The Pandemic Economy in American Prisons

On S unday afternoon, 45 people incarcerated at Rikers Island released a statement declaring that they would not be leaving their rooms for work or meals due to the jail’s inadequate response to the coronavirus outbreak in New York. The reasons given for the strike included a lack of personal cleaning supplies, preexisting over-crowded living conditions, and the disconnection of the facility’s phones on Sunday morning. Their demands were simple and reasonable: All people over the age of 50, with at-risk conditions, or with less than a year sentence should be released immediately. It’s two days later now, and nothing has meaningfully changed.

The Rikers strike stands as the latest effort taken by incarcerated people to bring attention to the conditions faced during the pandemic by America’s prison population, currently clocking in around 2.3 million. In New Jersey, people being held at the Essex County Jail, Hudson County Jail, and privately operated Elizabeth Detention Center went on a hunger strike starting last Wednesday, calling out Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for needlessly detaining people during the pandemic and for the conditions in the jails. “We should at least have some hand sanitizer, some wipes, some type of spray, and we rarely get any of that,” a person detained by ICE at the Hudson County Jail told The New Republic last week. “There’s barely soap, there’s barely toilet tissue. And they’ve got this new system in the bathroom where you’re only allowed to flush the toilet twice per hour.” Read Full Article »