal by the summer. However, we
have just passed the $400,000 mark and are hopeful we will reach our goal.
DONATE HERE.
My sentiments exactly
ReplyDelete