Skip to content
Version 1.0.0
Sentencing Law and Policy
Part of the Law Professor Blogs Network

Just a few governors starting to (barely) address looming prison and jail COVID crisis

By Douglas Berman

I am pleased to see more and more advocates and groups in more and more states making more and more urgent pleas to governors and other public officials to address the looming public health problems posed by modern mass incarceration.  For example, here are reports of recent decarceration pitches in Alabama, Connecticut, Nevada, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas.  In this vein, I am hopeful that Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, who has been an effective and inspiring leader during these trying times, might soon respond to this thoughtful plea from a coalition of Ohio public policy groups to take aggressive steps to reduce prison and jail populations in the Buckeye State to advance our public health interests.

With this new report from Georgia of a 49-year-old inmate dying from the coronavirus and many other state prisoners and staffers testing positive, it seems to be only a matter of time before every state chief executive comes to understand the lurking public health problems posed by the combination of mass incarceration and COVID-19.  Late yesterday, I am glad to report, a couple of governors acted (in relatively small ways) to address these issues:

California: “Gavin Newsom commutes prison sentences for 21 California inmates, pardons 5 more“

New York: “Cuomo orders 1,100 parole violators released from jails over coronavirus concerns“

Though we should always welcome and praise governors who do something rather than nothing on these issues, we are going to need a lot more something from a lot more governors to head off a lot more public health problems.

A few of many prior related posts: