By Ruthie Kesri The North Carolina General Assembly recently released its final budget, the first since 2018, and it allocated funds that will directly affect the health and safety of incarcerated people in North Carolina’s prison population. Against the wishes of some county officials and sheriffs, the bill did not include Medicaid expansion, which would […]
Tag: COVID-19
Viral Injustice: COVID-19 is Disproportionately Impacting Incarcerated Population
By Annie Han The COVID-19 Pandemic has disproportionately impacted people incarcerated in the US with 28% of the current incarcerated population testing positive for the virus compared to 9% of the general population. These outbreaks in prisons present serious health risks to the incarcerated, staff, and communities surrounding them, and they have forced courts to […]
COVID Settlement Means NC Will Release 3,500 Incarcerated People Early
By Ruthie Kesri North Carolina will release 3,500 prisoners in state custody early over the next six-months after N.C. civil rights groups struck an agreement with Governor Cooper’s administration. Under the terms of the agreement, the lawsuit, which alleges that prison conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic have violated incarcerated persons’ constitutionally-guaranteed rights, will halt for […]
Durham DA Highlights 2020 Successes, Partnerships in Annual Report
By Belle Allmendinger The Durham District Attorney’s office released its 2020 Annual Report on February 18th, demonstrating the incredible work being done on several fronts. From advancing racial equity in the criminal legal system to adapting to socially distant courtrooms, this report highlights internal and external partnerships, including with the Wilson Center for Science and […]
Organizations to US Attorney: Reduce Prison Population to Minimize COVID Risks
The Wilson Center for Science and Justice is one of several organizations that signed on to a letter last week urging U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to augment efforts to transfer federal incarcerated persons to home confinement and pursuant to compassionate release, and to not pursue re-incarceration of released persons. The single most effective strategy […]
Wilson Center Executive Director Appointed Special Master in NC COVID Litigation
Wilson Center Executive Director Thomas Maher has been appointed special master in the North Carolina litigation over the state prison system’s handling of COVID-19. NAACP v. Cooper was filed earlier this year on behalf of several civil rights organizations, including the North Carolina NAACP and ACLU, as well as several incarcerated individuals. The plaintiffs have […]
Federal Compassionate Release Opinion Cites Wilson Center Research on Risk Assessment
A U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Michigan cited research from the Wilson Center for Science and Justice in an order this week granting an incarcerated man compassionate release. Desmond Reginal Rodgers was serving 200 months in prison after pleading guilty to bank robbery, pharmacy robbery and a firearms charge in 2012. The […]
Friday: Expert Panelists to Discuss COVID-19 Spread in Jails, Prisons
Join Duke Science & Society and our panel of experts in a discussion of how COVID-19 has spread through jails and prisons, how that is affecting not only inmates but also surrounding communities, what corrections officials are – and are not – doing to address COVID-19, and what should be done to improve health outcomes […]
What Prisons Could Still Do to Save Lives
By Deniz Ariturk Six months after the first nationwide shutdown, US prisons and jails continue to be top COVID hot spots. Case numbers have continued to increase rapidly in prisons even as they plateaued nationwide in early summer, and new weekly cases peaked in August. By September 8, a total of 121,217 incarcerated people had […]
CSJ’s Dr. Marvin Swartz Discusses Police Misconduct, Reform in New Guest Post
Dr. Marvin Swartz brought some needed attention on a form of police misconduct that’s remained mostly out of the spotlight in a new guest post on NC Policy Watch. The post, titled, “Concerns about police misconduct should spur reform, funding for civil commitment process,” describes the challenge of enforcing civil commitment laws. Involuntary civil commitment is […]