Yusef Salaam's Exonerated Five Talks Against COVID-19 and Prison Industrial Complex Disadvantages

In New York state only, there is more than 90,000 people behind bars.

More than 90,000 people: Parents, uncles, aunties, sisters, and sons, cousins ​​and grandparents held in local prisons, state prisons and state prisons, among other places. But in times of crisis, how do we care for these forgotten people? Better question: Are we actually care for our number of arrests?

Correctional centers have already been severely affected by the COVID-19 epidemic. The New York Times reports

that in New York City prisons, "167 inmates, 114 staff and 23 health workers" were screened for COVID-19. Depending on the nature of this infectious disease, we can expect the numbers to increase. Quickly. However, inmates live in very close quarters, the cells are often dirty and those that are locked up are sometimes given a limited amount of soap — not to mention latex gloves or face masks. While approximately 650 people have been freed

in New York City and it says New Jersey and California (among others) making efforts to reduce their population in prison, there is much work to be done.

Yusef Salaam, Ph.D., activist, public speaker and one who became Released 5. After spending almost seven years in prison for a crime he did not commit, Sarah knew all too well about living conditions outside of prisons and prisons.

“If you have people in prisons who have to associate with somebody, if one person is sick, the whole place, the whole place will get sick. That is very important, ”said Salaam.

While detainees are seen as forgotten during the epidemic, it is problematic that prison operations are used to the benefit of the general public. In March, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that New York had begun producing a hand sanitizer line, known as “NYS Clean.” Product it will be distributed free of charge, but accordingly USA Today, incarcerated people produce a hand sanitizer and are paid a minimum of 16 cents an hour (for a maximum of 65 cents an hour).

Said Sakhile prison labor is a fortress for sure.

"I'm trying to wrap my mind around the whole idea of ​​a land-bound detention because we don't have the resources, we don't have a hand sanitizer to turn around." Salaam, who once worked in a prison store, continues, "As a community, it would be a good idea for them to say, & # 39; You know, let me limit the time you have to do because you are participating in this bailout. & # 39;"

Deputy reports that arrested persons are not actually to make a hand sanitizer; instead they turn around and write about many hand cleaners — there are salary negotiations going up, but nothing guaranteed. Similarly, Intercept reports that detainees (especially those with nerves) are given $ 6 an hour to dig more graves in Hart Island. Arguably, New York City's public-owned cemetery has long been maintained by prison staff.

But will some of them be arrested? Digging a mass grave for others – is it all about the disease? Where does the origin of humanity come from?

"I think inmates are really scared of the effects of COVID-19 on the prison industrial complex because they know they are part of a forgotten people," Salaam said..

Watch our interview with Yusef Salaam in the video above.