Daily Archives: 2020-04-23

2020-04-23: News Headlines

Susie Day (2020-04-23). Puerto Rico, Protest, Prison: Johanna Fernández and Jose Saldaña Talk About The Young Lords. counterpunch.org Johanna Fernández, child of immigrants from the Dominican Republic and professor at New York's Baruch College, has just published The Young Lords: A Radical History, a book about the 1960s Puerto Rican activist group. The Young Lords began as a Chicago street gang; then, inspired by the Black Panther Party, morphed into a militant rights

SCOTT A HUMINSKI (2020-04-23). Sean Hannity and Rick Scott's best sheriff friend under DOJ and Fl DOH investigation. indybay.org The Justice Department and Florida Department of Health are investigating Sheriff Carmine Marceno for civil rights abuses, human rights abuses, ADA violations and felony abuse of disabled adults.

Jesse Jackson (2020-04-23). Incarceration is Now a Potential Death Sentence. counterpunch.org This week, the New York Times featured the story of how the coronavirus savaged the Federal Correctional Complex in Oakdale, Louisiana. On March 28, Patrick Jones, 49, serving a 27-year sentence for possession of crack cocaine with the intent to distribute, became the first federal inmate to die of the virus. Barely three weeks later,

The Canary (2020-04-23). UN chief warns that coronavirus pandemic is becoming a 'human rights crisis'. thecanary.co UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres has said the coronavirus pandemic is "a human crisis that is fast becoming a human rights crisis".The UN chief issued a video message warning there is discrimination in the delivery of public services to tackle coronavirus (Covid-19) and there are "structural inequalities that impede access to them".He said the pandemic has also seen "disproportionate effects on certain communities, the rise of hate speech, the targeting of vulnerable groups, and the risks of heavy-handed security responses undermining the health response".He warned that with "rising ethno-nationalism, populi…

Dr. Rudolf Hà§nsel (2020-04-23). Psychological Remarks on "Authority Obedience". Say No! globalresearch.ca What is happening in front of all our eyes at the moment is a huge scary dizziness. "Corona" is a geopolitical operation by the "global elite" and their "depopulation agenda" is real. Isolation imprisonment makes people sick and kills …

Labor Video Project (2020-04-23). The Fight For PPE On The Docks, The War On Workers & May Day 2020 With ILWU. indybay.org WorkWeek interviews ILWU Local 10 president Trent Willis and ILWU president Keith Shanklin about the struggle protect longshore workers from being contaminated by Covid-19 and the war against working people. They also discuss May Day and the fight of the over 500 seafarers on the Grand Princess who are being kept as prisoners on the ship.

WSWS (2020-04-23). Australian court ruling means continued imprisonment for Tamil refugees from Biloela. wsws.org The people of Biloela are continuing a national campaign, entitled "Home to Bilo," demanding the release of the family and return home to Biloela.

Davide Mastracci (2020-04-23). Blame the Covid-19 failure on your governments, not on China. indybay.org The anti-Chinese narrative is based on false statements and serves to distract people from the failure of neoliberalism. Build hospitals and make health care universal! Cut military spending in half! Testing, not imprisonment, abuse and neglect!

Fight Back (2020-04-22). Car caravan to free Gerald Reed, prisoners facing pandemic. fightbacknews.org Chicago, IL – 100 cars surrounded the Thompson Center in Chicago's Loop, April 20, during Governor J.B. Pritzker's daily press briefing on COVID-19. The caravan protest was held to demand Pritzker free police torture survivor Gerald Reed and all vulnerable prisoners at Cook County Jail, Illinois Department of Corrections prisons and ICE detention centers in Illinois – especially those over 60, those with medical conditions, and those who the governor's own Torture Commission has already confirmed are victims of police torture and therefore wrongfully convicted. | In the lead car of the caravan, Frank Chapman of t…

Udi Ofer (2020-04-22). New Model Shows Reducing Jail Population will Lower COVID-19 Death Toll for All of Us. aclu.org The Trump administration optimistically projects that "substantially under" 100,000 people will die from COVID-19 in the United States. Horrific as that statistic is,

IMEMC News (2020-04-22). Palestinian Detainee Dies In Israeli Prison. imemc.org The Palestinian Prisoners' Society (PPS) has reported that a detainee died, on Tuesday at night, in the Negev Desert Detention Camp, after fainting in the shower, and Israeli soldiers failed to provide him with any medical aid for more than thirty minutes. The PPS stated that the detainee, Nour Jaber …

splcenter (2020-04-22). First person to die in Alabama's prisons with COVID-19 spent more than four decades behind bars. splcenter.org

Staff (2020-04-21). Death Trap Jail: Pepper-Sprayed, Otay Mesa Detainees Demand Release as COVID-19 Spreads Inside. democracynow.org We look at the mounting number of COVID-19 cases inside immigration jails across the country and one of the largest outbreaks at the Otay Mesa Detention Center near San Diego, run by private prison company CoreCivic. Prisoners were told to sign contracts, written only in English, in exchange for receiving face masks. When some refused to sign, guards pepper-sprayed them. This comes as activists say hundreds imprisoned in detention centers in California are on hunger strike. We get an update from Ruth Mendez, community activist and volunteer with Otay Mesa Detention Resistance.

Ashoka Mukpo (2020-04-21). Defying Medical Experts, Lawmakers are Weaponizing COVID-19 to Restrict Abortion Access. aclu.org In the latest development in a fast-moving court case, on Monday the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals

teleSUR (2020-04-21). Jailed Saudi Princess Appeals for Help After Months of Silence. telesurenglish.net A Saudi princess, princess Basma bint Saud, who has been missing for almost a year, spoke publicly for the first time, asking her uncle, King Salman, and her cousin Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) to review her case and release her from prison. | RELATED: | "I am currently arbitrarily held at Al-Ha'ir prison without criminal, or otherwise any charges against my person," read one of the tweets posted last Wed…

IMEMC & Agencies (2020-04-21). Israeli Forces Abduct Freed Prisoner in Hebron. imemc.org Israeli troops abducted, early on Tuesday, a freed Palestinian prisoner from the Beit Ummar town in the southern occupied West Bank city of Hebron. Local media sources reported that an Israeli army force invaded the Beit Ummar town and began invading several Palestinian-owned homes, before they abducted freed Palestinian prisoner, …

Edward Curtin (2020-04-21). Rotating on Boredom's Spit. dissidentvoice.org And all the news just repeats itself Like some forgotten dream we've both seen — John Prine, Hello in There, from his debut album entitled "John Prine", 1971 Without the ability to forget, we become imprisoned within a collective mental habit that induces us to repeat things that are as hard to escape as is …

Staff (2020-04-20). Headlines for April 20, 2020. democracynow.org U.S. Fatalities Top 40,000; Nursing Homes Hit Hard as Death Tolls Soar | , Trump and Governors at Odds over Coronavirus Testing as Uneven Reopening of States Commences, Right-Wing Groups Organize Anti-Lockdown Protests Around the Country | , New Deal on Relief for Small Businesses Could Be Imminent But May Lack Key Democratic Provisions, Immigrant Prisoners at Otay Mesa Launch Hunger Strike, Denounce Inhumane Treatment | , Michael Cohen to Be Released from Federal Detention as Prisoners Nationwide Face Mounting Coronavirus Risk, Italy Records Lowest Daily Death Toll in a Week; Spain & France Also Show Signs of Pr…

Alan Macleod (2020-04-20). Man Who Filmed Police Murder of Eric Garner Says Prison Guards Threatened to Give Him COVID-19. mintpressnews.com WeCopwatch, an activist organization dedicated to the nonviolent observation of police, says that corrections officers threatened to deliberately infect Ramsey Orta for weeks before he fell ill.

Fight Back (2020-04-20). LA May Day car caravan protest set. fightbacknews.org Los Angeles, CA – Luis Sifuentes, of the community group Cento CSO states, "Due to the pandemic and Stay At Home order in Los Angeles, Centro CSO is organizing this year's May Day as a car caravan through Boyle Heights with our demands: Jail killer cops, defend public education, and legalization for all – along with demands for hazard pay, better protections for workers in the front lines during this pandemic and expand COVID-19 testing in Black and brown communities." | The car protest will take place May 1, assembling before 4 p.m. on Chavez/Lorena at 5 Puntos, in Boyle Heights. | Event information here:…

Brian Terrell (2020-04-19). COVID-19 and the Wasting Disease of Normalcy. dissidentvoice.org "But what of the price of peace?" asked Jesuit priest and war resister Daniel Berrigan, writing from federal prison in 1969, doing time for his part in the destruction of draft records. "I think of the good, decent, peace-loving people I have known by the thousands, and I wonder. How many of them are so …

Alan Macleod (2020-04-17). ICE is Deporting COVID-19 Positive Detainees from Private Immigration Prisons. mintpressnews.com By continuing deportations of quarantined detainees during a pandemic, ICE is greatly increasing the risk of spreading the deadly virus to other countries officials and activists warn.

ACLU (2020-04-17). What it's Like in ICE Detention During a Pandemic. aclu.org As millions of people in the U.S. shelter in their homes, and millions more who aren't able to stay indoors practice social distancing or other measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19, a crisis is brewing in the facilities where immigrants are detained. Cramped conditions and inadequate access to hygiene or medical care have created what one medical expert called a "tinderbox" for the disease in a letter to Congress., , Many of those in detention are asylum seekers, who came to the U.S. to ask for protection after fleeing violence and persecution in their home countries. Many others were long-time U.S. resi…

ACLU (2020-04-17). A Tale of Two Countries: Racially Targeted Arrests in the Era of Marijuana Reform. aclu.org

2020-04-23: Social Media Postees

Please be social by posting these 'POSTEES' on social media! (Copy the text of the postee below, then paste it on social media and the story images will also appear.)

Puerto Rico, Protest, Prison: Johanna Fernández and Jose Saldaña Talk About The Young Lords
Susie Day | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-23
Johanna Fernández, child of immigrants from the Dominican Republic and professor at New York's Baruch College, has just published The Young Lords: A Radical History, a book about the 1960s Puerto Rican activist group. The Young Lords began as a Chicago street gang; then, inspired by the Black Panther Party, morphed into a militant rights…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/23/puerto-rico-protest-prison-johanna-fernandez-and-jose-saldana-talk-about-the-young-lords/

Sean Hannity and Rick Scott's best sheriff friend under DOJ and Fl DOH investigation
SCOTT A HUMINSKI | indybay.org | 2020-04-23
The Justice Department and Florida Department of Health are investigating Sheriff Carmine Marceno for civil rights abuses, human rights abuses, ADA violations and felony abuse of disabled adults.
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/04/23/18832583.php

Incarceration is Now a Potential Death Sentence
Jesse Jackson | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-23
This week, the New York Times featured the story of how the coronavirus savaged the Federal Correctional Complex in Oakdale, Louisiana. On March 28, Patrick Jones, 49, serving a 27-year sentence for possession of crack cocaine with the intent to distribute, became the first federal inmate to die of the virus. Barely three weeks later,…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/23/incarceration-is-now-a-potential-death-sentence/

UN chief warns that coronavirus pandemic is becoming a 'human rights crisis'
The Canary | thecanary.co | 2020-04-23
UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres has said the coronavirus pandemic is "a human crisis that is fast becoming a human rights crisis".The UN chief issued a video message warning there is discrimination in the delivery of public services to tackle coronavirus (Covid-19) and there are "structural inequalities that impede access to them".He said the pandemic has also seen "disproportionate effects on certain communities, the rise of hate speech, the targeting of vulnerable groups, and the risks of heavy-handed security responses undermining the health response".He warned that with "rising ethno-nationalism, populi…
thecanary.co/global/world-news/2020/04/23/un-chief-warns-that-coronavirus-pandemic-is-becoming-a-human-rights-crisis/

Australian court ruling means continued imprisonment for Tamil refugees from Biloela
wsws.org | 2020-04-23
The people of Biloela are continuing a national campaign, entitled "Home to Bilo," demanding the release of the family and return home to Biloela.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/23/refu-a23.html

The Fight For PPE On The Docks, The War On Workers & May Day 2020 With ILWU
Labor Video Project | indybay.org | 2020-04-23
WorkWeek interviews ILWU Local 10 president Trent Willis and ILWU president Keith Shanklin about the struggle protect longshore workers from being contaminated by Covid-19 and the war against working people. They also discuss May Day and the fight of the over 500 seafarers on the Grand Princess who are being kept as prisoners on the ship.
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/04/22/18832560.php

Psychological Remarks on "Authority Obedience". Say No!
Dr. Rudolf Hà§nsel | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-23
What is happening in front of all our eyes at the moment is a huge scary dizziness. "Corona" is a geopolitical operation by the "global elite" and their "depopulation agenda" is real. Isolation imprisonment makes people sick and kills …
globalresearch.ca/psychological-remarks-authority-obedience/5710555

Blame the Covid-19 failure on your governments, not on China
Davide Mastracci | indybay.org | 2020-04-23
The anti-Chinese narrative is based on false statements and serves to distract people from the failure of neoliberalism. Build hospitals and make health care universal! Cut military spending in half! Testing, not imprisonment, abuse and neglect!
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/04/20/18832513.php

Car caravan to free Gerald Reed, prisoners facing pandemic
Fight Back | fightbacknews.org | 2020-04-22
Chicago, IL – 100 cars surrounded the Thompson Center in Chicago's Loop, April 20, during Governor J.B. Pritzker's daily press briefing on COVID-19. The caravan protest was held to demand Pritzker free police torture survivor Gerald Reed and all vulnerable prisoners at Cook County Jail, Illinois Department of Corrections prisons and ICE detention centers in Illinois – especially those over 60, those with medical conditions, and those who the governor's own Torture Commission has already confirmed are victims of police torture and therefore wrongfully convicted. | In the lead car of the caravan, Frank Chapman of t…
www.fightbacknews.org/2020/4/22/car-caravan-free-gerald-reed-prisoners-facing-pandemic

New Model Shows Reducing Jail Population will Lower COVID-19 Death Toll for All of Us
Udi Ofer | aclu.org | 2020-04-22
The Trump administration optimistically projects that "substantially under" 100,000 people will die from COVID-19 in the United States. Horrific as that statistic is, a new model suggests it could be a huge underestimate. The government models fail to consider the impact of the virus on the incarcerated population, who will be infected and die at higher rates. And any prison or jail outbreak is bound to spill over into the broader community

Palestinian Detainee Dies In Israeli Prison
IMEMC News | imemc.org | 2020-04-22
The Palestinian Prisoners' Society (PPS) has reported that a detainee died, on Tuesday at night, in the Negev Desert Detention Camp, after fainting in the shower, and Israeli soldiers failed to provide him with any medical aid for more than thirty minutes. The PPS stated that the detainee, Nour Jaber …
imemc.org/article/palestinian-detainee-dies-in-israeli-prison-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=palestinian-detainee-dies-in-israeli-prison-2

First person to die in Alabama's prisons with COVID-19 spent more than four decades behind bars
splcenter.org | 2020-04-22
splcenter.org/news/2020/04/22/first-person-die-alabamas-prisons-covid-19-spent-more-four-decades-behind-bars

Death Trap Jail: Pepper-Sprayed, Otay Mesa Detainees Demand Release as COVID-19 Spreads Inside
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-04-21
We look at the mounting number of COVID-19 cases inside immigration jails across the country and one of the largest outbreaks at the Otay Mesa Detention Center near San Diego, run by private prison company CoreCivic. Prisoners were told to sign contracts, written only in English, in exchange for receiving face masks. When some refused to sign, guards pepper-sprayed them. This comes as activists say hundreds imprisoned in detention centers in California are on hunger strike. We get an update from Ruth Mendez, community activist and volunteer with Otay Mesa Detention Resistance.
www.democracynow.org/2020/4/21/otay_mesa_immigrant_detention_center_coronavirus

Defying Medical Experts, Lawmakers are Weaponizing COVID-19 to Restrict Abortion Access
Ashoka Mukpo | aclu.org | 2020-04-21
In the latest development in a fast-moving court case, on Monday the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's decision to block nearly all abortion services in the state. The ruling came after a legal challenge to Abbott's inclusion of abortion care in a March 22 executive order instructing health care facilities across the state to "postpone all surgeries and procedures that are not immediately medically necessary.", , For Abbott and his allies, the COVID-19 pandemic is proving to be exactly…
aclu.org/news/reproductive-freedom/defying-medical-experts-lawmakers-are-weaponizing-covid-19-to-restrict-abortion-access

Jailed Saudi Princess Appeals for Help After Months of Silence
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-21
A Saudi princess, princess Basma bint Saud, who has been missing for almost a year, spoke publicly for the first time, asking her uncle, King Salman, and her cousin Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) to review her case and release her from prison. | RELATED: | COVID-19 Reportedly Fast Spreading Among Saudi Royal Family | "I am currently arbitrarily held at Al-Ha'ir prison without criminal, or otherwise any charges against my person," read one of the tweets posted last Wed…
telesurenglish.net/news/Jailed-Saudi-Princess-Appeals-for-Help-After-Months-of-Silence-20200421-0022.html

Rotating on Boredom's Spit
Edward Curtin | dissidentvoice.org | 2020-04-21
And all the news just repeats itself Like some forgotten dream we've both seen

Israeli Forces Abduct Freed Prisoner in Hebron
IMEMC & Agencies | imemc.org | 2020-04-21
Israeli troops abducted, early on Tuesday, a freed Palestinian prisoner from the Beit Ummar town in the southern occupied West Bank city of Hebron. Local media sources reported that an Israeli army force invaded the Beit Ummar town and began invading several Palestinian-owned homes, before they abducted freed Palestinian prisoner, …
imemc.org/article/israeli-forces-abduct-freed-prisoner-in-hebron/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=israeli-forces-abduct-freed-prisoner-in-hebron

Man Who Filmed Police Murder of Eric Garner Says Prison Guards Threatened to Give Him COVID-19
Alan Macleod | mintpressnews.com | 2020-04-20
WeCopwatch, an activist organization dedicated to the nonviolent observation of police, says that corrections officers threatened to deliberately infect Ramsey Orta for weeks before he fell ill.
mintpressnews.com/ramsey-orta-says-prison-guards-deliberately-gave-him-covid-19/266782/

LA May Day car caravan protest set
Fight Back | fightbacknews.org | 2020-04-20
Los Angeles, CA – Luis Sifuentes, of the community group Cento CSO states, "Due to the pandemic and Stay At Home order in Los Angeles, Centro CSO is organizing this year's May Day as a car caravan through Boyle Heights with our demands: Jail killer cops, defend public education, and legalization for all – along with demands for hazard pay, better protections for workers in the front lines during this pandemic and expand COVID-19 testing in Black and brown communities." | The car protest will take place May 1, assembling before 4 p.m. on Chavez/Lorena at 5 Puntos, in Boyle Heights. | Event information here:…
www.fightbacknews.org/2020/4/20/la-may-day-car-caravan-protest-set

COVID-19 and the Wasting Disease of Normalcy
Brian Terrell | dissidentvoice.org | 2020-04-19
"But what of the price of peace?" asked Jesuit priest and war resister Daniel Berrigan, writing from federal prison in 1969, doing time for his part in the destruction of draft records. "I think of the good, decent, peace-loving people I have known by the thousands, and I wonder. How many of them are so …
dissidentvoice.org/2020/04/covid-19-and-the-wasting-disease-of-normalcy/

ICE is Deporting COVID-19 Positive Detainees from Private Immigration Prisons
Alan Macleod | mintpressnews.com | 2020-04-17
By continuing deportations of quarantined detainees during a pandemic, ICE is greatly increasing the risk of spreading the deadly virus to other countries officials and activists warn.
mintpressnews.com/ice-deporting-covid-19-positive-detainees-private-immigration-prisons/266739/

What it's Like in ICE Detention During a Pandemic
aclu.org | 2020-04-17
As millions of people in the U.S. shelter in their homes, and millions more who aren't able to stay indoors practice social distancing or other measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19, a crisis is brewing in the facilities where immigrants are detained. Cramped conditions and inadequate access to hygiene or medical care have created what one medical expert called a "tinderbox" for the disease in a letter to Congress., , Many of those in detention are asylum seekers, who came to the U.S. to ask for protection after fleeing violence and persecution in their home countries. Many others were long-time U.S. resi…
aclu.org/news/civil-liberties/what-its-like-in-ice-detention-during-a-pandemic

A Tale of Two Countries: Racially Targeted Arrests in the Era of Marijuana Reform
aclu.org | 2020-04-17

| For decades, marijuana laws have been used to criminalize Black and Brown peo…
aclu.org/news/criminal-law-reform/a-tale-of-two-countries-racially-targeted-arrests-in-the-era-of-marijuana-reform

Apple and Google Announced a Coronavirus Tracking System. How Worried Should We Be?
Jennifer Stisa Granick | aclu.org | 2020-04-16
Apple and Google last week announced a joint contact tracing effort that would use Bluetooth technology to help alert people who have been in close proximity to someone who tested positive for COVID-19. Similar proposals have been put forward by an MIT-associated effort called PACT as well as by multiple European groups., , These proposals differ from…
aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/apple-and-google-announced-a-coronavirus-tracking-system-how-worried-should-we-be

CROWN Act movement seeks to protect Black people from racial discrimination based on hairstyles
splcenter.org | 2020-04-15
Jordan Winder did not apply to the high school of his choice, because the dreadlocks he's been growing nearly half his life are not allowed there.
splcenter.org/news/2020/04/15/crown-act-movement-seeks-protect-black-people-racial-discrimination-based-hairstyles

Isolation, Before and During a Pandemic
aclu.org | 2020-04-14
As many Americans round out the end of their first month of social distancing, it's clear that the toll of "stay at home" orders during the COVID-19 pandemic is much more than economic. The anxiety and fear that wash over us each day that we spend alone, away from friends, coworkers, and family, inflict their own kind of emotional damage. , , The cost of social isolation is a worthy cost in this case

Let's Stop the Scapegoating During a Global Pandemic
Cecillia Wang | aclu.org | 2020-04-14
Just like tens of millions of people sheltering in place in the U.S., I'm adjusting to the new realities and worries of day-to-day life during the COVID-19 pandemic. But on top of worrying about my elderly family members, U.S. hospitals' shortage of basic medical equipment, or where I can find toilet paper and eggs, I have another fear. Like other Americans of East Asian descent (including citizens and non-citizens), I worry that I might be attacked on the street or in a store because of my race., , There are so many news reports that spur my concerns. For example, on March 14, a man in Midland, Texas, attacke…
aclu.org/news/racial-justice/lets-stop-the-scapegoating-during-a-global-pandemic

German court opens first Syria torture trial
yenisafak.com | 2020-04-23
Two suspected members of President Bashar al-Assad's security services had charges of torture and sexual assault read out against them on Thursday in a German court, in what lawyers say is the first trial for war crimes by Syrian government agents.Anwar R., a former intelligence officer who applied for asylum in Germany six years ago after leaving Syria, is charged with 58 murders in a Damascus prison where prosecutors say at least 4,000 opposition activists were tortured in 2011 and 2012.Grey haired, with a bald patch and wearing a moustache, glasses and a dark sweater, he sat calmly behind a glass cubicle erect…
yenisafak.com/en/world/german-court-opens-first-syria-torture-trial-3517747

Ex-Concentration Camp Prisoners Ask Investigation Committee to Deal With Actions of Finnish Invaders
sputniknews.com | 2020-04-23
Former prisoners of Finnish concentration camps in Karelia have asked Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the Investigation Committee, to look into the actions of the occupation authorities during the Great Patriotic War.
sputniknews.com/russia/202004231079067297-ex-concentration-camp-prisoners-ask-investigation-committee-to-deal-with-actions-of-finnish/

Britain is Failing to Release Enough Prisoners Despite COIVD-19 Threat, Warns Penal Reform Charity
sputniknews.com | 2020-04-23
The Prison Governors' Association has warned that unnecessary deaths across the prison estate in England and Wales is inevitable if something isn't done to address the overcrowding among detention facilities, which is as high as 175% of capacity.
sputniknews.com/analysis/202004231079067385-Britainis-Failing-Release-Enough-Prisoners-COIVD-19/

Federal Wardens Must Immediately Flatten the Curve in our Nation's Prisons
Kanya Bennett | aclu.org | 2020-04-13
With 10 deaths and more than 500 positive COVID-19 cases in the nation's federal prisons, wardens must " move with dispatch" to " move vulnerable inmates out of these institutions." These are the words that Attorney General William Barr used on April 3rd when he directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to reduce the federal prison population in the wake of COVID-19…
aclu.org/news/prisoners-rights/federal-wardens-must-immediately-flatten-the-curve-in-our-nations-prisons

Civil Liberties Never Sleep: The ACLU in the Pandemic
David Cole | aclu.org | 2020-04-10
The COVID-19 pandemic has closed down many businesses, but the work of preserving civil liberties and civil rights continues, as essential as ever. Reports of courts closing down can be misleading. While public trials that require jurors and in-person testimony have been suspended, most courts and lawyers can do their work remotely. The filing of legal briefs continues, and oral arguments and hearings are being held remotely. The work of securing justice continues., , At the ACLU, our most immediate focus has been on civil liberties and civil rights issues arising from the government's response (or lack thereo…
aclu.org/news/civil-liberties/civil-liberties-never-sleep-the-aclu-in-the-pandemic

I'm Queer and I've Been in Solitary. Ellen Isn't Experiencing What I Did
Dominique Morgan | aclu.org | 2020-04-09
On Monday, I ended a 12-hour day returning emails to incarcerated queer folks, providing direct aid for housing to folks living with HIV & AIDS who have been incarcerated and challenging the state of Nebraska to provide humane conditions for incarcerated individuals and decided to mindlessly scroll on Twitter. , , I found the quote from the show Ellen DeGeneres filmed from her multimillion-dollar, multi-room mansion: "One thing that I've learned from being in quarantine is that people

Nativist Hate Groups Want to Keep People in ICE Detention Despite COVID-19 Threat
splcenter.org | 2020-04-08
Anti-immigrant think tanks are pushing for the U.S. to detain immigrants and asylum seekers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, even as prisoners stage hunger strikes and other protests in response to what they describe as deteriorating health conditions in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities.
splcenter.org/hatewatch/2020/04/09/nativist-hate-groups-want-keep-people-ice-detention-despite-covid-19-threat

Fighting for immigrant rights during a pandemic
Katrina Huber | splcenter.org | 2020-04-02
As people across the country are confined to their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, little attention has been given to a group of people whose health is in danger because they are locked away from the outside world

Alabama prisons hold more than 1,100 older people at greater COVID-19 risk
Kathryn Casteel and Will Tucker | splcenter.org | 2020-04-02
More than 1,100 people age 65 or older are locked away in Alabama prisons, putting a group already highly susceptible to the deadly COVID-19 virus at an even greater risk, according to an SPLC analysis of the state's prison system.
splcenter.org/news/2020/04/02/alabama-prisons-hold-more-1100-older-people-greater-covid-19-risk

Evaluation of Association Between Gastric Acid Suppression and Risk of Intestinal Colonization With MDROs
Willems RJ, van Dijk K, Ket JF, et al. | jamanetwork.com | 2020-04-01
This systematic review and meta-analysis examines the association of use of gastric acid suppressants with the risk of colonization with multidrug-resistant microorganisms (MDROs).
jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2761273