Items

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  2020-08-02

  'Catastrophe': How Nation's Worst Outbreak Exploded at San Quentin

  In less than two months, 19 San Quentin inmates have died, including at least eight on Death Row, more than half the number of condemned killers executed here in four decades. The official number of prisoners infected has reached 2,181 — about two-thirds of the prison population — but many refused to be tested.⁠ ⁠ And alongside the prisoners plagued by a pandemic in a poorly ventilated germ-ridden lockup are the 258 prison guards and other staff who got sick too — and ultimately brought it home.⁠
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  2020-07-07

  Survivors Guilt

  One man who was released from San Quentin Prison in California explains his feeling of survivors guilt. He was released in May 2020, before the outbreak in the prison began.
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  2020-08-18

  Voices of San Quentin: The inside story of how a prison became the nation's biggest COVID cluster

  This article was co written by Popular Information and Voices of San Quentin. It explains how a major California state prison managed to stave off covid-19 until inmates from another prison were transferred into the facility. . . and they were carrying covid, what they did to deal with the outbreak, and how it effected incarcerated persons.
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  2020-07-09

  Covid Crisis at San Quentin

  This Tweet highlights the activism around releasing incarcerated people to prevent the spread of covid and any sentence from turning into a death sentence.
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  2020-08-14

  California Could Cut Its Prison Population by 50,000 People

  A news article discussing the potential release of thousands of prisoners to help relieve overcrowding during the COVID-19 pandemic. Large amounts of prisoners have been released in the past with no detriment to public safety. In a time when people are dying as a result of this overcrowding during a pandemic it would be incredibly beneficial to release these people. According to data, the issue seems to be one of political risk rather than of public safety.
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  2020-08-11

  San Quentin Still at 100% Capacity

  Covid-19 has been eye opening and really illustrated many of the problems we as a society have done a good job ignoring. One of the things society has long ignored is overcrowding in prisons and jails in the US. We've also learned that any enclosed population without the ability to social distance is a risk for having a major Covid-19 outbreak. Together, overcrowding and the inability to social distance, has made for a bleak outlook in the nation's correctional facilities. This Tweet shows that even this far in to the pandemic and the outbreak at San Quentin the prison is still over capacity.
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  2020-08-10

  Correctional Sergeant Dies from Covid Complications

  This Tweet expresses the lack of concern for the incarcerated people dying from Covid 19. California Governor Gavin Newsom expresses his sympathy for the family and friends of one of the correctional facility staff who recently passed from complications due to Covid-19 but he does not mention the many people incarcerated in these facilities who have also died from Covid-19.
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  2020-08-05

  My Friend Died in San Quentin Due to Covid-19. His Death Was Entirely Preventable.

  Written by Adnan Khan, a formerly incarcerated person and criminal justice reform advocate, this article explains the death of his friend from Covid and how it was preventable.
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  2020-07-27

  Protesters chained to governor's home as prison deaths mount

  In an effort to urge the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, to release people incarcerated at the state's prisons and jails, and stop immigration transfers, protestors chained themselves to the fence outside the governors home. The fourteen protestors were wearing surgical masks and face shields to protect from the spread of the coronavirus. The protest was organized by the California Liberation Collective. The fourteen protestors that chained themselves to the fence were accompanied by many others calling for action in light of the continued death toll the virus is having on incarcerated populations, particularly at San Quentin Prison.
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  2020-07-19

  Tweets from Inside a Prison 7/19-7/25/2020 by Railroaded Underground

  These Tweets are from an incarcerated person at San Quentin Prison in California. He is posting to social media using a contraband cell phone in an effort to let the public know what is happening inside the prison during the Coronavirus pandemic. These weeks he talks about having to choose between waiting in line for a ten minute phone call and taking a shower, the long term health effects he is realizing will be with him from his bout with Covid-19, the high number of inmates refusing to take a Covid test because if they test positive they will be placed in solitary confinement, the hole, as quarantine.
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  2020-07-12

  Tweets from Inside a Prison 7/12-7/18/2020 by Railroaded Underground

  This Tweet is from a person incarcerated inside San Quentin Prison in California. They are posting with a contraband cell phone. This week they mention finally getting a shower, the death of Covid positive inmates, Black Lives Matter, Covid testing, people who test positive being put in solitary confinement, the hole, as a quarantine, and the mixing of negative and positive Covid people together.
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  2020-07-26

  Hand sanitizer donation accepted at San Quentin never reached the inmates

  These are images of a Tweet and the responses explaining how rapper, E-40, donated hand sanitizer to San Quentin for their incarcerated people and it never got to a single inmate. Many of the respondents believe the prison staff took it for their own use or to sell it.
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  2020-03-28

  My Experience with Sickness, Quarantines and the Prison’s Healthcare System

  The author of this article is a former inmate at San Quentin Prison in California. These days he focuses on justice reform through an organization he helped bring into being, Restore Justice. In this article he explains the medical system inside of prisons and his experience with lockdowns and solitary confinement as a place of quarantine during non-covid times.
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  2020-06

  Tweets from Inside a Prison 6/28-7/4/2020 by Railroaded Underground

  These images show the Tweets from an incarcerated person who began this Twitter account on a contraband cellphone, to show the world what it is like inside the nation's correctional facilities during the covid pandemic. This week he is talking about many people around him being sick, testing negative himself and then a few days later showing symptoms, 20 "man down" calls a day, which is a way someone needs immediate medical attention, it appears they are housing some inmates in tents in the yard to help with social distancing, genocide, calls on California Governor Gavin Newsom several times, talks about the vulnerable, Black, Latinx, Indigenous, disabled, feeling like they have a knee on their necks because of covid, and San Quentin.
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  2020-06

  Tweets from Inside a Prison 6/14-6/20/2020 by Railroaded Underground

  These images show the Tweets of a prison inmate who chose to use a contraband cell phone to show the public what is happening inside of the nation's prisons during the coronavirus pandemic. This week he discusses defunding prisons, the ongoing brutality inside prisons, San Quentin, outbreaks from transfers, Juneteenth, taking action not just paying lip service to the holiday, black communities, and early release beginning with the elderly and others most at risk.
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  2020-06

  Tweets from Inside a Prison 6/7-6/13/2020 by Railroaded Underground

  These images show the Tweets of a prison inmate using a contraband cell phone to let the public know what it is like inside the nations prisons during the coronavirus pandemic. This week he talks about the "racist violent system", George Floyd, wishes the momentum for change in policing and Black Lives Matter isn't lost, encouraging voting, #ClemancyNow, San Quentin in San Francisco, and being put in the hole after a prison guard handcuffed and kicked him in the face repeatedly.
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  2020-06-22

  Covid Continues to Take the Lives of People Who Are Incarcerated

  This is a Twitter post and replies discussing the risk of people in U.S. prisons and jails of dying from Covid-19. The main argument is whether incarcerated people should be released early or placed on house arrest so they can effectively prevent themselves from being exposed to covid-19 or does this present a public safety risk.
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  2020-06-20

  Calls For Early Prisoner Release Amplified By San Quentin COVID-19 Outbreak

  Florida, Texas, California, and several other states are experiencing their highest number of new covid-19 cases since the pandemic began spreading through the United States. This has caused prison reformers, activists, and inmates families to protest and call for the early release of those who have nearly served their sentence and inmates who are elderly or immuno compromised. The article covers the protest that was held outside of San Quentin in San Francisco.
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  2020-06-17

  California prisons to release up to 3,500 more inmates to prevent further spread of COVID-19

  California is planning to release more corrections inmates early on July 1st in an effort to slow the spread of the corona virus. While this is a step in the right direction advocates point out that this group of inmates does not include those with disabilities, medically fragile, or preexisting conditions. The article also highlights how the virus is spreading from on facility to another through prisoner transfer. While transferring prisoners to facilities with lower populations sounds good to aid in social distancing the people being transferred are actually spreading the virus into new facilities.
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  2020-04-19

  Prison in the Time of Coronavirus

  This video, produced by CBS Sunday Morning, illustrates the unique problems created by coronavirus inside America's jails and prisons. The US currently has 2.3 million people incarcerated. Many of them are in jail awaiting trial and remain there only because they cannot pay their bail. They have not yet been convicted of a crime. As they point out in the video it is easy for the public to ignore the correctional facilities across the country, but the spread of the virus has changed this. An outbreak in prison can lead to an outbreak outside the prison. While prisons have internal medical facilities there are no ICU beds, which are often needed to treat severe cases of coronavirus. Instead severely ill prisoners are taken outside of the prison to the local hospital. In non-severe cases some prisoners are placed in solitary confinement as a way to quarantine them. This video, almost eight minutes long, mentions Rikers Island Jail in New York, San Quinton Prison in San Francisco, Marion Correctional Institute in Ohio, a Tampa man released early who is charged with murdering someone the following day, Governor Greg Abbott of Texas, Orange is the New Black (book and TV show), and the podcast Ear Hustle. HST580, ASU