#FreeOurPeople, Prevent the Spread of COVID-19 & Transform our Criminal Legal System
In this moment of danger, uncertainty, and the disruption of normal life, our highest priority is the health, safety, and security of every member of our community. Right now, the US incarceration system represents a massive threat to the health and safety of every person in this country, not just those who are currently incarcerated. Jails, prisons, and detention centers are already notorious for their unsanitary conditions and the conditions make social distancing impossible, leaving incarcerated folks no means to protect themselves. With 2.3 million people currently incarcerated in the US, an outbreak in any jail, prison, or detention center would undermine all other efforts to “flatten the curve” of the pandemic and could overwhelm our already struggling medical infrastructure.
Over the past 2 weeks, we have joined other organizations that make up the PA Justice Alliance in calling on all levels of government to take immediate action to do everything possible to slow the spread of COVID-19, to protect the most vulnerable among us, and to provide critical relief to address the rapidly growing needs emerging in this crisis. We are experiencing an unprecedented crisis that requires an unprecedented response:
#FreeOurPeople & Prevent the Spread of COVID-19
Release as many people as possible:
Release all individuals with less than 6 months left in their sentence.
Release all individuals incarcerated for drug possession, sex work, and other nonviolent offenses.
Release all elderly individuals (over 50) and those at high risk of vulnerability, including but not limited to those with respiratory conditions, heart conditions, diabetes, cancer, or other autoimmune diseases.
Release all pregnant individuals.
Approve funding to pay for supportive housing, treatment options, and cash stipends for those returning from jails
Re-establish a system of furlough, following the lead of other countries in response to COVID-19.
Avoid new bookings into jails, prisons, detentions centers:
We demand an immediate moratorium on all immigration enforcement.
Recall all pending warrants (that have not been served/executed), including those for probation violations.
Delay dates of voluntary surrender for incarceration sentences as requested by defense.
Minimize risk:
Ensure all incarcerated people have unlimited and free access to: soap, hand sanitizer, hygiene products, showers and laundry service.
Provide additional commissary items at-, below-, or no-cost to all individuals, as families that support incarcerated loved ones face financial insecurity amid the crisis.
Facilitate the use of video visitation, including confidential video visitations for attorney visits.
Healthcare in prison should be completely free and people should be encouraged to seek treatment if they show symptoms of COVID-19.
Disseminate information to all incarcerated people and staff people on how to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and institute enhanced cleaning protocols for all facilities.
Ensure access to free phone calls and emails for all incarcerated individuals.
While our top priorities are doing all we can to slow the spread of the virus and supporting each other, we know that these things are not enough. We also have a responsibility to examine, and ultimately to change, the broken systems that are failing to keep us safe and secure. We fully believe that the implementation of these recommendations will set the foundation for a more just criminal legal system. This pandemic is hitting at a time when the US has more prison beds than hospital beds, the profit making prison industry has led to prison expansion in areas hardest hit by deindustrialization and economic decline, more than 70% of people in jails have not been convicted of any crimes, and insurance companies are making millions of dollars from a cash bail system that punishes people for being poor. It is time to #FreeOurPeople and rebuild our criminal legal system so that accountability is the priority instead of punishment and control.
Transform our Criminal Legal System
Center accountability, healing, and transformation instead of punishment and control:
Place firm limits on solitary confinement in keeping with international standards.
Fund higher education programs.
Provide healthcare and mental health services.
Hold Department of Corrections accountable:
Create an independent ombudsman to providemeaningful oversight over DOC policies and to mediate grievances against CO’s and staff.
Investigate the health complaints of incarcerated people and close down toxic prisons if conditions cannot be remedied.
Support our Children:
Repeal act 33, which makes it automatic to try young people as adults for many crimes.
Keep police out of schools.
Provide funding for social work staff and healthy relationships programming in our schools.
End death by incarceration:
Allow everyone serving life sentences (or very lengthy sentences that constitute virtual life) a chance at parole.
Don’t punish people twice:
Decrease probation/parole lengths and terms for violations.
End collaboration with immigration enforcement to deport people after arrest.
Pass legislation that facilitates and expands expungement and pardon processes.
End “tough on crime” prosecution practices:
Require Conviction Review Units in all counties to investigate and review trials, make prosecutors accountable for wrongful convictions, and be transparent about the costs of the sentences they’re asking the state to impose.
Pass sentencing reform that doesn’t rely on lengthy sentences or mandatory minimums.
Increase funding for public defenders office so that people accused of crimes can have proper representation.
Invest in our communities:
Address the root causes of needs-based crimes by investing in schools, social services, programs, and quality housing rather than more prisons and lengthy sentences.
Invest heavily in diversion programs that provide access to treatment or mental health resources for those that need them.
Heal our communities:
Communities affected by mass incarceration are the same as those affected by violence—pursue solutions that make these communities stronger rather than pitting victim vs perpetrator.
In cases in which incarceration does not serve the public interest, we must seek to repair rather than sever communal ties in the aftermath of serious crime. Just as we hold people accountable for the crime they commit, so too must we take collective accountability for the conditions that give rise to crime in the first place. Our criminal legal system should aim to address the underlying causes of crime and violence, institute trauma-informed policies, invest in community-based solutions to harm, and help foster a long-term process of transformation for individuals and communities.
Stop Abuse of Pretrial Incarceration and Supervision:
Local court systems must move away from the use of money bail and pretrial incarceration.
Actively resist the use of risk assessment tools and electronic monitoring as part of pretrial justice systems. We want to bring people home from prison, not bring the prison into the home and community with the use of electronic monitoring, surveillance and e-carceration.
Treat drug addiction as a public health issue:
Push for full decriminalization and legalization of marijuana, continue the expansion of diversion programs for other drug offenses, and classify most other drug offenses as misdemeanors instead of felonies.
Invest in the support systems people need to combat addiction, like raising the minimum wage, increasing job access for formerly incarcerated people, and more funding for mental health treatment and affordable housing.
End racial disparities in the justice system:
Abolish the use of Risk Assessment Tools (RATs) in all criminal legal system decision-making. RATS use racially biased data to make detention and supervision recommendations, and to draw racially biased conclusions about incarceration, supervision, and release.