The Catholic Spirit: MCC: Protect vulnerable in midst of COVID-19
“As you consider next steps to fight this pandemic, we ask you to keep in mind some of the most vulnerable among us— incarcerated men, women, and youth in the state’s correctional facilities, the officers who work in these facilities, and neighbors in surrounding communities — and take similarly swift and decisive action within your executive authority,” states an April 15 letter to Walz on prisons and COVID-19.
Advocates including the Minnesota Board of Public Defense and Justice Action Network signed the letter, which suggests a number of actions. including temporarily transferring incarcerated individuals who are elderly and immunocompromised, pregnant, or otherwise deemed at grave risk of contracting COVID-19, to home confinement or another location, unless public safety is compromised.