OPINION: COVID-19 crisis highlights need to close private jails and prisons
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A demonstrator protests outside a GEO Group detention facility in Colorado on April 3. The corporation operates a private jail in Springfield Gardens. AP Photo/David Zalubowski
By Khaleel Anderson
Of the many lessons that the Coronavirus Pandemic has taught us, the most important is this: our healthcare system is in dire need of an overhaul.
We presently lack adequate protocols to keep our neighborhoods and public spaces safe from spread of this disease. This includes our parks, schools, businesses and, yes, even prisons and jails. Most decisions made by our government were reactionary responses to what we are now learning were predictable circumstances.
Specifically, in our jails, where the spread of infectious disease is seemingly inevitable and again, predictable, can anyone say what was done to prevent disease transmission — especially given the obvious variables that lend themselves to spread?
The close quarters, the lack of protocol for detainees and the unwillingness for some folks to see incarcerated people as human beings. Nothing was done to stem the spread.
It has been reported that three staffmembers and at an inmate have tested positive for COVID-19 at the Queens Detention Facility right here in Springfield Gardens, Queens. Is this close enough for us to care yet?
Lack of Transparency
The GEO Group has operated the Queens Detention Facility in the Springfield Gardens section of Queens for almost my entire life, opening in March of 1997. The private prison group has an atrocious record when it comes to transparency and the tending to the health of their incarcerated population.
According to a 2019 report published by the ACLU, the GEO Group has been cited as having “grossly unacceptable and inadequate medical and mental health services faced by detainees” as quoted by a former member of Congress in reference to one of their prison sites on the West Coast.
And with the lack of transparency shown by the leadership at the Queens Detention Facility, how can we be certain that during this pandemic, the prison operators are adequately keeping folks safe from transmission of this disease?
Activists from around the city have demanded that our officials develop a plan to prevent the inevitable spread of COVID-19 within the prison system. We believe that the release of non-violent offenders, seniors over the age 55 and folks who are jailed due to technical probation violations should be released.
The close quarters of our jails and prisons in the city are a public health disaster waiting to happen.
If action is not taken, the jail will become a hotbed for spread. This is not the time for GEO to continue their lack of transparency with the community. The lack of urgency in addressing this matter can lead to the spread of a disease we are already struggling to contain.
Why Does It Matter?
Real people will be impacted if we don’t do something.
Our campaign team received a troubling letter and video from a South Ozone Park resident who is serving time in a federal low-security private prison in Ohio. He is asking for a compassionate release given his health circumstances. According to the letter written on his behalf by his father, the gentleman suffers from asthma, Type II diabetes and other chronic health conditions. He has served more than 75 percent of his sentence and is apparently eligible for this specific type of release.
He was convicted of a non-violent offense and has a stable re-entry plan to return and is not a threat to his community. Five people have already died in the Ohio facility due to complications from the virus. When will we take this seriously?
Will we wait until the crisis comes into our backyards to develop a strategy to address the needs of incarcerated folks? They may not be allowed to go home, but the staff working in the prisons are, and this puts our community in direct danger.
Khaleel Anderson is a candidate for Assembly District 31 in Southeast Queens. The district includes the Queens Detention Facility. He is a recent college graduate, community board member and organizer.
