WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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Across the country, politicians and businessmen are calling for the economy to reopen, regardless of the consequences. At the exact same time, the corona virus is spreading nearly uncontrolled inside America’s prisons and jails, with concentrations of infections spiking from Rikers Island in NY to the Marion Correctional Facility in Ohio, where 73% of prisoners have tested positive. As we hear from prisoners in this episode, the quarantine measures being taken by administrators are cosmetic at best, and often completely fabricated. The virus is not being defeated – prisoners are simply being left to die. As the crisis deepens, it’s becoming clear that it’s up to the prisoners themselves, along with their families and grassroots supporters, to secure their safety, through self-organized sanitation measures or pressure to secure relief and early release for the vulnerable. This episode, we hear from prisoners in New York and Ohio, as well as outside organizers in Wisconsin and Florida, sharing updates on neglect, the role of the crisis in intensifying the effects of structural racism, and ongoing resistance to the slow violence of the COVID-19 epidemic as it spreads inside.
