The COVID-19 infection numbers being reported by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction are jaw-dropping. Two Ohio prisons, Marion and Pickaway, are to two of the five worst confirmed outbreaks in the United States, with Marion topping all charts. More than 80 percent of the inmate population there has become infected.
ODRC maintains that these numbers are the result of widespread testing at those facilities, plus one other. “We are getting positive test results on individuals who otherwise would have never been tested because they were asymptomatic,” the department says.
But 16 inmates have now died at Ohio prisons, with two additional presumed deaths. Groups like the ACLU say that more fatalities are inevitable if Gov. DeWine does not take aggressive actions to reduce the inmate populations at facilities that are already far over capacity.
“COVID-19 should not be a death sentence for all who find themselves behind bars right now,” ACLU of Ohio Executive Director Bennett Guess said in a press release. “Governor DeWine can and should take necessary steps to ensure this pandemic does not completely ravage Ohio’s prisons and jails.”
The 30-second TV spot (video above), paid for by the ACLU of Ohio, will air until April 29. It “appeals to religious and moral principles” and calls for the release of elderly and medically vulnerable inmates, who are at the greatest risk of illness and death if they become infected with COVID-19.
Last week, a federal Judge in Cleveland ordered prison officials to identify elderly and vulnerable inmates at the Elkton Federal Correctional Institution for early release or relocation. DeWine, however, has refused to make anything but the most marginal efforts to reduce Ohio’s bloated prison population.
“We are using every tool in our toolbox, and are now taking our case to the airwaves,” Guess said in the ACLU release. “We can’t incarcerate our way out of this pandemic, but governors, sheriffs, prosecutors, and the president have the power, and responsibility, to save lives.”
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This article appears in Apr 22-28, 2020.
Mr5g,,,you never seen a sign like that. Liar
Talk about a terrorist organization
Peace2all, it was on the 90E, west of Cleveland
Stay the course governor.
Continue to concentrate on the well being of people who have figured out how to get through life without committing crimes.
It is bad enough that the ACLU is misquoting the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats of Matthew 25 for propaganda purposes, but the ACLU doesn’t even try to logically explain why releasing Ohio prison inmates back on the streets, where many released prison inmates will foreseeably die from drug overdose or from crime, makes good sense when the mortality rate for Covid-19 is around 2 percent. It makes more sense to keep prison inmates under quarantine to keep them from spreading Covid-19 back to their Ohio communities.
In general, I don’t have much sympathy for criminals, but the 8th Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. Being locked in a facility where COVID-19 is a problem would seem to qualify. Lots of folks want to pick and choose which parts of the Constitution should apply (cough, cough gun nuts).
My comment was deleted because it was too pertinent.
These prisons prove that COVID is much less deadly than we ever thought. Open the country back up so we can MAGA in the face of American Communists.