- COVID-19 creates a particular threat to those detained by government – in county jails, in prisons, in juvenile detention and immigration detention. These facilities often are not sanitary and offer inadequate health care for those held in the facility. Given the high rate of transmission of the virus that causes COVID-19, it is critical that people held in the criminal or juvenile legal system or immigration detention are treated in accordance with advice from public health experts, including the CDC.
- Public health experts strongly recommend that criminal and juvenile legal system actors reduce the number of people held in jails, prisons, and juvenile detention centers and reduce the number of people entering these systems. Detention in these facilities impedes people's ability to comply with recommended social distancing and hygiene practices that prevent the spread of coronavirus and the harm caused by COVID-19.
- Sheriffs and other officials must use all available tools to reduce the population of their facilities, including use expedited release procedures for any incarcerated person at increased risk of severe COVID-19 complications and death as defined by the CDC. Parole boards should be expediting release of these people.
- Governors should use their executive power of clemency to get vulnerable communities out of prison and into their homes or medical facilities where they can receive proper health care and support.
- People who should be released from prisons, jails and juvenile and immigration detention facilities should be released in a manner that comports with public health recommendations for minimizing the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19. Acting consistent with these recommendations by experts would mean that:
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- People identified for release should be released immediately with appropriate supports, such as housing, if they do not manifest symptoms or have a record of exposure to a person with laboratory-confirmed infection with the virus that causes COVID-19.
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- Those who do manifest symptoms or have a record of exposure to a person with a laboratory-confirmed infection should be tested with advice and oversight from the local public health department.
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- Those who test positive should be given appropriate medical care.
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- Those who test negative should be released with appropriate supports, including housing.
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- Those who should be tested, but are not tested due to the lack of tests, should be released to accommodation outside of the detention facility to permit social distancing and be provided any needed supportive services for at least14 days.
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- Screening people with symptoms of COVID-19 and people who have had exposure to others with laboratory-confirmed infection should be part of the protocol for release. This will promote public health for all people during the pandemic. Similarly, officials should ensure that the people being released have support for adequate housing. And, if someone being released needs care, shelter or quarantine, that care should be provided consistent with CDC guidance.
- It also is necessary to prevent people from coming into the system, including by police making fewer arrests and issuing citations in lieu of arrest, and by prosecutors dismissing minor charges and seeking pretrial release in all but the select few cases where pretrial detention is necessary.