What we have listed below is far from complete. However, it hopefully gives the reader some idea of the reality of the situation. At any rate, it will have to do unless you, dear reader, wish to volunteer to add more. Volunteer work is as welcome as monetary donatations.
We will look at a timeline of news items related to prisoners released or planned to be released with Covid-19 being used as the reason. First, however, we will look at a timeline of the same but only with regard to such prisoners who were murderers and/or who allegedly murdered upon being released.
TIMELINE of RELEASE of MURDERERS & ALLEGED MURDERERS
A suspect in the fatal Denver shooting of a 21-year-old woman was paroled from Colorado’s prison system due to coronavirus concerns three weeks before the killing.
They also reported,
Hundreds of inmates are eligible for parole under the executive order
Ah. Well, that sounds safe. We can comfort ourselves by pretending the government would never just release murderers who would kill again if given a chance, right?
sent a letter demanding Attorney General Bill Barr “release as many prisoners as possible” due to the coronavirus.
To make matters worse, the letter demands the DOJ evaluate prisoners for release “regardless of the type of institution in which they are housed, the seriousness of their offense, or the potential recidivism risk they may present.”
The Democrats even go so far as to specifically point out high-security facilities and criminals “who have been convicted of serious offenses, or who have high PATTERN risk scores” and call for them to “to be assessed for release because they may be elderly or particularly vulnerable.”
If this were true, it would seem like a concerted effort to, well, remember when Cuba sent their wort criminals to Miami? Only this would be an internal invasion by dangerous prisoners upon the public.
Burnett admitted to stabbing a person on March 22 in the Douglas Hills neighborhood. He’d been released just four days before on mandatory re-entry, a program designed to let prisoners out of incarceration a few months early. He had been sentenced to two years in prison on March 3 for another crime -- possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
The Kentucky Department of Corrections said Burnett was eligible for the re-entry program after serving nine months and nine days, and that his release was not related to the coronavirus.
one inmate, who was let out on March 19 before standing trial on drug charges, is accused of killing someone in Tampa the next day.
James Edward Williams was considered a "low-level" offender, but the 26-year-old is no stranger to the criminal justice system.
He's been arrested 35 times, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, and was previously convicted of felony burglary and several misdemeanors.
Now, Williams is back behind bars.
He's charged with second-degree murder, resisting an officer with violence, felon in possession of a firearm, possession of heroin and possession of drug paraphernalia.
A 73-year-old former Valley Center resident who was convicted of murdering her husband and was serving a 25-years-to-life sentence will be released temporarily from prison Wednesday amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gary Ridgway mugshot. Taken from Wikimedia Commons.
Throughout the country, law enforcement has set free thousands of prisoners to “protect them” from COVID-19 inside jails and prisons.
Furthermore,
The man we now know as the Green River Killer, Gary Ridgeway, was sent to prison for more than 500 years. He was convicted of 49 murders of prostitutes, girls on the streets and vulnerable runaways, but he was suspected of committing 71 murders in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s.
He would take the women and girls, have sex with them, and then strangle them, watching the light go out of their eyes as he squeezed the life out of them. Sometimes he’d use a rope and sometimes he’d use his bare hands. He’d pose their bodies and sometimes come back and have sex with the corpses. His first victims were found in the Green River, giving the monster his moniker.
He was arrested in the ’80s but let go for lack of evidence. A task force was formed to track down the serial killer and in 2001 – decades and multiple victims later – Gary Ridgeway was busted again and confessed to 71 murders.
it has been archived it here, here and here. But I was unable to find an archive of the text of the article. See the part I circled in red in the altered screenshot below.
It kinda makes ya wonder what it mighta said, doesn’t it? Maybe we can guess that was taken down because it was wrong and just shake it off. Maybe not.
Between March and June, the Louisiana Department of Corrections began a furlough program intended to reduce overcrowding and release those at highest risk of contracting Covid-19 behind bars. However, out of the 1,100 eligible cases, the review panel only considered 594 and released just 68 on furlough. Of those 68, only 34 have been entirely released from state custody. The panel was suspended in mid-June.
The above was quoted from Brennan Center for Justice. It was perhaps easy to cope with that by telling oneself that it really just amounted to 34 prisoners being let loose completely without a trace. Well, that actually sounds pretty bad. But perhaps this was an isolated aberration.
On this date, the Brennan Center for Justice published Reducing Jail and Prison Populations During the Covid-19 Pandemic and they have updated it since then. This source was tremendously helpful for us in putting together this entry in the Culture War Encyclopedia. This is also a good source for other information related to Covid and prisoners including drugging programs and changes in visitation policies.
On March 29, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order calling for the release of the following people from county jails, prisons, and juvenile detention centers: elderly and/or chronically ill individuals, people who are pregnant, people who are nearing their release date, people who were incarcerated for a traffic violation or failure to appear or pay, and anyone with behavioral health problems who could safely be diverted for treatment.
Two men allegedly involved in a robbery where a New York City police detective was killed in friendly fire were among the violent offenders on the list of inmates slated to be released from the infamous Rikers Island jail complex due to the coronavirus pendemic, until prosecutors intervened
They also reported,
They appeared on a list of names obtained by ABC News that also included Viktoriya Nasyrova, 45, who was accused of trying to kill a woman in 2016 with a poisoned cheesecake.
The only thing that kept alleged violent offenders from being released was the intervention of the city’s five district attorneys, who said in a joint letter issued Monday that “we want to make clear that the categories of those proposed for release have, in some instances, included individuals who pose a high risk to public safety.”
California decided to release 3,500 incarcerated individuals in an attempt to reduce overcrowding in state prisons during the Covid-19 pandemic. The accelerated prison discharges apply to those who were set to be released within the next 60 days.
Newsom disclosed his intent to release prisoners early in a comedy news-show appearance Monday night. He told “The Daily Show” host Trevor Noah he planned “thoughtful and judicious” releases, “not being flippant about this, not just saying, ‘Hey, you people,’ randomly.”
He said prisoners whose crimes were violent and those classified as sex offenders are not eligible for the early releases. Those with domestic abuse cases also are not eligible.
The governor did not mention that the order for the releases was already executed by the state prison chief, CDCR Secretary Ralph Diaz, on Monday without public note.
On March 31, New York announced plans to release 1,100 people incarcerated across the state who were imprisoned because of parole violations. This number does not include people with prior convictions for violent offenses or people who could not provide evidence of adequate housing upon release. Michael Tyson, the first person to die from Covid-19 in the NYC jail system, was incarcerated on a technical parole violation, but had not been recommended for release under the Governor’s guidelines because of a prior violent crime conviction. For up-to-date data on the number of Covid-19 cases in the New York State prison system, see here.
Gov. Andy Beshear signed an executive order that will commute the sentences of 186 felons after screening them for COVID-19 and after making sure that they have a residence where they can be quarantined. If they fail to comply with certain guidelines, their sentences can be reimposed.
“This is lightening the load on our corrections system, at the same time protecting some of the most vulnerable individuals who are in the corrections system,”
It was reported1 that on this date US Attorney General William Barr sent a memo
to top federal prosecutors across the country urging them to consider not only the risks a defendant might face in detention, but the risk inherent in increasing the jail population at a time when cases of the virus are on the increase.
On this date the ACLU filed a lawsuit lawsuit against Virginia’s Governor Ralph Northam, Secretary of Public Safety Brian Moran and other state officials.2 The suit
alleges that Virginia is violating the U.S. Constitution by failing to decarcerate overcrowded facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic, and asks that the Commonwealth be ordered to immediately decrease the number of people in custody, implement policies for social distancing, and require staff members to wear personal protection equipment.
They would reach a settlement on May 11, 2020,
The settlement agreement, which was approved by and can be enforced by the federal court, commits VDOC to review promptly those incarcerated individuals eligible for early release under the governor’s budget amendment and sets up procedures for the Secretary of the Commonwealth to consider conditional pardons for individuals with medical issues or COVID-19 related concerns.
Iowa Department of Corrections announced . . . the department is in the process of letting 482 prisoners out early to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus behind bars. . . 90 more are approved for future releases.
nearly one-third reduction of the state’s detained juvenile population
according to Sam J. Abed, Maryland’s secretary of juvenile services. Further regarding Abed, Baltimore Sun reported that
He said the youths released were mostly held on nonviolent and misdemeanor charges. As a result, the percentage of juveniles detained on misdemeanor charges has dropped from 44% to 25% and the percentage of black youth detained has dropped from 77% to 58%, he added.
and,
“There’s virtually no one coming in through the arrest door,” the secretary added.
The state Board of Corrections has made 1,244 inmates immediately eligible for parole consideration.
but that state officials released 300 of them and added that the head of Arkansas’ correction division, Dexter Payne, said that more releases would follow. However, as of June 2, 2020, Right on Crime reported, still 300 had been released.
On April 19, Gov. Hutchinson announced that he had asked the Parole Board and ADC to identify and review nonviolent inmates who are not sex offenders, and who are due for release within the next six months. These individuals are to be carefully evaluated and considered for release due to the public health emergency.
In accordance with these orders, the Arkansas Board of Corrections, which manages correctional resources in the state, suspended a rule that inmates must have served at least six months in ADC before being considered for parole, in a measure designed to help alleviate overcrowding.
In keeping with the governor’s request, in order for an inmate to be considered for this early parole, their conviction must not have been for a violent or sexual crime.
have spoken out against releasing prisoners, noting that the state doesn’t have a re-entry program in place, making it potentially unsafe for the communities they might return to.
Boston Police Commissioner William Gross said during Boston Mayor Marty Walsh’s COVID-19 press conference Thursday that those released need a plan in place first so that “they’re not set up for failure.”
“You’re taking someone from a controlled environment where they have three meals, a bed, and physical and mental health care. And many of them are going back to neighborhoods that test the highest for COVID-19 positives,” he said. “We need to be talking about the individuals that are released to the community that are impacting our neighborhoods and impacting violence because the mentality out on the street — this is from a 35-year street cop — is that you can do whatever you want because there are no repercussions from the court.”
But Rossman says many of those social safety nets are already in place, ensuring that inmates would return to safe housing, oftentimes with their families, and could continue to access medication for addiction treatment.
According to the ACLU’s data tracker, 10 prisoners have been released so far from individual DOC facilities, but Ayana Aubourg, director of programs for the Boston non-profit Families for Justice as Healing, is calling for more.
Between March 10th and May 13th, the Cuyahoga County, Ohio jail has released about 900 people, reducing its population by more than 30%. This reduction was largely a result of an increase in court orders and special hearings intended to expedite the release of people from local jails.
On May 21, Judge Linda Parker ruled that medically vulnerable people must be released from the Oakland County jail. The order required the jail, within three business days, to provide to the court a list of all medically vulnerable incarcerated individuals, their health vulnerabilities and their criminal histories.
In Texas, at least 10,500 people have been approved for release by the parole board, but remain incarcerated while they wait to complete pre-release programs that have been suspended by Covid-19. Calls to release these potential parolees have been largely ignored by the governor.
As of June 2, Gov. Wolf had still not released the 1,800 individuals eligible for release under his April 10 reprieve order, inspiring hunger strikes across a coalition of organizations.
By June 4th, only ten people had been released from Massachusetts correctional facilities in response to Covid-19 concerns, despite outbreaks at multiple facilities. The Massachusetts Supreme Court declined to order immediate releases while simultaneously acknowledging concerning conditions in Massachusetts’ prisons, including a months-long lockdown, limited and inconsistent sanitization, and an inability to socially distance.
June 16, 2020
According to BCJ and local station KTVU Fox 2, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced that it would release about an additional 3,500 prisoners in respinse to covid-19. KTVU Fox 2 reported (on June 17, 2020)
Prisoners who are serving time for domestic violence, or a violent or serious crime, or are sex offenders are not eligible for this early release. Other criteria include that the prisoner has a place to live upon leaving his or her facility and CDCR officials said all will "remain under close supervision for the duration of their sentence."
This is the second early release within the California prison system.
An earlier expedited parole of about 3,500 incarcerated people already took place in April, and CDCR officials said in a statement that the agency has reduced the incarcerated population by more than 8,000 since mid-March.
As of July 23, tens of thousands of parole-approved people are still incarcerated in Texas. Many have been waiting six months or longer for release, and during that time, more people incarcerated in Texas have died from the virus than in any state prison system in America.
Indiana received a failing grade for its response to the coronavirus in prisons and jails, according to an analysis from the Prison Policy Initiative. Most other states failed, too.
But Indiana ranked especially low among states in a key metric: how much the state reduced its prison population
Between March and June, Indiana’s prison population dropped from 26,891 to 25,876 — a reduction of 3.8%
Up to 700 inmates in Kentucky could receive an early release in the coming week, as COVID-19 cases rise in state prisons.
…and…
Brown and Beshear said the criteria used to determine if inmates are eligible for release will mirror what they used in the early release of 1,200 state inmates since the onset of the pandemic — prioritizing those vulnerable to COVID-19 because of a health condition and near the end of their sentence, while excluding those convicted of sexual and violent crimes.
As of July 30, New Jersey lawmakers are expected to approve a bill that could free more than 3,000 people incarcerated in state prisons – nearly 20% of their total prison population. These widespread releases would be accomplished by allowing the release of people incarcerated for certain violent offenses, as well.
State prison officials say as many as 17,600 California inmates may be released early due to the coronavirus, 70% more than previously estimated and a total that victims and police say includes dangerous criminals who should stay locked up.
On August 15, Gov. Whitmer signed an executive order that requires jails and prisons to test individuals for Covid-19 upon entering, transferring to/from, or being released out of the state’s facilities.
In April, Minnesota announced a plan to rely upon Conditional Medical Releases (CMRs) to reduce its prison population in response to Covid-19. Of the 2,300 applications received, the CMR board had only released 143 people by September 3.
On September 13, the New Jersey legislature announced more plans to grant early releases to thousands of incarcerated people in its ongoing response to Covid-19. These releases would help justify a proposed $60 million cut to the New Jersey Department of Corrections budget.
On this day, it was reported that the prison population of Iowa reached a 20 year low with almost 1,100 fewer prisoners. Reportedly, Linn County Capt. Pete Wilson stated,
I’m not sure why the numbers are down, but it’s not like we’re keeping people in the county jails instead of sending them to the prisons
“The court system, for lack of a better word, shut down and trials haven’t been happening,” Johnson County Capt. John Good said.
Also,
Nine Eastern Iowa jails surveyed by The Gazette in late March showed they together had reduced their populations by more than 30 percent from the beginning of that month. They did this by furloughing inmates who were serving shorter sentences for non-violent crimes and those on work release. Johnson County judges were allowing arresting officers to cite and release people for lower-level offenses rather than taking them to jail.
The ACLU Iowa is glad prison numbers are down — something the group wanted for years.
On October 19, Gov. Phil Murphy signed S2519, reducing the sentences of thousands of people incarcerated in New Jersey state prisons. The law takes time off a person’s sentence for every month spent behind bars during a public health emergency, first going into effect on November 4, 2020. The first round of early releases includes over 2,000 incarcerated people who have experienced the pandemic in the New Jersey correctional system, and releases will continue on a rolling basis as long as the public health emergency persists.
S2519 by SENATE, No. 2519 STATE OF NEW JERSEY 219th LEGISLATURE (Introduced June 4, 2020)
a three-judge panel in the 1st District Court of Appeals ordered that the San Quentin state prison must release or transfer more than 1,000 people currently incarcerated there, “after showing 'deliberate indifference’ to prisoners’ health during an outbreak of the novel coronavirus”.
It was reported that the Sheriff of Witchita, Kansas stated that
the Wichita County Jail is limiting the intake of inmates in response to the COVID-19 spike in the community and dwindling quarantine space in the jail.
It was also reported that the Sheriff's Chief Deputy said that the jail would
only accept new inmates charged with serious felonies, assault, assault-family violence, violation of a protective order, Driving While Intoxicated and public intoxication if there's no one to take the intoxicated person
said the newly reinstated restrictions were also in effect earlier this year.
“We’re going to have law enforcement slow down on their misdemeanor cases ... with the exception of … violent offenses," Duke said.
Rutledge told law-enforcement officials the county jail would not accept people charged with these offenses: state jail felonies or third degree felonies, such as drug cases, possession of marijuana, criminal trespass, thefts, criminal mischief, credit card abuse, forgeries and class C misdemeanors, or those with misdemeanor warrants unless they're for assault-family violence or related charges.
On December 2, Gov. Kate Brown announced another expansion of the criteria for early release form prison in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The announcement signals the third time since March that the governor has ordered the Department of Corrections to review people for potential release, this time including those within six months of release from prison.
A Superior Court Judge in Suffolk County reported on December 8 that he will review an emergency motion to allow the home release of some Massachusetts prisoners due to the coronavirus pandemic. Prisoners Legal Services of Massachusetts presented the motion alleging that the state must do more to protect incarcerated individuals from Covid-19 outbreaks within carceral facilities.
A Superior Court judge has ordered that the Orange County jail population be cut in half, ruling that the sheriff had failed to reduce the number of inmates to ensure adequate social distancing.
The move came in response to a lawsuit filed in April by the American Civil Liberties Union against Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes, seeking the release of medically vulnerable and disabled inmates as well as necessary measures to protect those remaining in the jails from the coronavirus.
Judge Peter Wilson ruled Friday that the sheriff had shown “deliberate indifference” to the serious harm that the virus can pose to medically vulnerable people in custody, violating their state constitutional rights.
Barnes said in a statement that the order would result in the release of more than 1,800 inmates, many of whom have been convicted of or are awaiting trial for violent crimes, and that he was evaluating options for appeal.
On December 14, the Cuyahoga County jail announced that they would release some people convicted of misdemeanors, in order to reduce the number of people held at the jail. Some of those released with be immediately transferred to another facility, and those convicted of domestic violence charges are not eligible for release under this measure.
The next day, Gov. Mike DeWine announced that his administration has not yet decided when incarcerated people and staff will be eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine, even as cases among prison employees in Ohio have risen more than 80 percent in the last month, and over 500 incarcerated people tested positive in the first two weeks of December
On December 23, Gove. Mike DeWine announced that the state does not have a plan for vaccinating all incarcerated people or prison staff members yet, though facility employees will be prioritized above the majority of incarcerated people. The state distributed vaccines to some extremely vulnerable folks in prison medical care units at the end of December, but the majority of the state’s prisons remain uncertain as to when they will receive enhanced protection from Covid-19 outbreaks.
Senator Elizabeth Warren joined the cofounders of the COVID Prison Project in an op-ed calling for more transparency and data collection on the status of the Covid-19 pandemic within the country’s prisons and jails
A federal judge ordered the Harris County Jail to “swiftly review” roughly 2,000 people for bail reductions, pretrial release, or post-conviction release by the end of January, hoping to prevent the rapidly overflowing jail from becoming more of a “killing field”.
Also on January 15, 2021, the Federal Bureau of Prisons announced in what the they call a Memorandum Opinion for the General Counsel Federal Bureau of Prisons, that
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act authorizes the Director of the Bureau of Prisons…
…to place a prisoner serving a term in a federal prison in home confinement for the concluding portion of his sentence. See 18 U.S.C. § 3624(c)(2). In connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress expanded the authority of the Director of BOP to place federal prisoners in home confinement earlier than that statutory period. See Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, Pub. L. No. 116-136, § 12003(b)(2), 134 Stat. 281, 516 (2020) (“CARES Act”).
On January 15, the BOP announced plans to force some people released to home confinement during the pandemic back into carceral facilities. Those people sent home during the pandemic did not receive any “date of return” paperwork, leading most to believe that they were “home for good with their sentence ending when their ankle bracelet was removed.”
As the federal government raced to execute incarcerated individuals before the Biden administration was sworn in, the BOP knowingly withheld positive coronavirus diagnoses from media witnesses and declined to conduct any contract tracing after exposures at the executions. Multiple journalists were exposed while acting as media witnesses and many have since tested positive. On January 27, the BOP confirmed that they had known about positive test results for days, but decided not to take any action.
On February 11, the New Jersey Supreme Court rejected a case proposing to release approximately 650 people from jail after six months of awaiting trial. However, the Court conceded that lower courts should still consider releasing some people from jail after six months, especially if their health puts them at a greater risk for complications related to Covid-19.
More than 1,000 prisoners in Illinois are set to be released after a lawsuit settlement aimed at protecting medically vulnerable prisoners from COVID-19.
the U.S. Department of Justice directed the Bureau of Prisons to expand the home confinement program, which moves people out of federal prisons to be surveilled in their homes.
the US Bureau of Prisons did not have immediate plans to send people back to prison who were released during the pandemic. BOP Director Michael Carvajal argued in a televised hearing that Congress needs to change existing law to prevent those people from being sent back to incarceration in the future.
Virginia’s early release program, which was implemented to limit the spread of Covid-19 inside VDOC facilities, will end on July 1. Since the pandemic began, 2,100 people have been released through the program. The VDOC also reports that about 70% of its incarcerated population has been vaccinated against Covid-19.
the Biden administration legal team decided that the 4,000 individuals released from federal prison under the CARES act will be required by law to return to prison one month after the official state of emergency for the pandemic ends.
The number of inmates held in Iowa prisons crept up last fiscal year but the population was down significantly from the record count of a decade ago as COVID-19 has forced policymakers to adjust to changing dynamics the virus has created within institutional settings.
Senator Dick Durbin, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, demanded that Attorney General Merrick Garland fire Michael Carvajal, Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The move came after an Associated Press investigation revealed that more than 100 BOP employees have been arrested, convicted, or sentenced for crimes since the start of 2019. The investigation additionally revealed that the agency does not investigate misconduct and rarely suspends those who have been arrested for crimes.
Attorney General Marrick Garland released a directive reversing the Trump administration’s decision to require people released into home confinement during the pandemic under the CARES Act to return to prison at the conclusion of the health emergency.
PROTOCOLS OF THE MEETINGS OF THE LEARNED ELDERS OF ZION . . . Protocol X – Preparing for Power . . . (((SARS-CoV2)))
❝. . . utterly exhaust humanity with dissention, hatred, struggle, envy and even by the use of torture, by starvation, by the inoculation of diseases. by want, so that the “Goyim” see no other issue than to take refuge in our complete sovereignty in money and in all else.❞
PROTOCOLS OF THE MEETINGS OF THE LEARNED ELDERS OF ZION . . . Protocol X – Preparing for Power . . . (((SARS-CoV2)))
❝. . . utterly exhaust humanity with dissention, hatred, struggle, envy and even by the use of torture, by starvation, by the inoculation of diseases. by want, so that the “Goyim” see no other issue than to take refuge in our complete sovereignty in money and in all else.❞
https://cwspangle.substack.com/p/protocol-x-preparing-for-power-sars