new haven register: hundreds call for release from prisons to protect inmates from coronavirus
Hundreds call for release from prisons to protect inmates from coronavirus
March 16, 2020
Advocates for incarcerated people have called on Gov. Ned Lamont to reduce the number of people occupying the state’s prisons and jails to protect them from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The coalition said in an open letter that those in prisons and jails live in unsanitary conditions and are unable to keep a safe distance from others. “In times of public health crisis, these dangers are compounded, and the threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic is no exception,” the letter states. “People in confinement, who have no control over their own movement and must be in close quarters, are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 outbreaks.”
The letter was co-written by the ACLU of Connecticut, the Connecticut Bail Fund, the Global Health Justice Partnership, Katal Center for Health, Equity, and Justice, the Sex Workers & Allies Network, Stop Solitary Connecticut and the Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic at Yale Law School. By late Monday afternoon, 65 organizations and 927 individuals had signed on, the organizers said.
