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Wed 29 Sep 2021 05.00 EDT
MelodySchreiber
The southern US state of Alabama, which has the highest death rate from Covid-19 in America, is planning to use Covid relief funds to help construct three large prisons and renovate several others.
State lawmakers began a special session on Monday to discuss the $1.3bn construction project, which would use up to $400m from American Rescue Plan funds allocated to the state – nearly 20% of Alabama’s federal pandemic relief money.
Opponents say the funds should address active and ongoing issues from the pandemic, including overwhelmed health systems, outdated school ventilation systems and economic fallout for small businesses.
... Rather than redesigning facilities, research indicates that decarceration can be an important tool halting the spread of the virus, and some advocates have urged lawmakers, like those in Alabama, to consider sentencing reform instead.
“Having a less crowded prison does make it safer from a Covid perspective,” Dr Laura Hawks, a primary care physician and assistant professor of internal medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, told the Guardian. “There is an urgency to make prisons less crowded, but the solution is to decarcerate, not to build more prisons,” she said.
MelodySchreiber
The southern US state of Alabama, which has the highest death rate from Covid-19 in America, is planning to use Covid relief funds to help construct three large prisons and renovate several others.
State lawmakers began a special session on Monday to discuss the $1.3bn construction project, which would use up to $400m from American Rescue Plan funds allocated to the state – nearly 20% of Alabama’s federal pandemic relief money.
Opponents say the funds should address active and ongoing issues from the pandemic, including overwhelmed health systems, outdated school ventilation systems and economic fallout for small businesses.
... Rather than redesigning facilities, research indicates that decarceration can be an important tool halting the spread of the virus, and some advocates have urged lawmakers, like those in Alabama, to consider sentencing reform instead.
“Having a less crowded prison does make it safer from a Covid perspective,” Dr Laura Hawks, a primary care physician and assistant professor of internal medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, told the Guardian. “There is an urgency to make prisons less crowded, but the solution is to decarcerate, not to build more prisons,” she said.
