Tweet, call, and email these representatives.
Email Script
We are urgently writing to you to demand that we free all people incarcerated in New York City jails and #CloseRikers immediately. Keeping people in jails, prisons, and detention centers during this pandemic is a death sentence. Last night, the Chief Physician of Rikers Island said, “We cannot change the fundamental nature of jails. We cannot socially distance dozens of elderly men living in a dorm, sharing a bathroom.” This is something abolitionists have been saying for decades: a jail is a jail no matter what reformist package it comes in, and a jail is ALWAYS detrimental to the health of those inside and outside of it. Jails are always a public health crisis; a public health crisis exacerbated during a pandemic.
Jail systems prey on the vulnerable and cage the elderly and sick. Jailing causes illness and injury, and the stress and trauma of jail compromises incarcerated people’s immune systems. It’s already hard to receive adequate medical care inside jails, prisons, and detention centers but a spread of COVID-19 in any facility would completely overwhelm whatever shakey medical care is in place and would absolutely be deadly.
As always, the well-being of people inside jails affects the well-being of people outside and the well-being of people outside affects the well-being of people inside. This is starkly illustrated by COVID-19. Corrections Officers have already tested positive and are bringing the virus in with them, and as it spreads, the virus will also be brought back out by more COs. Anyone newly incarcerated will be put in grave danger and will also risk further spreading it to others. COVID-19 is already at Rikers, the first case has been reported, and this means that it is already spreading.
If you do not act now, you will be responsible for the completely avoidable illness and death of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, on both sides of the walls. #FreeThemNow4PublicHealth.
Liz Glazer (Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice)
eglazer@cityhall.nyc.gov
Dear Ms. Glazer,
I am emailing because I am concerned that COVID-19 has spread to incarcerated people on Rikers, and alarmed that the city has not yet taken necessary and immediate steps to release people from city jails to prevent the deadly spread of coronavirus among our most vulnerable community members.
I am emailing to respectfully request that:
1. The Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice direct the NYC DOC to begin to prepare discharge plans for everyone currently detained on Rikers and across city jails, beginning with those most vulnerable to COVID-19, including people over 50, people with chronic illnesses, and immunocompromised people;
2. The Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice release a public statement immediately supporting the rapid decarceration of city jails;
3. The Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice work with District Attorneys and Judges to ask for their support of the rapid decarceration of NYC jails;
4. The Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice work with City Council to develop a plan and budget to provide housing and healthcare to everyone being released from city jails
Sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]
Phone Script
Hello, I’m [Your Name], I’m urgently calling for you to demand that we free all people incarcerated in New York City Jails and #CloseRikers immediately. Keeping people in jails and prisons during this pandemic is a death sentence.
Last night, the Chief Physician of Rikers Island said: “We cannot change the fundamental nature of jails. We cannot socially distance dozens of elderly men living in a dorm, sharing a bathroom.” This is because a jail is a jail, and no reforms can change the fact that jails are fundamentally a public health crisis, pandemic or not.
You must #FreeThemAll4PublicHealth before it’s too late. If you do not act now, you will be responsible for the completely avoidable illness and death of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, on both sides of the walls. Do not let that be your political and moral legacy.
