doctors: A teenager with a ponytail on his head, wearing a medical mask, sits and uses a mobile phone. Horizontal bars in the background.

Doctors Call for Releasing Youth from Secure Custody During COVID-19 Crisis

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Across the world, we are all racing to save the most vulnerable in our societies from the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the United States, however, we are leaving some of our children trapped with nowhere to turn, nowhere to run.

Man in dark blue uniform, mask, holds cart full of boxes. Woman in blue T-shirt, shorts in background.

Desperate Louisiana Prisoners Say Wardens, Staff Not Following Coronavirus Rules

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The last will and testament came in an email, one most likely monitored by the state. It came from a prisoner, incarcerated for decades at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, better known as Angola. He composed and sent it shortly after the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association and the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections (DOC) opened a shuttered camp previously notorious for being a site of solitary confinement and violence.

juvenile justice staff: a young woman in a prison cell

Staff, Youth at Enormous Risk of COVID-19 in Correctional Facilities

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(This column is dedicated to the memory of Paul DeMuro, who passed earlier this week from a non-COVID-19 related illness. Paul was a longtime leader and mentor to so many in the work to reduce incarceration and improve the lives of young people and families in the justice system.)

On April 1, Kenneth Moore, a youth development representative at Washington, D.C.’s juvenile justice agency died of COVID-19. Kenneth was the first correctional officer in the nation to succumb to the virus. Today, many more staff and youth inside correctional facilities are sick and dying. I had the privilege of helping lead the District’s juvenile justice agency, the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS), between 2005 and 2010.

In North Carolina, Some Courts Shutter For Now Due to Pandemic

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Many states have not yet acted on advocates’ desire for quick release of all minors incarcerated for nonviolent, mostly misdemeanor offenses who are at risk of infection with COVID-19. There is pushback from opposing sides who feel releasing currently locked-up youth poses a safety risk.