Public health experts are sounding the alarm of the threat that prisons and jails pose in this pandemic. There is a heightened risk of infection for people who are involved in the criminal legal system – people living in it, staff, and the communities they return home to.
That’s why we’re calling on President Trump and all state governors to heed the recommendations of public health professionals: Release communities who are most vulnerable to COVID-19 – particularly the elderly and sick – and reduce overcrowding in our criminal legal system.
It’s on all of us to call for immediate actions that will protect the people most vulnerable to this pandemic – that includes those involved in the criminal legal system. Downsizing the footprint of the criminal legal system must be a part of the COVID-19 public health response.
For more information and to sign the petition: https://action.aclu.org/petition/stop-spread-covid-19-free-elderly-and-sick-prisons-and-jails?social_referer_transaction=3081180
admin on March 24, 2020