COVID19 in Illinois Prisons: IL-CHEP Letter to Governor Calling for Immediate Action
Photo credits: Tyler LaRiviere of Chicago Sun-Times: Larry Barrett handing the IL-CHEP letter to a staff member of Governor’s Office.
On Thursday, March 12, the Illinois Coalition for Higher Education in Prison delivered a letter to Governor Pritzker calling on him to take immediate action to protect the vulnerable incarcerated population in our state.
The requests contained in the letter to the governor and other Illinois officials are as follows:
To Governor Pritzker, asking him to consider immediately ordering a review of all people in Illinois prisons and jails who are elderly or infirm, with an eye toward providing medical furloughs or compassionate release to as many of them as possible.
To the Prisoner Review Board, asking them to expedite the granting of good time credits to bring the overall prison population to the level the system was built for, so that the medical staff will not be overrun in the midst of an outbreak
To Illinois State’s Attorneys, to ask that we bypass jail admissions in all possible cases, and test individuals who we deem necessary to jail
To each of Illinois' prison wardens and county sheriffs, that they work with their facility’s Infection Control Nurse to develop specific protocols for how their facility would respond to a positive case of COVID 19 that we recommend include:
○ A provision for quarantining anyone who tests positive for the virus at a hospital, not at the prison or jail
○ A commitment that at no point will a facility be locked down or closed off to outsiders to be considered in their entirety as places of “quarantine”. Family members and lawyers must maintain access to their clients and loved ones.
The letter in its entirety can be viewed and signed here.
Now that we have asked for our leaders to take action in protecting our students and friends inside, join us in sharing the letter publicly on social media, and tweeting @GovPritzker to plead him to follow through on these actions. #decarcerateCOVID19