Items

• 
  2020-09-08

  Disconnect from our Core Values

  This assignment is part of the American Studies classes at California High School in San Ramon, California.
• 
  2020-06-15

  Maricopa County Sheriff's Office answers Frequently Asked Questions regarding Covid-19

  This is a list of questions posed to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office regarding department policies and procedures regarding the Covid-19 pandemic. This list was made to provide answers to the public regarding safety and security issues within the jails. The questions range from how many active cases are present in the jail (as of date of publication) to how/when inmates are released to availability of cleaning supplies and personal protective equipment.
• 
  2020-04-13

  Preventing the Spread of Covid-19 in County Jails in Maricopa County

  This press release was written and published by MCSO (Maricopa County Sheriff's Office) to detail the steps and protocols put in place to keep employees, staff and inmates safe and healthy during the pandemic. It also outlines measures put in place for patrol units to keep them and the public safe during the pandemic.
• 
  2020-03-15

  Security Changes in Maricopa County Jails in Light of Covid-19

  This is a press release that was published in March, right at the time when the US was really starting to get hit with the pandemic. At the time this was published, there were no confirmed cases of the virus in the jails, but the Sheriff's office began increasing security and limiting access in an attempt to prevent the spread of the virus within the jail population. Even at the beginning, it was evident that this would not be a flash in the pan type incident but a long lasting event that would require rethinking the 'everyday normal' to keep people safe and healthy.
• 
  2020-07-20

  Private prison contracts complicates COVID-19 precautions

  The contracts for Arizona's private prisons require nearly all of the beds to be filled. This story articulates the difficult balance between keeping inmates safe during a pandemic and satisfying the contracts.
• 
  2020-08-28

  A San Andreas Nursing Home is Experiencing a Rise in COVID-19 Cases

  A nursing home in San Andreas, California is experiencing an increase in COVID-19 cases. Nursing homes can be a hot spot for infection as the residents are all at increased risk for the virus and live in a facility with several other people. Calaveras and Tuolumne Counties have had relatively low cases of COVID-19, though long term care facilities for the elderly remain a huge risk for infection. Governor Newsom is rolling out a new monitoring system in the coming days to place counties in the state under increased or reduced restrictions based on daily cases per 100,000 people testing positive.
• 
  2020-08-29

  Public Defender Does Not Want Elderly Client to Die in Prison

  A public defender discusses the case of 'Jake Green', a 73-year-old inmate of a prison inmate with a complicated case involving domestic and gun violence. The girlfriend (also the victim) of the accused did not want Mr. Green prosecuted, but they ended up sentencing him to 5 years without parole. The lawyer discusses how Mr. Green is particularly at risk for COVID-19, citing his age and health concerns. He is concerned not only with the idea that this could be a death sentence for his client, but that the case was unjust from the beginning.
• 
  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.⁠
• 
  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.
• 
  2020-08-14

  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.
• 
  2020-08-07

  COVID-19 threatens migrant, officer safety at cramped ICE detention centers

  By Jessica Myers/Luce Foundation: Southwest Stories Fellowship
• 
  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.
• 
  2020-08-10

  Defacto Death Sentence

  This Tweet shows that 22% of those that have died of Covid in Florida correctional facilities were eligible for parole. Early release for people convicted of nonviolent crimes has been a topic of discussion since the virus first struck the US back in March. The theory is releasing some people early will help make it possible for those still incarcerated to be able to social distance. Others point to the fact that incarceration and covid should not lead to a defacto death sentence.
• 
  2020-08-07

  COVID-19 outbreaks threaten migrant, officer safety at cramped detention centers, advocates say

  by Jessica Myers| Luce Foundation: Southwest Stories Fellowship
• 
  2020-08-10

  San Francisco Announces All Phone Calls From County Jails Are Now Free

  San Francisco has stepped out to lead the nation in criminal justice reform by cutting the cost of phone calls and commissary items from its jails. They cite the change as especially necessary during the Covid pandemic.
• 
  2020-08-11

  We Have to Reduce the Number of People In Prisons to Slow the Spread of Covid

  James King, formerly incarcerated and now a criminal justice activist, speaks out about the need to reduce the prison population to slow the spread of covid. He also explains the conditions at San Quentin Prison in California and in the replies to his Tweet explains and quotes the recidivism rates for prisoners.
• 
  2020-08-11

  14 of the Largest Outbreaks are in Prisons and Jails

  Covid-19 is particularly dangerous in populations that are enclosed and unable to social distance such as nursing homes and correctional facilities. This Tweet explains that 14 of the largest outbreaks across the US are in the prisons and jails. The writer of the Tweet, James King, asks why the California Governor, Gavin Newsom, is closing bars and beaches while not doing more in the correctional facilities since 6 of the 14 largest outbreaks are in California.
• 
  2020-08-10

  Tweet Changes Headline

  Language is changing to be more people focused. This has happened in several arenas including incarceration. Instead of calling people inmates, prisoners, or convicts there is a movement to change the language to a people first option such as incarcerated person. One activist, Adnan Khan, of Restore Justice, a California based nonprofit seeking to change the criminal justice system, saw his Tweet about people first language cause the Los Angeles Times to change their headline.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  2020-08-06

  Victims’ families outraged after California releases thousands of inmates early to slow spread of COVID-19

  As California releases more and more incarcerated people to slow the spread of Covid-19 in the prison population many victims advocates are worried and hurt. This news story covers one woman's reaction to the early release of the woman that murdered her brother when he was 23 years old.
• 
  2020-08-06

  Parts of San Quentin Do Not Have Electricity

  This Tweet and series of replies shows people talking about there not being electricity in at least parts of San Quentin Prison in California.