COVID crisis has affected those in prison, detention

They are stuck in close, often unclean, quarters with inadequate medical testing and attention that has allowed the coronavirus to spread rapidly.
    

“I think none of us could have predicted the current situation, but it has introduced new challenges for everyone, particularly for people getting out of prison right now,” said moderator Annie Phoenix, co-founder of Operation Restoration for formerly incarcerated women. 
    

These advocates shed light on how prisoners and immigration detainees are being exposed to, tested and treated for coronavirus. Their population has added to the more than 31,000 reported cases of COVID-19 and 2,100 related deaths in Louisiana, they said. By reducing incarceration populations, you are addressing health needs.        

 

“It’s a pretty critical need in the community right now,” said Kevin Fitzpatrick, director of Catholic Charities’  Justice and Peace office and Cornerstone Builders of Catholic Charities, the conference’s sponsor. 
    

Due to lack of access, Catholic Charities’ Cornerstone Builders Re-Entry and prison ministries programs that help people rebuild their lives after prison have stopped, as has the personal hygiene ministry, which is especially needed now.
    

“So many people are getting sick in the prisons and ICE detention centers, and we want to do what’s right for them,” Fitzpatrick said. “We’re hyper-focused on infection and the spread of the COVID situation, and we want to let the public know what’s going on with that in the state.”
    

Fitzpatrick was joined on the call by Homero Lopez Jr., executive director of the nonprofit Immigration Services and Legal Advocacy (ISLA) that provides legal services and advocates for detained immigrants’ rights; Renard Thomas, vice chair of the Re-Entry Alliance of Louisiana; Steven Lassalle, Louisiana Department of Corrections (DOC), district manager for New Orleans office of probation and parole; and Vanessa Spinazola, with the Justice and Accountability Center of Louisiana. 
    

Each panelist addressed the civil collateral consequences of all who work to eliminate re-entry barriers and stop solitary confinement.
    

Fitzpatrick knows that people wonder why they should care about inmates or detainees, since, after all, they broke the law. But, what about others at the facilities?
    

“The lives of prison security and those who work in the prisons and detention center are at risk,” he said. “They can bring the virus in and out of their work environment to their homes and the community. … It’s not going to stay contained (in a prison or immigrant detention center). They can spread the virus.”
 

COVID exacerbates problems
    

Before the virus struck, overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and lack of health care were common in prisons and detainee centers statewide. In the case of the centers, the attractive payment of $75 a day for each detainee has made Louisiana the state with the second-highest population of ICE immigration detainees.
    

With most detainees being asylum-seekers, not criminals, Lopez emphasized, the pandemic has shed light on federal policy that changed in 2017 to lock up immigrants who have crossed the border as opposed to releasing them to family or sponsors while awaiting their court date. 
    

“This is discretionary detention,” Lopez said. “It’s a choice by the government that they be detained. … The substantial majority of people are asylum seekers. … They have no criminal background, no previous time in the United States and are being sent to detention in rural Louisiana” because ICE won’t release them. Now, 110 detainees in Louisiana have contracted COVID. Detainees aren’t getting legal visits or have no access to things like  hand sanitizer.
    

“What we’re seeing is people who don’t have to be in detention,” he said.
    

Lack of medical care in detention facilities also has been exposed, Lopez said.
    

It is impossible to be socially distant in detention when more than 60 people are in a dorm, seven to eight people in a cell and everyone is sharing bathrooms and showers. Those with symptoms –  fewer than 50 percent of detainees are tested for COVID – are sent to solitary, while the rest of a dorm shuts down. It’s bad for mental and physical health. 
    

“They are only testing people who are symptomatic,” Lopez.
    

Spinazola said with immigration detainees far from New Orleans, the notion of “out of sight, out of mind” has gotten worse. “Having a criminal record is the scarlet letter that will follow you around.” 
    

The formerly incarcerated have trouble getting work after incarceration, forcing many to start their own businesses. They are now being excluded from SBA loans offered by the  government to jumpstart businesses during the pandemic.
    

“This continued punishment is amplified anytime we have a disaster,” she said.
    

Steven Lassalle said the Department of Corrections is trying to overcome current barriers to support ex-offenders by using different modes of communication for supervision after incarceration such as video calls instead of regularly scheduled visits. He hopes this virtual platform will continue to better address re-entry issues.
    

“We’re not about trying to hold people back, but how to get them forward,” Lassalle said. “With a little more effort and a little more investment, we’re going to end up with better folks … for Louisiana.”
    

Renard Thomas said the pandemic has again shed light on the problem of affordable housing and available employment and, now, the issue of not qualifying for any federal stimulus.
    

“Housing is the biggest issue we have,” Thomas said. “Affordable housing is one of the biggest problems statewide. Even if you have a job, can you afford to rent? Housing is not important to anybody except for those looking for it.”
    

Phoenix said the same issue  applies about housing for women.
    

Thomas said the virus has made it twice as hard for those who are re-entering society to find a job because so many businesses are shut down, although new opportunities have cropped up to meet needs – like companies making hand sanitizer – since the virus.
 

Move from crisis mode to vision mode
    

Fitzpatrick said Catholic Charities’ work with re-entry, family unification trips to prisons and faith prison ministries have been very limited due to access during the pandemic. He has been working closely with Thomas and Spinazola.
    

“What do we need to do to make sure we are addressing underlying issues of making COVID-19 a bigger issue than it needs to be.” Fitzpatrick said. “We’re trying to get services to all clients who need it.”
 

Aways from this conversation is that ICE, the sheriffs and department of corrections have discretion in reducing the population of those in state and federal custody,” Fitzpatrick said. “By reducing these populations, we are addressing public health issues. A lot of people might not be concerned with this. But, it’s a public health issue – people working in the facilities are going in and out and then going back to their families every day. We really need to reduce these populations. It is a matter of will, not law. We hope we can continue to nudge our leadership in this direction.”
    

Spinazola highlighted a roadmap to COVID recovery created by multiple agencies. It recommends avoiding a housing crisis; protecting health and safety in all detention centers; protecting workers, children and families (sick leave); making sure the state budget provides adequate resources for re-entry and doesn’t cut social services; protecting democracy (how people  vote).
    

“People are in a crisis mode now, not a vision mode,” Spinazola said. “There has to be space in our conversation about where we are going. Are we going back to where we were before? Have we learned (from Katrina). What is your vision for Louisiana, and how can we give our leaders a little nudge?”
    

Christine Bordelon can be reached at [email protected].