Monthly Archives: April 2021

The Prison Abolition Collective at the University of Massachusetts hosted a panel discussion titled The Pandemic Behind Bars: Covid-19 in U.S. Prisons on Tuesday. The event featured five speakers who have been at the vanguard of the pandemic in prisons for the last year.

The panelists, most of whom have been previously incarcerated, highlighted the inhumane conditions of COVID-19 isolation areas in prisons. They discussed the overarching implications of the negligence toward incarcerated people seen throughout the pandemic as well as other topics related to the state of the prison system.

Ernst Fenelon Jr., one of the five panelists, is an author, public speaker and program coordinator with the Prison Education Project. He stressed the importance of advocacy in regard to healthcare in prisons.

Its so important that were all here, and all of you are part of this experience and conversation, to advocate for those who cannot advocate for themselves, he said.

Razvan Sibii, a senior lecturer in the UMass journalism department, moderated the event. A freelance journalist, Sibii teaches several courses at UMass, including those about the mass incarceration system, journalism workshops in the Hampshire County Jail and social justice journalism to a mixed class of UMass students and incarcerated men. He also writes a monthly column in the Daily Hampshire Gazette about incarceration and immigration.

The event kicked off with opening remarks from Claire Healy, event organizer and a member of the Prison Abolition Collective, who highlighted the significance of hosting the event moments after the guilty verdict for Derek Chauvin was delivered.

The panelists introduced themselves and briefly explained their connections to incarceration and COVID-19. The floor was then opened up for audience questions. This led to discussions about data transparency, vaccine distribution and prioritization, maintaining personal autonomy, information blackouts, healthcare rights of prisoners, and ensuring the accurate representation of incarcerated individuals.

Kathryn M. Nowotny, one of the panelists, is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Miami. There, she researches what she describes as intersection between criminal justice and public health. She is also the co-founder of the COVID Prison Project, which collects information to create a database on the state of COVID-19 within correctional facilities in and around the country.

Nowotny highlighted the fact that incarcerated individuals are three times more likely to die of COVID-19 than those who are not. She also presented other stark statistics, including that 390,000, or 30 percent of the prison population, have been infected with COVID-19.

However, Nowotny believes these numbers are a gross undercount. She cited reasons for this, including the lack of data transparency, standardization and oversight in reporting COVID-19 cases. She also stated that the slow process of reporting deaths in custody and the low number of actual autopsies being performed also played a role in this inaccuracy.

Prisons, in a lot of ways, amplify disease risk, said Nowotny, describing the crowded and unsanitary conditions, as well as the lack of access to sanitary products like hand sanitizer, that exist in prisons.

Reflecting on the event, Nowotny praised the selection of panelists.

I was the only person that didnt have lived experience of incarceration on the panel, and I think thats really critical to hear from that kind of expertise, she said. That kind of firsthand narrative account is really hard to get outside the prison walls.

One of the panelists, Eugene Youngblood, endured firsthand these unsafe conditions after contracting COVID-19 in prison.

Youngblood was in prison for 29 years, where he was a leader in the Black Prisoners Caucus. Thirty days after finding out that his sentence was being commuted due to executive clemency from the governor, Youngblood contracted COVID-19 and spent 12 days in medical isolation.

He explained that all 375 people in his unit tested either positive or inconclusive. After medical isolation, 125 individuals were moved to a gym, exceeding its capacity. They shared six showers and six toilets, receiving minimal to no healthcare.

The best thing we got was bottled water, Youngblood said.

He survived the virus and was released from prison. He told the audience that Tuesday marked his 46th day of freedom. He is currently a care coordinator with the Washington-based Freedom Project, where he helps to identify the services for individuals who have been system-impacted.

Jesse Vasquez, former editor-in-chief of the San Quentin News, also had his sentence commuted by his governor and was released a year before the pandemic began. He explained that San Quentin prison was especially hard hit by the pandemic, resulting in 29 deaths (28 inmates and a staff member), including four of his friends and many of his acquaintances.

Vasquez said that leaving prison just one year before his cellmates would be impacted by the pandemic left him with a sense of survivors guilt.

I left my brothers back there, said Vasquez. I had never understood what it felt like to be the family member or friend of somebody that was incarcerated . . . I didnt understand it until COVID[-19] hit and then all of a sudden theres this fear of losing them.

He also observed the way that peoples attitudes change before and after the pandemic.

When it comes to public health crises, we are all equalall of a sudden, we recognize humanity, whereas beforewhy do I have to justify Im a human being? said Vasquez.

Vasquez now works with Arsolas Distribution Center and Community Services, helping formerly incarcerated individuals find transitional and permanent housing. On his own time, he works with members of his community in many other ways, including mentoring children. He emphasized the importance of being involved within the community to help curve incarceration.

The stories that we see today, they werent created in a vacuum. These social conditions, theyre systemic, said Vasquez in an interview after the event. Im not an abolitionist, but I hope one day, we will have less need of incarceration.

Page Dukes, who was released from prison four years ago, also has many loved ones who are still incarcerated. She is the communications associate for the Southern Center for Human Rights and co-founder of Mourning Our Losses, a crowd-sourced memorial that profiles those who have died of COVID-19 in prisons, jails and detention centers.

She described COVID-19 deaths in prison as justified negligence homicides. When she realized that many of those who lost their lives were not being named, she set out to memorialize them and create a space for disenfranchised grief for people in prison and their loved ones.

We wanted them to be represented as not just numbers on a dashboard but as people who had family members and loved ones and lives who had a right to exist just as much as anyone else, and who a right to medical attention, to care and to a chance to survive, Dukes said.

Fenelon Jr. is the senior program coordinator for the Prison Education Project, where he works to provide classes to those who are incarcerated. The PEC, which is based in California, is one of the largest volunteer-based prison education programs in the country.

The power of our program is really focused on trying to open up the door to the average citizen to get in and engage with those who are incarcerated, Fenelon Jr. said. So many decisions are made by those who have no engagement with those who are incarcerated.

He emphasized the importance of incarcerated individuals having some connection with others.

Part of illness is psychology, said Fenelon Jr. If you just know that someone cares, and is willing to make time to see you while youre in that environment, its critically important

Fenelon, who was incarcerated for 14 years, said that his experience with health issues in prison made him a stronger panelist to speak on the state of healthcare in general, but specifically for COVID-19 within the carceral environment.

Halfway through the event, Sibii posed a question to the panelists about the Commonwealth prioritizing incarcerated individuals in the vaccine distribution as well as vaccine hesitancy within prisons.

Many of the panelists emphasized the importance of providing additional guidance to incarcerated individuals so they can have the ability to make an educated decision on whether they want to receive the vaccine or not.

Having informed choices, youll find the majority will [take the vaccine], and those who dont, then you can address them in a way that is still effective and will respect their agency, Fenelon Jr. said.

Yumi Cruz, a social thought and political economy major and member of the UMass PAC, facilitated the Q&A portion with Sibii and posed the question, How does the systemic response to the pandemic reflect the general attitude towards incarcerated individuals?

Nowotny, like other panelists, said it reflected how the public assigns less deservedness to those who are incarcerated. She rhetorically asked, Why is it that the CARES Act spent an ungodly number of pages talking about nursing homes but not prisons? They both congregate living facilities that house people at high risk for COVID-19 and severe illness.

The panelists also emphasized the importance of journalism and using humanizing language when talking about incarcerated individuals. Vasquez highlighted the issue of sensationalism in the media, including how some media agencies choose to profile people with the most heinous criminal records and fringe incidents when reporting on incarcerated individuals.

The same way we hold the state accountable for their lack of action and their ill response, is the same way we should hold media agencies accountable for their willingness to perpetuate this institutional racism that exists, said Vasquez.

The event ran for approximately an hour and a half. During that time, there were some issues that the panel had not discussed, Vasquez said. For example, the number of moving parts that factor into the issue of incarceration and combatting COVID-19, the weaponization of the pandemic to fit certain narratives, and the idea of having room for compassion and understanding thatthis was an unknown beast, he said.

The government is culpable to the extent that they can be for not responding to the way that they could have, but they had no alternatives. COVID had never struck before, said Vasquez.

The event amassed around 60 attendees. Shane Appiah, an incoming freshman at Howard University, was one audience member. He found out about the event through Decarcerate Western Mass, a coalition that he has been involved with for the last five months.

I am definitely left with more hope about abolitionist work [and] hope about the people who are doing the work, Appiah said. Its spreading, its becoming a stronger thing that Western Mass is rallying behind.

While considering the events takeaways, Fenelon Jr. said he hopes that audience members will remember to care.

Care about people wherever they are, regardless of their circumstances [and] how they got there whether theyre on the street, in prison, in a nursing home, he said.

Nowotny, on a similar but different note, hopes that the events audience was angered enough to be moved to action.

Anger is a powerful emotion, and it drives a lot of the work that I do, she said. The more you learn, the more pissed off you get at the injustices that you see If you bear witness to that, hopefully, you can become angry enough to be able to take action and do something about it.

Editors note: Claire Healy is an Assistant News Editor at the Daily Collegian.

Sara Abdelouahed can be reached at[emailprotected]. Follow her on Twitter @AbdelouahedSara.

Saliha Bayrak can be reached at[emailprotected]. Follow her on Twitter @salihabayrak_.

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'The pandemic behind bars:' Panelists discuss effects of COVID-19 in prisons - The Massachusetts Daily Collegian

Welcome to The Spinoffs live updates for April 21, bringing you the latest news updated throughout the day. Get in touch at stewart@thespinoff.co.nz

The prime minister Jacinda Ardern and governor general Patsy Reddy are among those attending a memorial service for Prince Philip in Wellington today.

The Duke of Edingburgh, who died almost two weeks ago at the age of 99, was farewelled by the Royal Family in the UK on Saturday.

Today, a state memorial is being held in Wellington at the Cathedral of St Paul. The Duke had visited the cathedral on several visits to New Zealand, most recently in 2002.

Its been a massive news day and I am very tired. If youre looking for other stuff to read this arvo, check out:

Updated

The link between a new case of Covid-19 and a recent returnee has strengthened. Chris Hipkins has confirmed the latest case a cleaner at Auckland Airport had cleaned the plane that brought the returnee to New Zealand on April 10, from Ethiopia via the UAE.

The worker tested positive on Monday during weekly routine testing, having tested negative a week prior.

At this stage, there are no new cases of Covid-19 linked to the worker. The person has 25 close contacts including 17 work colleagues seven of whom have returned negative results. The person worked three shifts during their infectious period.

The person wore full PPE while cleaning and cleaned planes from green zone countries as well as red zones, said Hipkins.

We have been in touch with Australian authorities about the case, and believe there is no risk to people travelling on those green zone planes to and from Australia, he added.

Meanwhile, Hipkins announced he had received his second dose of the Pfizer Covid-19 jab. I know you all want to know Im feeling fine. Once again it was a trouble-free experience, said Hipkins.

As of last night, 183,351 doses of the vaccine have been administered to date. Hipkins said the vaccine roll-out is on track. 41% of the first dose vaccinations have been delivered in the Auckland region, with 19% Mori or Pasifika.

Only 16,314 of the estimated 50,000-odd household contacts of border workers have received their first vaccine dose, said Hipkins. Id like that number to be higher.

Hipkins said he is writing to the chief executives of all of the companies involved in our border and managed isolation response, reminding them that their staff need to be getting regular Covid-19 tests.

Finally, Hipkins acknowledged news of people handing out factually incorrect pamphlets about mask wearing to Wellington commuters. My message to all those coming through the Wellington train station is if you receive one of these pamphlets, the Wellington train station has helpfully provided a variety of receptacles for these theyre called the rubbish bin.

This groups actions are highly disrespectful to the small group of people who legitimately do require an exemption for a mask, said Hipkins.

There is just one new case of Covid-19 in managed isolation today: an arrival from Switzerland who tested positive after a routine day three test.

Its been a massive morning of news: heres what you need to know today.

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Transport prices rose by almost 4% in the March quarter the highest quarterly rise in more than a decade.

That, coupled with a 1% rise for housing, pushed the consumers prices index up a mere 0.8%, said Stats NZ.

Meanwhile, petrol prices rose by a substantial 7.2% (the biggest quarterly rise since mid-20165) but, overall, theyre currently down 3.8% on the same time in 2020.

Global oil prices plunged in early 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. Prices have risen since then, prices senior manager Aaron Beck said.

Conspiracy theorists rallied by former political hopeful Billy Te Kahika have been handing out anti-mask propaganda to Wellington commuters.

Official-looking pamphlets titled Whats all the fuss about masks? were given to people waiting to board trains out of the capital at peak hours yesterday, reports RNZ.

The flyers that matched the official Ministry of Health Covid-19 colour scheme and came complete with logos were created by Te Kahikas group The Freedom Alliance. It even included an exemption card that purported to tell commuters they could opt-out of wearing a face mask on public transport.

According to RNZ, one of those handing out the pamphlets was a self-confessed conspiracy theorist called Mike a volunteer for the Freedom Alliance. He said he had not actually read the pamphlet he was giving out and had no idea it had not been approved by the Ministry of Health.

Well, this whole Covid thing is not just masks, its everything. Its about the lockdown. Its about the vaccinations. This is only a tiny element, he said.

Read Charlotte Cooks full report here and, if youre interested, you can check out a new feature on Covid-19 conspiracy theories in the wellness community here.

If you need more detail on the major health sector reforms announced this morning (see here), Bulletin editor Alex Braae has put together a substantive explainer that should give you all you need to know.

Check that out here

The opposition has criticised todays major health reforms, saying the abolition of District Health Boards will see our regions and smaller communities lose their voice and their autonomy. The party has pledged to repeal the newly announced centralised health service and seperate Mori Health Authority, if re-elected in 2023.

Our regions know what works for them when it comes to keeping their communities healthy, and that isnt always having Wellington dictate terms, Nationals health spokesperson Shane Reti said in a statement.

Removing DHBs is similar to when Regional Health Authorities were centralised, it didnt work then and it wont work now.

Reti said that the government should have considering consolidating some DHB functions, rather than centralising the entire system.

We have no idea how much this plan will cost, how long it will take to implement, or how disruptive this process is going to be, Reti added.

Meanwhile, on Twitter, party leader Judith Collins has retweeted a post claiming that the new Mori Health Authority is separatist.

Collins also agreed with one tweeter who said the sweeping health reforms will be a cluster F.

Taking the focus off getting vaccines out, Collins said. Remember when we would have the winter flu vaccine out by this time each year.

Former US cop Derek Chauvin has been found guilty of the murder of George Floyd.

Chauvin was convicted by a racially diverse jury that had been deliberating for the past two and a half days.

Floyd died last May after Chauvin pinned him down by the neck for more than nine minutes, triggering worldwide protests against police brutality and racism.

Chauvin was charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. He was convicted on all three counts.

According to US media, the conviction could see Chauvin put behind bars for most of his life if the harshest sentences are handed down. The maximum sentence for second-degree unintentional murder is imprisonment of not more than 40 years, while Chauvin could face 25 years in prison for third-degree murder an additional decades for the manslaughter conviction.

Chauvin had pleaded not guilty on all charges.

Ahead of the verdict, protests in Minneapolis were predicted: some stores were boarded up, the courthouse was surrounded by concrete barriers and razor wire, and thousands of National Guard troops were on standby.

Earlier today, president Joe Biden admitted he was praying for Chauvin to be convicted and had spoken to Floyds family.

Theyre a good family and theyre calling for peace and tranquility no matter what that verdict is, Biden said. Im praying the verdict is the right verdict. I think its overwhelming, in my view. I wouldnt say that unless the jury was sequestered now.

(Photo: Jeenah Moon/Getty Images)

Were briefly jumping away from the health announcement here in New Zealand (see below) to the trial of former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin, charged with the murder of George Floyd.

Floyd died last May after Chauvin pinned him down by the neck for more than nine minutes, triggering worldwide protests against police brutality and racism.

Today, US president Joe Biden controversially weighed into the trial, saying he was praying for the right verdict. I think its overwhelming, in my view. I wouldnt say that unless the jury was sequestered now.

According to local media, the jury has reached its verdict and were expecting it to be delivered any minute now.

Watch live:

Updated

The government has revealed sweeping changes to the health sector, abolishing all 20 District Health Boards and replacing them with a national health service Health New Zealand.

A new Mori Health Authority will also be established that will have the power to commission health services, monitor the state of Mori health and develop policy.

Todays announcement goes well beyond a significant health report delivered to the government last year that recommended halving the number of DHBs, but preserving the existing system.

Speaking at parliament, health minister Andrew Little said the changes would see the end of the postcode lottery and mean that health workers can focus on helping people rather than battling bureaucracy.

The reforms will mean that for the first time, we will have a truly national health system, and the kind of treatment people get will no longer be determined by where they live, Little said.

The new system will be overseen by a strengthened Ministry of Health, said Little, which will also advise the government on policy matters. The ministry will continue to be fronted by the director general of health.

The reforms herald a change in focus for the health system we will treat people before they get sick so they dont need to go to hospital, thereby taking the pressure off hospitals, Little said.The reforms will also ensure the system is able to cope with the effects of an ageing population and respond more quickly to public health crises like the Covid-19 pandemic.

Also at the announcement was associate health minister Peeni Henare, who said Mori continue to lag behind in key health status indicators. Mori health has suffered under the current system for too long, Henare said. We will legislate for a new independent voice the Mori Health Authority to drive hauora Mori and lead the system to make real change.

Little said that the Covid-19 pandemic is not a reason to preserve the current system, but instead shows what can be achieved when all 20 DHBs work as one. That is exactly what the current reforms aim to do. I am mindful we need to progress carefully and not disrupt day-to-day health services. No one should miss out because the system was distracted by change, he said.

Maintaining services including the Covid-19 vaccination programme will be a priority during the transition, Little confirmed.

The new health system is expected to be in place by July next year.

Watch below:

Genomic testing has confirmed a direct link between the latest case of Covid-19 a worker at Auckland Airport and a recent arrival who landed in the country on April 10. Its also confirmed the worker, who cleans planes that have arrived from red zone countries, has contracted the highly transmissible UK strain of the virus.

Speaking to RNZ, Covid-19 response minister Chris Hipkins said that at this stage there was no risk to the trans-Tasman bubble as a result of the new case.

Based on the genomic testing, health officials are confident that the worker caught the virus directly from the Covid-positive arrival with no intermediaries. Looking at the [testing] it would suggest that it was direct person-to-person, Hipkins said.

Asked how the virus may have spread, Hipkins said an investigation was still under way but posited that it could be to do with the planes air conditioning being switched off for cleaning. Its possible that if someone with Covid-19 has been leaving droplets in the air the air is quite stagnant, he suggested.

Based on the information he has so far received, Hipkins said the worker had been doing everything right before their Covid-19 diagnosis. The worker concerned was a very diligent worker, signed in regularly, was tested like clockwork every week, had both their vaccinations early in the programmes, wore PPE as appropriate if there are any issues here that will be highlighted [in the report], he said.

Last night, three locations of interest were released in relation to this new case.

They are:

A scathing review has outlined how the budget blew out for major Wellington road Transmission Gully.AsStuffsThomas Coughlan reports, the contract was put out at an unrealistically low price in the first place, and that key errors were made when in 2012 the National government decided to change it from a public works project to a public-private partnership. The details of the story reveal some remarkable moments of magical thinking on the part of those involved, for example, see this paragraph:

Setting the tender price so low meant firms were tendering for a project knowing that it was unrealistic to be able to deliver it at that cost. The review noted that setting the price low essentially double counted cost savings because the public sector figure was already required to consider the most efficient and cost-effective way of doing things.

That has put those who were around in the previous government on the back foot.Nationals transport spokesperson Michael Woodhouse said the report makes some quite outrageous comments that imply that the contractors were forced into signing up to a contract in other words, if they didnt like it, they shouldnt have signed on, reportsRadio NZ. He also took something of an alls well that ends well view of it, saying Transmission Gully will actually soon be finished and open. The road is being delivered behind schedule, but in fairness that schedule included an earthquake, which made delays inevitable.

What does it mean for the future of massive projects like this?Infrastructure NZ put out a release noting the criticisms, but defending the concept of PPPs as being useful. New Zealand has a very large nation-building investment programme ahead. Use of private capital to manage public cashflows, inject innovation, attract international expertise and better allocate risk is critical to successful delivery, said INZ policy director Hamish Glenn. But I think its also worth looking back at this piece onThe Spinofffrom last year by Matt Lowrie, which argued that Transmission Gully showed how dangerous PPPs could be. A key line: With interest rates at record lows and much of the risk still sitting with the government, its hard to see what value PPPs bring other than delivering good returns to private financiers.

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Live updates, April 21: Confirmed Airport worker infected with Covid-19 after cleaning plane - The Spinoff

While protesters in Minneapolis cheered Tuesday aftera jury convicted former police officer Derek Chauvin of all three counts in the death of George Floyd,the verdict brought mixed emotions for some members of theBlack, Indigenous and people of colour(BIPOC) community in Windsor-Essex.

For artist and community leader Teajai Travis, the outcome was expected.And while he wants to feel proud and excited, he saidthere's still a long way to go to achieve "true justice."

"I knew in my heart it was going to come 'guilty, guilty, guilty,'" he said. "To hear that justice is being served in this manner, it's a real show of the global solidarity that we've seen that got behind. A movement that says 'it's no longer OKto brutalize and to murder Black and Indigenous bodies.'"

"But at the same time, we still have to deal with the fact that people are still being brutalized right now. This is something that feels like justice, but true justice is real peace, understanding. Justice is all people's ability to walk down the streets of their communities and not have to fear making it home. Justice is George Floyd not being dead," he said.

Travis said it's a sweet day for those who fought hard to hold the former officer accountable and the local community should appreciate each other, especially those who protested and marched last year.

Chauvin was convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Floyd after the former officerkneeled on his back and neckfor more than nineminutesduring an arrest last May.

The killing of Floyd sparked worldwide protests, including ones organized in the region, and a furious re-examination of racism and policing in the U.S..

Elise Harding-Davis, African-Canadian heritage consultant and historian, believes the verdict is a step in the right direction.

"I hope this will be a furtherance of a justice system that works for everyone," she said. "I've never seen anything so horrific in my life, but I'm so glad that the jury saw fit to take justice into their own hands and be honest and not be fearful of retribution, and find that man guilty."

"I hope that Derek Chauvin gets the longest time in jail so he can contemplate the ugliness that he portrayed and the suffering he committed on the world," she said.

While Harding-Davis saidshe hopes the verdict will lead to a push for a more representative police force in Windsor-Essex, law student Seher Ali is a proponent of the police abolition movement.

"There is no justice in a system that is fundamentally anti-Black and unjust, and a conviction is the baseline," she said. "Black communities deserve so much more than that, and to me, that includes the abolition of the anti-Black policing systems."

Ali pointed outthe death of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man who was fatally shot last weekby now-former Minnesota police officer, Kimberly Ann Potter, as an example of why people need to continue organizing and fighting for justice.

"Anti-Blackness is a global construct and white supremacy is a global construct. Anti-Black policing is very common here as well," she said.

"It's important to remember that work still needs to be done around these issues globally and there is a demand for radical Black organizing within Windsor," she said, adding that she would like to see more reading around police abolition in school.

"Specifically as a law student at [the University of Windsor Faculty of Law], I wish that there was more reading of writers like Angela Davis, bell hooks, Audre Lorde, reading about the Black Panthers, reading about the abolition movements, so that people can have a fleshed out understanding and apply these concepts to the experiences of Black students on our campus."

Travis agrees that more work needs to be done, reiterating "we have so far to go."

"The burnout is real, the trauma is real, the generational trauma is real, a system that has been built toprivilegesome at the oppression of others is real," he said.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of.You can read more stories here.

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'Justice is George Floyd not being dead:' Members of Windsor-Essex BIPOC community reflect on verdict - CBC.ca