Conditions are worsening and we need your help.
We know many of you are feeling helpless in the face of the Coronavirus. If you have the willingness and ability to take action, please consider supporting the Last Prisoner Project's efforts to protect our incarcerated communities. We've been working tirelessly to protect our incarcerated constituents from the potentially catastrophic consequences of Covid-19, we've seen some positive responses from jurisdictions across the country, but the situation remains DIRE and conditions are worsening at prisons across the country.
If you are able please consider donating to our emergency relief fund for our currently incarcerated constituents. Our constituents, many of them over the age of 60 and many with underlying health conditions, are imprisoned because of a plant which has now been deemed an "essential" service by jurisdictions across the country during this time of crisis.
As of this morning there are dozens of confirmed cases within correctional facilities just in the state of New York, and many more confirmed across the country including California, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin. Undoubtedly there are many more cases within facilities across the country that we are unaware of due to the widespread unavailability of testing. Now it is a matter of when, not if, it spreads in others.
LPP has obtained these photos and reports from an anonymous source inside a federal correctional facility indicating:
- There is no hand sanitizer, disinfectant, or masks, only used soap resting on old sponges, in dirty bathrooms;
- Guards are hoarding & pilfering toilet paper;
- No additional safety precautions being implemented;
- Unsafe, inhumane “quarantine” area.
- Despite the increasing number of confirmed positive cases correctional facilities STILL have no protocols in place to mitigate an outbreak. If someone becomes ill, the medical care that they are likely to get (if they get care at all) will be substandard. Many WILL DIE alone in prison away from their loved ones for the same exact thing others are profiting from.
If these facilities become breeding grounds for the coronavirus, it will not only impact those incarcerated, but our entire community. Jails and prisons cycle large numbers of people in and out of close, unsanitary quarters on a daily basis. All of these facilities rely on services and support from vendors and medical professionals, employ staff who come and go, and appropriately provide access for legal counsel and family members to visit. And people with severe conditions who need intensive medical treatment are often removed from these facilities to be treated in local hospitals.
To learn how you can help go to: https://www.lastprisonerproject.org/covid-19