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advisory – thursday: family members of incarcerated people & community group to hold in-car protest at york correctional institution, call for the release of women in face of covid-19 crisis

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MEDIA ADVISORY

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2020

Contact:  Yan Snead, ysnead@katalcenter.org | (518) 360-1534

Follow on Twitter @KatalCenter #COVIDBehindBars

 

Thursday: Family Members of Incarcerated People & Community Group to hold In-Car Protest at York Correctional Institution, Call for the Release of Women in Face of COVID-19 Crisis

 

With Virus Spreading in CT Prisons and Jails, Lamont Must Immediately Release Incarcerated Women 

 

Families and Community Members Demand Action as 308 Incarcerated Individuals Have Tested Positive for COVID-19 in CT Jails and Prisons

 

Hartford, CT – On Thursday, April 23rd at 11:00 am, families of incarcerated individuals and community groups will gather outside the York Correctional Institution (York CI) for an in-car protest to demand Governor Lamont immediately release incarcerated women due to COVID-19. The current COVID-19 plan mandates that incarcerated women in Connecticut that test positive for the virus must stay inside of the facility. This puts the lives of hundreds of incarcerated women, and the larger community at risk, especially considering that York CI has a history of providing inadequate health care for incarcerated women. With the COVID-19 virus spreading throughout jails and prisons in Connecticut, Governor Lamont must act to save the lives of incarcerated residents. The press is invited to attend and hear testimonies from CT constituents who will speak about the women being forgotten and left behind by Governor Lamont amidst the worst health crisis in the state’s history. 

 

WHAT: In-car protest at York Correctional Institution to demand Governor Lamont immediately release incarcerated women

WHEN: Thursday April 23rd, 2020 |11-12PM

WHERE: York Correctional Institution – 202 West Main St Niantic, CT 06357

WHO: Family-members of those Currently Incarcerated; Constituents; and the Katal Center for Health, Equity, and Justice 

 

As the pandemic spreads in Connecticut, Governor Lamont has refused to take the necessary preventive measures to help flatten the curve of COVID-19 within the Connecticut Department of Corrections. On Tuesday, the Yale School of Public Health, the Yale School of Medicine, and the Yale School of Nursing sent a letter to Governor Lamont recommending the immediate release of incarcerated individuals and highlighting the urgent thread of COVID-19 in jails and prison across the state. Yet, with broad consensus amount public health experts and head of corrections that there is no way to do effective infection control inside a prison or jail, Connecticut remains a senseless outlier as states across the country release people due to COVID-19. As COVID-19 cases in Connecticut prisons and jails increases every single day for both incarcerated people and correctional staff, Lamont’s delays mean incarcerated women remain in life threatening danger, ignored by the state’s Governor. 

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