One thing we’ve known long before the COVID crisis, is that prison is no place for a pandemic.

During COVID-19, prisons, jails, and detention centers have turned into outbreak zones for incarcerated people, and Black people represent 33% of the sentenced prison population. In New York’s Riker’s Island prison complex, 287 incarcerated people and 406 staffers have tested positive for COVID-19, exposing the entire community to the deadly virus for which there is no known vaccine. Although the federal government is considering releasing people from prison, only a small percentage of Black incarcerated people would be deemed “low-risk” enough to get out using the federal prison system’s risk assessment tool.

This Thursday, April 23rd we are gathering together to hear from our formerly incarcerated and prison abolitionist comrades about the impact of COVID-19 on our currently incarcerated family and the realities of the virus living within already inhumane prisons, jails, and detention centers.