Today on Sojourner Truth, Part 2 of our special on COVID-19 and mass incarceration.
Imprisoned people, along with frontline workers and communities of color, are extremely vulnerable to the deadly virus and are being severely impacted by it. The United States currently has the largest incarcerated population in the world, 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 the virus. In prisons, jails and immigration detention centers, there is very little diagnostic testing, resulting in the rapid spread of COVID-19 in these facilities across the country. Many of them are women, people of color and poor people. Black people are incarcerated in state prisons at a rate that is 5.1 times the imprisonment of white people, according to the ACLU. In five states (Iowa, Minnesota, New Jersey, Vermont, and Wisconsin), the disparity is more than 10 to 1. Latinos are imprisoned at a rate that is 1.4 times the rate of white people. Meanwhile, across the United States, over two million women are jailed every year, according to the Prison Policy Initiative. At least 80 percent of the women who go to jail annually are mothers, including nearly 150,000 women who are pregnant when they are admitted. Many of these women are poor and have been forced into drug abuse and criminal activity because of their unjust circumstances. They often end up being held in horrible prison conditions, where physical and mental abuse is rampant, worsening their trauma.
Today, you will hear more audio from a recent webinar entitled, Covid 19, Decarceration, and Abolition. It focused on what is decarceration and how it can be achieved for the millions of people in jails, prisons, and immigration detention centers across the country. The webinar was hosted by Haymarket Books and featured commentary by Ruth Wilson Gilmore. Ruth Wilson Gilmore is Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Director of the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics at the City University of New York Graduate Center in New York City. A co-founder of California Prison Moratorium Project and Critical Resistance, she is 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. During todays program, you will hear Ruth Wilson Gilmore respond to questions asked by listeners and read by Naomi Murakawa during the webinar. Her responses address everything from challenges facing campaigners for prisoners rights to what kind of systemic changes are needed in the 21st century.
Afterwards, you will also hear a recent Sojourner Truth interview with Susan Burton, a grassroots campaigner for the rights of women and imprisoned people. Susan Burton and her story of perseverance in overcoming overwhelming odds is an inspiration to women across the United States, particularly formerly incarcerated women and women in recovery from addiction to alcohol and drugs. After cycling in and out of the criminal justice system for nearly fifteen years, Susan gained freedom and sobriety and founded A New Way of Life Reentry Project in 1998. She opened her doors to other women returning home from prisons and jails, offering shelter, safety, leadership, and support to those seeking to rebuild their lives. Dedicating her life to helping other women break the cycle of incarceration, homelessness, addiction and despair, Susan became a recognized leader in the criminal justice reform and reentry rights movements.
