Prisons, Policing, and the Pandemic

Prisons in the United States have long been inhumane and overcrowded facilities where poor people are arbitrarily confined in horrible conditions. The COVID-19 pandemic now threatens to escalate this to new levels. Prisoners have now tested positive for coronavirus in facilities across the country, and even United States Attorney General William Barr now recommends the release of certain at-risk inmates in order to slow the pandemic—using a racially biased algorithm. The notorious Rikers Island jail in New York City reported 132 cases on March 28, infecting almost 3% of prisoners, and is now in an exponential spiral, with the highest reported infection rate in the entire world, by far.

US prisons, confining the world’s largest incarcerated population, have not experienced an epidemic of this proportion since the dramatic increase in incarceration began in the 1970s. A mass program of decarceration is a matter of great urgency if a humanitarian catastrophe is to be avoided.

US prisons are public health disasters. In many prisons, sinks for prisoners are unavailable or broken, hand sanitizer and bleach are considered contraband, and access to medical resources is filtered through prison guards. Even before the coronavirus outbreak, conditions in the migrant concentration camps were already deteriorating, with a major mumps outbreak last year. An Iranian scientist being indefinitely held in an ICE detention center describes the situation: “Coronavirus is a viral bomb waiting to blow up here.”

The living conditions in overpacked prisons provide the worst possible conditions for surviving a pandemic. Pre-trial detention continuously cycles new groups of people through the system, circulating the virus back and forth between prisons and jails and impoverished populations outside. And prison labor—essentially slavery nationalized under the 13th Amendment—is in the spotlight again. NY Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that prison inmates would be producing hand sanitizer—while prisoners themselves are denied access to such products. It was then revealed that prisoners were actually merely repackaging already-made sanitizer into new “Clean New York” packaging.

In some places, the law enforcement pipeline feeding jails and prisons has slowed. Several cities have begun suspending fare enforcement on public transit. Other agencies have directed police to avoid taking arrestees to jails, with orders to cite and release them instead. Law enforcement activities which weeks ago were presented as crucial to the public interest—including the militarized NYPD crackdowns on NYC transit—are now being casually abandoned in the face of an actual crisis.

Pressures related to the pandemic have led the state to slow the law enforcement apparatus in certain ways. Still, these changes are limited, especially when compared to the increased role policing is likely to play with new emergency powers to enforce social distancing. State governments are already discussing closing borders within the United States, which will certainly involve the exercise of police power in new ways uncommon in American history. Trump and a majority of his fellow capitalists have responded to coronavirus with an accelerated version of how they responded to climate change—embracing denial until that is no longer tenable, then shifting in a panicked way to protect their profits at the expense of the vulnerable, with the application of repression “in the public interest.” Law enforcement slowdowns may just reflect a re-prioritization before ramp-ups in new kinds of enforcement designed to protect capital under these new circumstances.

The National Guard is now active in 22 states, FEMA has been activated, and federal, state and local emergency declarations increase the likelihood that military involvement will escalate. Worldwide, police are increasing their role in enforcing social distancing measures. South African police fired rubber bullets at shoppers in a mall, and Indian police are widely applying violence to enforce lockdowns. The potential for violent escalations by police comes as law enforcement agencies themselves are becoming hotspots for the virus. As of March 29, 3 NYPD officers had died from Covid-19, with more than 400 NYPD officers infected. When lockdowns are enforced by “bodies of armed men,” the virus itself becomes a weapon the state can wield.

Many police actions are continuing as usual, particularly those directed against migrant workers. Responding to public pressure against deportation actions at this time, ICE issued a public statement claiming they would halt enforcement operations at or near health care facilities, “except in the most extraordinary of circumstances.” Despite this, the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations—the deportation squads—have requisitioned 45,000 N95 respirator masks, a clear signal that raids will continue on a large scale. The constant imposition of fear on the most vulnerable in society reduces the chances they will seek medical care, acting as a force multiplier for the pandemic’s progress through the population.

Strike activity has been rising in US penal institutions in recent years, and pandemic-related strikes are now underway in prisons across the US and worldwide, protesting the increased risks being levied against prisoners. 180 immigration detainees in Pennsylvania have begun a hunger strike demanding their release. ICE detainees in New Jersey and New York have started hunger strikes demanding access to soap and toilet paper. At Rikers in New York, two dorms of 45 prisoners are refusing to leave their buildings, demanding the immediate release of several segments of prisoners including those over 50, those with particular health risks, those reincarcerated for parole violations, and those with less than a year of sentenced time. The broader labor movement should take up these demands in support of the strikers—an injury to one is an injury to all!

For those who remain imprisoned, demands should extend to include free commissary for all prisoners, including sanitizers and disinfectants, as they will likely face lockdowns and food shortages. The state should assume full responsibility for providing quality health care for anyone it incarcerates. With in-person visits being halted due to the pandemic, all fees should immediately be suspended for phone calls and video visits, a source of profit for the prison-capitalists with phone calls costing up to 43 cents a minute in New York.

Outside the prisons, the racist law enforcement pipeline capturing poor people off the street and confining them must be abolished altogether. There will be increasing calls for military and police interventions to regulate public life and enforce social distancing—which must be opposed by all socialists. While we will voluntarily observe social distancing in the interests of public health, we demand that our basic needs be guaranteed. We will not accept any limitation of our basic constitutional rights in the name of the national emergency. If you agree with this perspective and our socialist program to fight COVID-19 and the economic crisis, we urge you to join us!