Covid is ravaging American jails and prisons – and inmates are rightly rising up | Akin Olla
For the many Americans imprisoned in dangerous, cramped conditions, the pandemic is not over – it remains murderousOn 4 April, inmates in a St Louis jail commenced an uprising. They smashed windows, chanted, lit fires and hung signs communicating their needs to the outside world. One sign held out of the windows simply read “HELP US”. It is the second uprising at the ironically named St Louis City Justice Center and the fourth major disturbance at the jail within the last year.Many of the inmates are in pre-trial detention and have been sitting in jail since the beginning of the pandemic without trials or even a timeline for when they should expect trials. Protesters called for court dates and for humane treatment, and a corrections taskforce report from March concluded that those locked inside were feeling isolated from their families and frustrated over the lack of precautions being taken to prevent the spread of Covid-19 within the jail. They are not alone; another uprising took place this time last year at a prison in Kansas, and protests have been relatively commonplace across the country as people have worked to expose the hidden hyper-pandemic happening within our nation’s jails, prisons and immigrant detention centers. The United States needs to take this as an opportunity to empty out its criminally overcrowded jails, or continue to perpetuate yet another unforgivable mass atrocity that disproportionately affects immigrants, poor people and Black Americans. Continue reading…
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