Today on Sojourner Truth:
A special on COVID-19 and mass incarceration. People in prison are extremely vulnerable to the virus and are being severely impacted by it. The United States currently has the largest incarcerated population in the world, with about with about 2.3 million people in jails and prisons across the country, according to the Prison Policy Initiative. More than half of them (nearly 1.3 million inmates) do not have the ability to socially distance or take the sanitary measures needed to slow the spread of COVID-19.
In prisons, jails and immigration detention centers, there is very little diagnostic testing. The effects of cramped and unsanitary cells and lack of testing have been disastrous across the country. In April 2020, prisoners and prison staff in several states " including California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and others " have reportedly been infected by the virus and in some cases, have died. One Ohio prison recently found that more than 70 percent of inmates are positive for COVID-19, according to NPR. Women, especially impoverished single mothers, are the fastest-growing sector of the prison population.
Today, you will hear exclusive audio from a recent webinar entitled, "Covid 19, Decarceration, and Abolition." It focused on how we can achieve urgently-needed decarceration for the millions of people caged in jails, prisons, and immigration detention centers across the country. The webinar, which was hosted by Haymarket Books.
You will hear the presentation by Ruth Wilson Gilmore is Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Director of the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics at the CUNY Graduate Center. She is also the author of the prize-winning book, Golden Gulag: Prison, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California. Her forthcoming book, Change Everything: Racial Capitalism and the Case for Abolition, is the inaugural book in the new Abolitionist Papers book series, edited by Naomi Murakawa.
