“Just because they are incarcerated doesn’t make them any less of a person.”
Outside Chicago’s Cook County Jail on Tuesday, as Andre Patrick protested, he could see men detained inside watching from the windows. Some were using their hands to make heart shapes; others held signs to the glass that simply read, “Help.”
Days earlier, a 59-year-old inmate there had died of complications from COVID-19. The jail is now reportedly the largest single known source of infections in the United States, with at least 251 detainees and 150 employees sickened by the coronavirus. More than 1,000 inmates have been released since early March, but criminal justice advocates worry it’s not enough. This week, Patrick joined dozens of other protesters outside the facility, leaning out of their parked cars to call for the release of more detained men and women to slow the spread of the virus.
But by the end of this week, that possibility looked far off. A federal judge on Thursday ruled against an emergency motion to release a large group of Cook County Jail inmates who are elderly or have preexisting conditions that would make them especially vulnerable to complications if they become infected. Many of the detainees are locked up pretrial because they could not afford bond…
To read the entire article from Mother Jones, click https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2020/04/cook-county-jail-coronavirus-judge-denied-release-car-protest/
