Honolulu Police Keep Putting Homeless People in Jail. Honolulu is flouting Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance by continuing to dismantle homeless encampments during the COVID-19 pandemic, though it does not have nearly enough shelter space. Although Hawaii’s chief justice has directed judges to work with police and prosecutors to reduce jail populations during the coronavirus outbreak, Honolulu police have continued to put homeless people in jail for petty, victimless offenses. Since April 21, Honolulu police have conducted at least 23 sweeps, citing, arresting, and displacing Honolulu’s homeless population in the middle of a global pandemic.
Video Captures Poor Conditions at Louisiana Poultry Plant Where Prisoners Are Sent to Work. Despite COVID-19 concerns, Louisiana’s prisoners are still doing dangerous, menial jobs in work-release programs. A video shared with The Appeal shows workers at the DG Foods poultry plant in Bastrop, a small town of about 10,000 people in Morehouse Parish, using a dirty bathroom with standing water on the floor, soap missing from dispensers, and seats ripped from toilets and thrown onto the floor. But the workers can’t quit and fear retaliation from authorities. This work-release program is one of several still in operation throughout the state despite the pandemic. And workers and advocates fear that more people will get sick.
A Transgender Woman’s Attorneys Fear She Won’t Survive her 60-Month Sentence. New York attorneys have launched a campaign to release transgender, gender nonconforming, and nonbinary prisoners during the pandemic. One of them is A.A., who was convicted in 2018 of attempted burglary in the second degree and sentenced to 60 months. Housed in a men’s prison even though she is a woman, she has been sexually assaulted by both prisoners and correctional officers, according to Legal Aid. A.A. also has HIV, which puts her health at great risk should she contract coronavirus.
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