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Chris Twing
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2020-10-30
Is this how 2020 got so out of whack?
While we all know that 2020 did not turn into such a shit storm because of full moons and the like, with as crazy as this year has been it has really seemed plausible at times. This meme sums it up perfectly. -
2020-10-11
In California’s prison factories, inmates worked for pennies an hour as COVID-19 spread
This article highlights the changes that have been made inside US correctional facilities during the Covid-19 pandemic. While visitation, religious services, rehab and educational programs, phone usage, and even showers have been cut down or completely eliminated, prison labor continues. Incarcerated people are also not able to refuse to work. Doing so can result in loosing privileges time added onto a sentence, or loss of parole or release. In this particular article when the prison was confronted with the worry over the virus being spread through work they defended their position saying they only continued work in places that produced items necessary to fight the pandemic such as soap, hand sanitizer, and masks. While much of the spread of Covid-19 in correctional facilities has been linked to the transfer of inmates this article highlights another avenue for spread, the movement of materials to make things such as masks. The women in one prison were making masks using fabric produced by the men's prison next door. The driver that delivered the fabric from the men's prison was not wearing a mask or taking other precautions. -
2020-10-13
A Super-Spreader Jail Keeps Sparking COVID Outbreaks Across the U.S.
When Covid-19 put much of the U.S. on lockdown one of the things that kept everyone entertained and sane was binge watching streaming services like Netflix and Amazon. One of the breakout hits was a show called Tiger King. This news story explains how the "Tiger King's" stay at a local jail while waiting to transfer into the federal prison system, like many others across the country, has resulted in the spread of COVID-19 through out correctional facilities. While is seems obvious how much time, man power, and money it would take to transfer incarcerated people between facilities safely it is outrageous that US Marshalls were giving people fever reducers like Tylenol so that they would pass a temperature check and their transfer would continue. -
2020-10-10
Masks are not required at polling places in Texas
Though democracy has won two important cases in Texas, the Texas Supreme Court upheld the additional week of early voting and struck down the limit of ballot drop off boxes to one per county, Texas voters must still face unnecessary risk to exercise their right to vote. Governor Greg Abbott issued both of the orders mentioned above and also issued a state wide mask mandate in the summer of 2020 for all counties with more than 20 reported Covid-19 cases. Masks became a requirement in those counties in the case that social distancing was not possible, places like a polling place where record voter turn out will force people to be waiting in lines for long periods of time and also being with lots of people indoors. The governor's mask mandate does come with a few exception. One being polling places. Texans are not required to wear a mask at a polling place because the governor believes this presents an undue burden to anyone that does not have a mask. This is an especially bogus argument in a state that requires voters to present ID. Not to mention it would be easy enough for the state to offer masks at the polling place. -
2020-10-05
Why Prisoners Aren’t Reporting Feeling Sick
Prisons and jails were not planned or constructed with thoughts of weathering a pandemic, not was the system of incarceration. For these reasons, and our cultures current view of incarcerated people as less than human, many are suffering in silence. This article explains why incarcerated people are choosing not to tell anyone if they experience symptoms that might be from COVID-19. -
2020-10-04
Kids Now Know to Ask "Are you in a meeting?"
This Tweet shows one of the major changes in our society and home lives. With so many people working from home children have learned to approach their parents and ask if they are in a meeting before saying anything else. -
2020-09-27
Tweets from Inside a Prison 09/27-10/03/2020 by Railroad Underground
These images show the Tweets of an incarcerated person utilizing a contraband cell phone to let the outside world know about prison conditions during the pandemic. This week he talks about the ability of incarcerated people to vote would cause them to be treated better, living like a caged animal, lockdown, going outside, mental health, watching presidential debates in prison, a second Covid outbreak happening in his prison, how important family connection is, incarcerated people are eligible for a stimulus check, people of color being the majority of incarcerated people and the majority of Covid deaths, difference of sentencing of white and black people, -
2020-09-26
The Cost of Prison Phone Calls Prevents Family Communication, Especially During Covid
Phone calls from incarcerated persons to their families has always been expensive but what many don't realize is that the pandemic has made it even worse. Back in March when much of the nation shut down to prevent the spread of Covid-19 the nations correctional facilities closed as well. Families could not longer visit their loved ones. There have been times when phone calls were also stopped because of the transmission possible through sharing phones and just having people out of their cells. But once phone calls were allowed families faced a new crisis, being able to afford the phone calls. Fees for phone calls from an incarcerated person are charged to the recipient of the call or to the prisoners personal account and cost a lot per minute. With so many people out of work due to the pandemic families are faced with the decision to speak with their incarcerated loved one or buy groceries or pay the rent. This article shares the story of one mother and the impossible decision she is faced with every time her phone displays a call from her incarcerated husband. -
2020-09-20
Tweets from Inside a Prison 09/20-09/26/2020 by Railroad Underground
These images show the Tweets of an incarcerated person utilizing a contraband cell phone to let the outside world know about prison conditions during the pandemic. This week he talks about mind, body, soul, freedom, effort to locate contraband cell phones, lack of compassion, support, Breonna Taylor, the rule against shaking a free persons hand, using the word inmate removes humanity, prisons acting as a herd immunity experiment, journalists profiting from the pain of incarceration, and rock bottom. -
2020-09-13
Tweets from Inside a Prison 09/13-09/19/2020 by Railroad Underground
These images show the Tweets of an incarcerated person utilizing a contraband cell phone to let the outside world know about prison conditions during the pandemic. This week he talks about #BlueLivesMatter, police shootings, and violence, self worth, parenting from prison, fighting for justice, trauma, reading, meditation, protests, Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death, and district attorneys. -
2020-09-06
Tweets from Inside a Prison 09/06-09/12/2020 by Railroad Underground
These images show the Tweets of an incarcerated person utilizing a contraband cell phone to let the outside world know about prison conditions during the pandemic. This week he talks about how Sunday's are the hardest for him because he missed spending time with his family, spending Labor Day in a melting cage, is he in a California or west coast prison where they are experiencing raging wild fires or is it just hot there, convict leasing is still happening, including many of the firefighters used to battle the wildfires in California, those in county jails learning sign language to be able to communicate from their cells because they spent little time outside their cells, the lack of vegetables in prison made them plant "secret gardens" both inside and out, rehabilitation in spite of toxic conditions, mentorship, his many family members that are/were incarcerated and how incarceration tears apart families. -
2020-08-30
Tweets from Inside a Prison 08/30-09/05/2020 by Railroad Underground
These images show the Tweets of an incarcerated person utilizing a contraband cell phone to let the outside world know about prison conditions during the pandemic. This week he talks about forever loosing his right to vote because he is now a felon, the logic of incarceration where people are told everyday how worthless they are as a way to make them "fit" into society, the daily request he receives to send or receive messages on his contraband cell phone, that the phone represents hope, a dream about Donald Trump, he never had role models growing up but now has them inside prison and they are other incarcerated people, and his greatest fear is not knowing. He says that used to relate to not knowing when he would get out, or if his parents would die before he is released but Covid has changed this into not knowing when he will be allowed to shower or get a bar of soap. -
2020-10-04
Half of Folsom Prison Inmates Have Covid
Nursing homes and prisons provide the perfect breading ground for coronavirus. For this reason the nation's correctional facilities have been hard hit by the virus. This Tweet, by James King, a formerly incarcerated man, draws attention to the continued spread of the virus within Folsom Prison in California. The news story King links to in his Tweet contains a video of Governor Gavin Newsom explaining the measures already taken to mediate the spread of the virus and upcoming plans. In the video Newsom mentions several things that alarmed me. 1. Numerous individuals with active Covid infections were released from California correctional facilities. Was this a wise decision? Or was it the smart decision that shows compassion for the individual. Prison is no place to suffer through a horrible illness. 2. When talking about releasing people from correctional facilities early he stresses these were individuals who are "non, non, non, non sex offenders". This sounds like they are only considering releasing those convicted of non-violent crimes, but isn't there a chance someone who has spent 20+ years in prison been reformed? Isn't that the point of incarceration, to reform the person? 3. There are individuals that meet the criteria laid out for early release but they have no where to go or no plan. In speaking with criminal justice reform advocates in California personally I was told there are numerous non-profit organizations ready to assist anyone that is released early. -
2020-10-01
Prisons Are Mostly Closed to Journalist During Covid
As this Tweet from journalist, Sara Tardiff, explains prisons are closed as a precaution to slowing the spread of Covid-19. This means one of our only windows into what is actually happening behind bars is coming from incarcerated persons using contraband cell phones. -
2020-09-11
Prisons and Jails Are Rolling Back Free Phone Calls
When Covid-19 hit the US many things shutdown including the nation's prisons. Of course they kept taking in people for incarceration but they no longer allowed visitors. This made connection to the outside world through phone calls even more important. What many people don't know is that each phone call an incarcerated person makes costs money, a lot of money. In the beginning of the pandemic many jails and prisons offered free phone calls, in the case they were even allowing phone calls (that's another story) but as the pandemic has continued for nearly eight months phone calls are no longer free or reduced cost. This is an undue burden on a population that is facing high unemployment. -
2020-09-30
Incarcerated Children Are Getting Covid Too
Months ago the media did report on the outbreak of Covid cases in the nations jails and prisons. Though Covid continues to spread in correctional facilities it seems to have largely fallen off the media's radar and I haven't seen any coverage of the children in correctional facilities who are also sick with Covid. It saddens me to even write this because the phrase "incarcerated children" should not have meaning. -
2020-09-29
Incarcerated people are humans, with human rights
This series of Tweets illustrates the number of Covid cases inside of prisons that go largely unnoticed by the general public. It also points to a larger problem of seeing "inmates", those who should be referred to in people first language as incarcerated persons, as fully human. -
2020-09-08
A Bibliography of Historian's Responses to Covid-19
The American Historical Association has created a bibliography of historians' responses to Covid-19 for later use by the public and academics. -
2020-09-07
Should We Have Accepted Adapting to the Pandemic?
This Tweet discusses the fact that the US has adapted its entire society to function in a pandemic rather than fighting the pandemic. The author asks if we should have done this? Also included are SOME of the replies to this Tweet showing peoples feelings. -
2020-09-07
School, Not School, Starts Tomorrow
This Tweet explains what is really happening with virtual school. While teachers are having to work harder than ever to convert all of their lessons into something that has a chance of working online, parents, and mostly mothers are expected to be available at a moments notice to aid in technology and learning. -
2020-08-21
Nearly half the population at Michigan prison tests positive for COVID-19
This Tweet and it's responses show how the public feels about the Covid-19 outbreak within one of Michigan's prisons. The article referenced also explains how this particular facility had spent months with no cases and then had a sudden outbreak, illustrating how dependent prisons and the communities they are a part of are when it comes to the spread of Covid=19. -
2020-08-22
Don't Release Inmates, We Need Them to Fight Wildfires
In an effort to slow the spread of Covid-19 incarceration facilities across the nation have released a small number of people earlier than they would have been otherwise. This has created a unique situation in California, a state that relies on prison labor to combat wildfires every year. As the writer of this Tweet calls out, much of the general public and the nation's politicians believe "if you do the crime, you do the time" and feel this extends to using inmates for fighting fires. -
2020-08-21
Yuma Inmates Allege Prison Officials Ordered Them To Refuse COVID-19 Testing To Keep Numbers Down
This Tweet and linked article explain a haunting story. Inmates at the Yuma prison in Arizona were threatened with a "beat down" unless they refused to take a Covid-19 test in an effort by the administration to keep the case count down. The replies to this Tweet show the public's response to this allegation. -
2020-08-24
You Have to Pay for the Body
In California if your loved one dies from Covid-19 you have to pay to have their remains sent to you as this Tweet explains. -
2020-08-21
Guard Tested Positive: Conditions Inside One of America's Incarceration Facilities
This Tweet, from an incarcerated person, shows and expresses the conditions and treatment inside of a correctional facility with a Covid positive employee. The replies show what the public thinks of the situation. -
2020-08-28
19 of the 20 largest COVID clusters are prisons or jails.
This Tweet draws attention to the huge outbreak of Covid within the correctional facilities of the US. The accompanying article explains where the outbreaks started, have traveled to, and where they are now. It also states that the largest outbreaks have been in nursing homes, correctional facilities, and food processioning plants. -
2020-08-20
Almost All Detainees Have Covid at Farmville Detention Facility
This Tweet brings to light that almost all detainees at the Farmville Detention Facility, a for profit prison in Virginia, have Covid-19. The attached article discusses long running complaints of mistreatment at this facility, some so egregious that even ICE itself was appalled. It also points to the spread of Covid through facility transfers all over the US. The replies to the original Tweet give a good representation of the American public's response to the situation. -
2020-08-21
'Severe inhumanity': California prisons overwhelmed by Covid outbreaks and approaching fires
This Tweet and article concern the conditions inmates in California's prisons are experiencing. First they had to deal with Covid-19 and figure out how to slow the spread of the disease within overcrowded facilities where social distancing is impossible and mask wearing presents its own set of issues. Second incarcerated people are living in a near constant state of lockdown, visitation and even communication with family and friends is gone. Third they are facing the threat of wildfires within a few miles of several prisons causing the people inside the buildings to breath air filled with smoke. To add insult to injury the state of California uses prison labor to fight these same fires. This article illustrates how we as a society treat those most at risk among us. Even those in a correctional facility for the terminally ill in hospice care are not being evacuated. -
2020-08
Tweets from Inside a Prison 08/16-08/22/2020 by Railroaded Underground
These Tweets were posted by a man inside a prison using a contraband cell phone. This week he talks about their nutrition, lack of air conditioning, lack of showers, the wildfires near Vacaville Prison in California and the lack of plan for evacuation, a friend that recently died of Covid, and how good it felt to finely be allowed to go outside for a bit. -
2020-08
Tweets from Inside a Prison 08/09-08/15/2020 by Railroaded Underground
These images show the Tweets of an incarcerated person using a contraband cell phone. This week he Tweets about politics, specifically Kamala Harris being chosen for VP and her role in incarcerating so many people while she was a prosecutor, another friend returning from solitary confinement, an unsanitary kitchen prison laborers were forced to prepare food in, the number of incarcerated crime victims, prison population reduction, getting more soap, and having to share a shower head with three or four other people because the prison removed several shower heads. -
2020-08
Tweets from Inside a Prison 08/02-08/08/2020 by Railroaded Underground
The images show Tweets from a person incarcerated in a US prison using a contraband cell phone. These week he mentions politics, retweets several people including one person discussing who is worthy of release, people being sent to solitary confinement to quarantine, and the people at his facility being told they must cooperate with rehousing assignments or be punished. -
2020-08-18
Overcrowded Prisons Are Responsible for the Worst Outbreak in the Nation
While this Tweet specifically addresses the responsibility overcrowding in California prisons has played in the Covid outbreak, other states have the same problem. Overcrowding in prisons and jails is a nationwide epidemic. -
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. -
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. -
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. -
2020-08-25
Did Prisons Benefit from the Paycheck Protection Plan (PPP)?
This Tweet poses a good question for investigation. Did prisons and other incarceration facilities receive PPP loans that were meant for small businesses? -
2020-08-26
The Intersectionality of Climate Change and Prisons Plus More Pandemics
This Tweet brings up a point many may not have thought of. Climate change and it causing more pandemics which greatly effect incarcerated populations. -
2020-08-23
Chris Twing Internship Portfolio
I had planned to take the summer off from classes but when I saw an opportunity to be part of real time archiving in relation to the crisis I was living through I eagerly jumped at the opportunity. While I was initially worried, we, as interns, would get stuck doing the repetitive tasks no one else wanted, I was thrilled to be part of the creation and problem-solving process of a real time archive. While most students in my program focus on American or Global history my focus has been on public history. One of the tenants of public history is involving everyone. The archive became a place to see this in real time. We weren’t collecting only around famous people, important people, or large movements. We wanted to collect the stories of everyday people and also took the time to figure out whose voices were missing and attempt to remedy that problem. To that end I took on an extra project to add Black voices to the archive. I collected a list of all the historically black colleges and universities and also searched for museums and cultural or heritage centers across the country that we could contact in hopes they would want to work with us to add those voices to the archive. In addition to curating and adding items to the archive each week we focused on learning a particular skill set related to the archive. The one I struggled with the most was oral history. Though I am fine speaking in public and am not an introvert, I found conducting my first two oral history interviews exceptionally unnerving. However, I also discovered how important they are and what an incredibly rich source of information oral histories represent. What I learned from oral histories was so impressive that I have plans to conduct an oral history program in conjunction with my local historical preservation commission in the future. I am also no longer nervous about conducting oral histories. By the end of our fifteen-week internship we had become even more than a team, we had become a family. I believe this was partially due to a shared crisis. We were living through the Covid-19 pandemic together. For many of us, our weekly Zoom (online meeting platform) was nearly the only face to face contact, though virtual, we had with anyone. This was the case for me. Another intern joked he was going to rename his journal about the project, “The Summer I Distracted Myself from a Pandemic by Thinking about the Pandemic”. I realized that is exactly what happened. The pandemic really started in mid-March for me. I spent the initial month or so sewing face masks and that was how I kept myself focused and sane. Once the internship began in May I began processing my experience of the pandemic by working on the archive. I believe this summer will have been one of the defining moments of my life. -
2020-08-20
Wildfires don't equal evacuation for Solano State Prison
While California depends on prison labor for wildfire firefighters this Tweet brings attention the state refusing to evacuate prisons in threat of wildfire danger. Other Twitter posts have mentioned speaking to inmates at Solano and them mentioning guards coming in with ash on their uniforms. The fires are that close! It seems that many people once incarcerated are at risk for a possible death sentence due to Covid and wildfires. What else? -
2020-08-20
Sentenced to Death by Covid
This Tweeter, Phil Melendez, expresses his horror at more than fifty inmates in the care of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation having died already from Covid-19 and now a wildfire is within blocks of California prisons with no plans for evacuation. -
2020-08-22
Incarcerated firefighters give 3 million hours
This Tweet expresses dissatisfaction with incarcerated firefighters who give so many hours and save the state of California millions of dollars every year, but none of that savings is put into supporting them with re entering society. -
2020-08-20
Incarcerated Firefighters in California
This Tweet shows that while California depends on prison labor for their wildfire firefighting, these same people are not eligible to work as firefighters once they are released from incarceration. -
2020-08-21
As blazes spread, Covid-19 in California prisons hits crucial inmate firefighting force
California depends on prison inmate firefighters to be part of their wildfire defense teams. This year, due to illness and early release, they are missing half of their prison inmate firefighters. To help alleviate the shortage the Governor, Gavin Newsom, has called in the National Guard. -
2020-08-20
California’s Prison Covid-19 Outbreak Isn’t Behind Its Firefighter Shortage
California, one of the most fire prone states in the nation, still relies on prisoners as firefighters. With a particularly bad fire season and a viral pandemic still raging through the country they find themselves in a precarious situation. In an effort to slow the spread of the virus correctional facilities have been releasing some incarcerated persons early. In California over three hundred of their prison labor firefighters have been released since July. This article explains more of the details. -
2020-08-05
Florida inmate COVID-19 deaths up to 59 as outbreaks continue
Covid is particularly dangerous in places where social distancing is not an option. For this reason the nation's correctional facilities have seen huge outbreaks of the virus. This article discusses the conditions in Florida's prisons. While the state says they are doing more to combat the virus as of this article's writing Florida has seen 59 incarcerated people die from Covid. -
2020-05-04
A CLOSER LOOK: in prison and COVID positive … what happens next?
This article talks with several people who have loved ones at correctional facilities across Arkansas. One woman explains that her loved on, Derek Coley, age 29, housed in the Cummins Unit, was due to go before the prison board for possible release in June but instead he died from Covid. He told staff he couldn't breath, was taken to the infirmary where they called an ambulance but he died before it arrives. Another incarcerated person sent a letter from an outside hospital to notify his family he was sick with covid, the prison never informed them. A third person said they were tested for Covid, had the virus, and were sent back to their cell, never isolated, and didn't receive any follow up care for days. The article also outlines the state correctional facilities Policy/Procedures for notifying next of kin. -
2020-07-13
A CLOSER LOOK: COVID-19 prison data as of 7/13
There was recently a spike in the number of covid cases in Arkansas State Prison facilities. Officials suggest this may be due to early testing. They point to the fact that if a person has been exposed recently and is tested right away they may not have enough of a viral load to test positive for the virus even though they are carrying it. This causes false negatives and results in those people not being isolated. The officials also point to supply chain issues preventing them from testing as much as they would like. -
2020-08-05
All state prison inmates will be tested for COVID-19; National Guard will assist
On August 5th, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson announced a plan to test all of the people incarcerated at the 19 state prisons. As of the press conference 10 of the facilities had already been tested and the remaining 9 would be completed by the end of August. To help with this 10 National Guard personnel will be assisting. Other figures provided show just how quickly the virus spread through an enclosed population that is unable to social distance. At three facilities the total number of cases was 666 and five days later the total case count was well over three thousand. -
2020-08-11
2 ORU prison inmates die from COVID-19; 34 total
Two more people incarcerated at Arkansas state prisons have died from the Coronavirus, bringing the total deaths from the virus to thirty four. They also have 800 active cases. -
2020-08-10
Florida inmate, prison worker COVID-19 cases soar
This article highlights the amazing speed at which Covid-19 spreads through the nation's correctional facilities. Over twelve thousand incarcerated people have the virus, of which sixty five have died. As an example of how quickly the virus spreads the article sites the Taylor Correctional Institute going from 25 cases on August 1st to 564 on August 10th. To date over seventy-three thousand tests have been conducted in the states correctional facilities.