Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights has expanded its #MassBailOut campaign, partnering with Mano Amiga and Faith in Texas to swiftly and responsibly release people from jails in Dallas and Hays County to help flatten the curve as the coronavirus threat intensifies. Not only are jails dangerously overcrowded—making social distancing impossible—and low on necessary hygiene resources as basic as soap, but because they are short-term facilities, more than 200,000 people flow in and out of them every week. This constant churn makes jails potent incubators for COVID-19, enabling the spread of the virus to everyone on-site, including guards and staff, as well as to the general public. Most people caged in our jails have not been convicted of a crime; they simply cannot afford to pay their bail. They are mothers, fathers, grandparents, neighbors. And they are trapped in jail as COVID-19 approaches because they don’t have the $1,000 or even $100 (and sometimes as little as $25) needed to buy their freedom—and with it, the safety of sheltering at home with family. “What’s happening on Rikers Island, and in New York overall, is a blaring wake-up call, showing us how much worse this crisis will get if we don’t immediately empty our jails,” said Wade McMullen, senior vice president of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. “Unfortunately, state officials are dragging their feet, failing to take lifesaving action at the very moment when we can still make a difference. Their failure to free legally innocent people who are jailed pretrial on unaffordable money bail demonstrates the brokenness and inhumanity of our so-called ‘justice’ system.” With the expansion, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and its partners will have helped free more than 215 individuals across nine states, sparing them from having to endure the horrors of pretrial detention and needless exposure to the coronavirus simply because they didn’t have enough money to make bail. “The cash bail system unjustly punishes the poor, subjecting them to days, weeks, if not years behind bars on unproven charges purely because they can’t afford their freedom,” said Kerry Kennedy, president of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. “COVID-19 urgently magnifies the steep price of pretrial detention and we, as a human rights organization, won’t stand idly by in the face of such abuse.”
Faith in Texas in Dallas Examiner: Civil Rights Leaders Call for COVID-19 Protections in Texas Jails
The ACLU of Texas and a coalition of civil rights leaders sent almost 500 letters last week to criminal justice officials urging them to take public health experts’ advice and release individuals who are at high risk of severe illness or death from COVID-19 from county jails. Specifically, the focus is placed on communities in jails with populations identified by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention as vulnerable, as well as people currently in pretrial detention. … Public health experts and groups such as the National Commission on Correctional Health Care agree that incarcerated people are at high risk for infection by SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19. By following the recommendations outlined in the letter, civil rights leaders believe state and local officials can help stem the spread of the virus in vulnerable communities and the public at large. The letter was signed by the ACLU of Texas, the Afiya Center, Alliance for Safety and Justice, Faith in Texas, Grassroots Leadership, Next Generation Action Network, Restoring Justice, Texas Advocates for Justice, Texas Appleseed, Texas Civil Rights Project, Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, Texas Equal Access Fund, Texas Fair Defense Project, Texas Jail Project, UT Austin Senior Lecturer Michele Deitc, and the Workers Defense Project. Excerpted from The Dallas Examiner. Read the full article here. Read more about our response to COVID-19 here.
Tiara Cooper in FOX4 News: Five Inmates in Dallas County Jail Diagnosed with COVID-19
At least five inmates who have been in the Dallas County jail have tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus. Dallas County Sheriff Marian Brown said the first inmate to test positive was a male inmate in his 40s who had been there since December. He was housed in a shared unit with about 50 other inmates. Those inmates have since been screened and at least four also tested positive for COVID-19. … “I have loved ones who have loved ones in that jail,” said Tiara Cooper, [Live Free Texas organizer with Faith in Texas and] a former inmate. “So for me, it’s a mixture of confusion and lack of transparency.” Inmate advocacy groups said they want the sheriff’s department to let the public know how often the jail is being cleaned. They want inmates to have more access to cleaning products and laundry facilities. And they said Dallas County should follow the lead of other states that have released some low-level and especially vulnerable inmates. Excerpted from Fox4 News. Read the full article here.
