©David Leventi / Courtesy of Rick Wester Fine Art, New York.

As reopening phases are being implemented across the country, people are stepping into the newfound light of a modified summer season. Beaches and barbeques may take on a more subdued tone as peoples’ concern over the continued spread of the pandemic linger amongst summer fun: albeit there is still a lingering hope for a return to some semblance of normalcy. However, as the majority of the world tentatively emerges from their hibernative states and looks to the reopening of public spaces, there is a sliver of the population that will continue to remain in a perpetual state of quarantine.

Right at the onslaught of the pandemic, leaders of criminal justice reform foresaw state prisons and correctional institutions as petri dishes for the spread of COVID-19. And now especially as nationwide protests are leading to increased arrests and detainment, particularly amongst people of color, jails and other incarceration centers only offer conditions where the disease can run rampant. The unbridled spread of the virus is reaching a disquieting rate due to overcrowded, unsanitary circumstances where typical social-distancing guidelines are impractical. Normal incarceration practices such as sharing small cells, being in overcrowded common areas with hundreds of other prisoners, sleeping near toilets, and tightly controlled access to cleaning supplies already allow for the spread of other illnesses and infections.

With overall testing capacity and the supply of personal protective equipment already under constraint, the need to test inmates rarely seems like a priority. States that spend more on its prisons annually have carried out significantly less testing; a clear example of which is San Quentin prison in California which claims to have received a spike in the number of cases over the last two weeks. While others–New Jersey, New York, and Colorado– have done limited testing to those individuals only manifesting symptoms, leaving only vague notions about the spread of the coronavirus.

Even failure to capture the races of people in prisons tested for, diagnosed with, or killed by the virus highlights recurring social injustices protesters around the nation are drawing attention to. People of color are being incarcerated at far higher rates than their counterparts. And neighborhoods that are economically or politically disenfranchised have seen an accretion of health factors, making them more susceptible to COVID-19. The last few weeks and months has seen unconscionable patterns of systemic racism which have hit American communities of color the hardest: from the coronavirus to job losses.

Now would be the time to decarcerate the prison population–whether early, temporary, or conditional–to not only alleviate the strain on limited resources, but also to show clemency towards convicted inmates with low-level offences. For example, sending prisoners with release dates within the next six months into home confinement. The release of prisoners charged with minor marajauana possession. And paroling prisoners over 65; giving priority to those with underlying medical conditions, and thus more prone to contract the virus.

As the pandemic continues to expose the profound shortcomings of America’s social safety net, the junctions of race, socioeconomic status, gender, and age all amalgamate within the confines of the criminal justice system.