Coronavirus stripping: prisoners released in US due to pandemic

On March 29, the U.S. Prison Bureau announced the death of a first prisoner in the United States from coronavirus. Politicians, lawyers and human rights activists have long warned of the imminent outbreak of the epidemic in prisons, but for some prisoners, the spread of the disease was a chance to prematurely be released. Writes about this with the BBC.

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49-year-old Patrick Jones, serving a 27-year sentence for drug trafficking in Louisiana, was the first official victim of coronavirus in the US prison system.

Как claims the Washington Post With reference to prison guards' union representative Corey Trammell, after Jones' death, one of the Oakdale prison guards was placed in intensive care, and at least 30 inmates tested positive for coronavirus.

In total, according to Trammel, in a prison designed for 1700 people, there are almost 60 prisoners in quarantine and no less than the number of guards.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed the death of the convict, but declined to comment on the figures cited by the Washington Post union representative in Louisiana.

Statistical errors

In total, 2,3 million people are held in various places of detention in the United States today, including immigration, military prisons, isolation centers for juvenile offenders, and special closed psychiatric clinics.

But, according to official data from the Bureau of Prisons, the presence of coronavirus at the end of March was officially confirmed only in 14 prisoners and 13 guards.

Human rights activists and lawyers consider this data to be at least incomplete. A week ago, New York authorities, for example, announced that there were 38 carriers of coronavirus in city prisons, and 58 inmates and guards were under medical supervision.

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“Federal agencies are very late and not very willing to update such statistics, although in any epidemic, prisons are one of the serious sources of the spread of diseases,” explained Seth Prince, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University in New York.

Prison conveyor

In 1997, researchers at the National Institutes of Health in Washington actually found that, in the midst of an HIV epidemic, more than 20% of all cases went to jail at least once in one year. This list includes not only prisoners and persons under investigation, but also visitors, security guards and other prison staff.

The number of contacts can be judged by quite official statistics from the US Department of Justice: according to these data, in 2017 alone, almost 11 million people visited places of detention in the country.

“The staff and visitors of these institutions return home every day,” says Professor Prince. “Most prisoners are convicted of minor offenses: traffic violations, failure to pay fines, etc., so on average, according to statistics, they spend less than a month in prison before returning to society.”

Moreover, according to experts, it is precisely prisons and pre-trial detention centers that are an ideal place for the spread of any disease.

“Small county jails tend to be overcrowded, have poor ventilation, lack soap and other cleaning supplies, and are difficult to maintain social isolation,” said Diego Ruiz, a lawyer in Cleveland, Ohio.

Another problem may be that many prisoners in the USA simply cannot pay for medical services. According to estimates by analysts at the Prison Policy Initiative in Massachusetts, in most states, a visit to a doctor, testing, or getting medication will cost a prisoner between $ 2 and $ 5.

Considering that in American prisons prisoners earn from 14 to 63 cents per hour, “outside” this amount would correspond to payment of $200 or $500 for one visit to the doctor.

Coronavirus Stripping

The threat of a new epidemic in prisons has already forced the authorities of almost all US states to take unprecedented measures. Back in early March, federal prosecutors in California and Colorado announced that almost all those accused of non-violent crimes would be released from pre-trial detention centers. The courts are also recommended to increase the number of cases of prisoners' requests for parole.

In Ohio and Texas, they decided to release more than 200 prisoners who were nearing their deadlines.

Authorities in the states of Florida, Washington, and Alabama have decided that convicts charged with non-violent crimes, traffic violations, or parole rules must leave local prisons.

In New Jersey, they decided to temporarily - only for the period of the epidemic - release almost half of the convicts in the state - 1000 people - from prisons and pre-trial detention centers. All of them, according to the first order of the judge, will then have to return to places of detention.

Los Angeles courts have promised to release at least 1700 people in the coming weeks, who have no more than 30 days left before the end of their sentence. In addition, older prisoners and prisoners with serious health problems may be released.

At the same time, police departments in California, Colorado, Pennsylvania and several other states announced that they would reduce the number of arrests of offenders. Instead, warnings, fines, or subpoenas will be issued to detainees at a later date.

Because of this, only in Los Angeles County, the number of arrests in recent weeks has dropped from the usual 300 to 60 per day.

The US Immigration Service took the same steps, formally notifying Congress that it would temporarily cease the practice of arresting illegal immigrants, except in cases deemed “critical to national security.”

In New York, the supervisory board in charge of the situation in the city’s penitentiary institutions, in mid-March, called on the city authorities to immediately release all prisoners with serious health problems. The cause was the death of a 56-year-old inspector of the supervisory board from coronavirus, who checked the situation in places of detention.

The US Federal Bureau of Prisons reported that all federal prisons in the country have introduced a mandatory two-week quarantine for new prisoners, bans on personal communication with lawyers and visits to prisons by relatives.

Hoping for a virus

The measures taken by the US authorities to sharply reduce the number of prisoners have caused a real surge in new requests for clemency and reduction of sentences. Among those who have already submitted a corresponding petition are the former personal lawyer of President Trump Michael Cohen, the organizer of one of the largest financial pyramids in US history Bernie Madoff and the former head of the Cali drug cartel Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuello.

“He is in very poor health and is 81 years old,” said lawyer David Marcus, who represents the ex-drug lord, who has already served almost half of his 30-year sentence on charges of transporting large quantities of drugs. “When COVID-19 hits the prison he’s in, he won’t stand a chance.”

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81-year-old Bernie Madoff, serving a 150-year sentence for organizing a financial pyramid and causing $ 17,5 billion worth of damage to his depositors, asked for pardon in February, citing severe kidney disease. In an interview with several American television stations, his lawyer Brandon Sample stated that the outbreak of the coronavirus had already threatened the life of his client.

“The federal prison system has consistently demonstrated that it cannot withstand major crises,” he said.

Last week, lawyer Michael Avenatti, representing the interests of porn star Stormy Daniels, who claimed that she had an affair with Donald Trump, also filed a petition for pardon and transfer to house arrest. According to the lawyer, his life in one of the New York prisons is at risk, as his cellmate was admitted to the hospital with signs of a severe cold.

Former U.S. presidential personal lawyer Michael Cohen, serving a three-year prison sentence for numerous financial misconduct, last week posted on his Twitter a link to a petition calling to immediately transfer all non-violent defendants to house arrest.

He appealed personally to Donald Trump, saying the move would allow prisons to make room for additional and “direly needed” medical equipment to treat those infected.

“Without your intervention, thousands of non-violent offenders will face the risk of their lives, although no one has sentenced them to death,” the lawyer wrote.

By Sunday evening, March 29, no one had signed the petition on the East Coast of the United States.

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