Advocates Issue Open Letter regarding COVID-19: Cook County must Decarcerate to Protect Public Health

Criminal Justice , ,

Open Letter from 70+ Local Advocates to Cook County regarding COVID-19 and Cook County Jail: Protect Public Health through Decarceration

Across the world, the impact of the coronavirus and COVID-19 pandemic has increased with each passing day. The highly contagious respiratory illness has been deadly for many, especially the elderly and people with compromised immune systems. Across the United States, elected officials are taking unprecedented steps to protect the most vulnerable people in their communities and contain the spread of the virus.

People incarcerated in jail are one of the most vulnerable populations, and their protection warrants special emergency action. Jails and prisons are known to quickly spread contagious diseases. Incarcerated people have an inherently limited ability to fight the spread of infectious disease since they are confined in close quarters and unable to avoid contact with people who may have been exposed. Responses such as lock downs, placing people in solitary confinement and limiting access to visits from loved ones are punitive and ineffective responses to outbreaks. Importantly, we know that isolation further endangers people and limiting visitation also has adverse effects.

The only acceptable response to the threat of COVID-19 is decarceration. Today there are 5,576 people incarcerated in Cook County Jail (CCJ) – over 500 of which are over the age of fifty-five. Almost all of them are still awaiting trial and thus presumed innocent under the law. There are over 150 children in Cook County’s Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC). Their ongoing incarceration is an unacceptable risk to every incarcerated individual as well as public health.

Jails have extremely high turnover rates. Many people are released and admitted every day, and thousands of employees travel in and out of Cook County Jail each week. It is not a matter of if coronavirus and COVID-19 infect CCJ but when. As few people as possible should be exposed to this dangerous inevitability.

The following steps should be taken to protect the health of all Cook County residents, including those incarcerated in Cook County Jail and in their homes on electronic monitoring:

  • Cook County should immediately release anyone incarcerated in Cook County Jail on an unaffordable money bond (and not onto electronic monitoring unless already ordered by a judge). If a judge has given someone a money bond, it means that they’ve determined the person is cleared for release pretrial. Their ongoing incarceration due solely to access to money is deeply unfair and unethical, especially during this pandemic.
  • No new people should be admitted to Cook County Jail on money bonds. Admission of as many people as possible should be avoided.
  • The courts should provide emergency bond reviews for all incarcerated people who request them, with an increased mandate to use all options other than incarceration.
  • Cook County should immediately release individuals over the age of 50 or with compromised immune systems from Cook County Jail. Research has shown that these individuals are at the highest risk for contracting and experiencing the most serious effects of COVID-19.
  • The Cook County Sheriff’s Office and Pretrial Services Division should immediately change their protocols around electronic monitoring (EM) and home confinement to permit liberal movement (the ability to leave one’s home). Currently, people on Sheriff’s EM are required to provide documentation of a scheduled doctor’s visit to be granted the ability to leave their home. They are routinely denied permission to go to the grocery store or leave their homes to perform other essential tasks of life. The Sheriff’s office typically requires 72 hours advance notice to review and approve these requests. Gaining this documentation for a medical visit can often be extremely difficult due to privacy protections placed on medical providers and the difficulty of obtaining a letter over the phone. We are calling on the Cook County Sheriff’s Office to allow for automatically approved movement to allow people on EM to obtain groceries and other supplies, seek medical treatment, collect school meals, and provide elder and child care in other households. The 12 hours of movement per day policy, now guaranteed to all people on mandatory supervised release (“parole”) by the Illinois Department of Corrections, should be treated as the least possible movement allowed during the pandemic.
  • The ability to pay money bonds and secure pretrial release for people currently incarcerated in the jail or on EM should not be delayed or inhibited in any way. 
  • People eligible for electronic monitoring must continue to be released into the community.  If a person is ordered to EM but does not have access to approved housing, they should be immediately returned to court for a rehearing on their conditions of release.
  • If courts remain open, appearance at non-essential criminal court dates should be waived to avoid unnecessary travel and social contact. All in-person pretrial check-ins or other mandated appearances (such as drug testing) should also be waived.
  • Cancellation of court dates should not delay anyone’s release from Cook County Jail. Given that 70% of people released from Cook County Jail return directly to the community, any failure to resolve court cases at the same pace will increase the number of people in jail and thus the threat to their individual health and public health.
  • A moratorium should be placed on “turnarounds,” the process by which someone sentenced to time served travels from CCJ to an Illinois Department of Corrections facility to dress in and dress out on the same day. People sentenced to time served should be released directly from Cook County Jail.
  • Health care access for anyone remaining in Cook County Jail must be liberally provided and unfettered.
  • Access to phone calls and video “visitation” should be expanded for all incarcerated people right now and moving forward. This access should be provided free of charge.
  • The right to vote must be protected for anyone who remains incarcerated pretrial.
  • Personal hygiene, cleaning, and sanitation supplies should be made available free of charge to anyone that remains incarcerated. Hand sanitizer and other essential preventative products must be permitted and should not be considered “contraband.”

Visit Chicago Community Bond Fund’s website for resources to learn more about the Coronavirus in jails and the current demands for jails in other jurisdictions.

Signed,

  • Action Now
  • A Just Harvest
  • AirGo
  • American Friends Service Committee Chicago
  • Arab American Action Network
  • Assata’s Daughters
  • Believers Bail Out
  • Black Lives Matter: Chicago
  • Black and Pink Chicago
  • Blue Tin Productions
  • BYP100
  • Chicago Afro-Socialists and Socialists of Color
  • Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression
  • Chicago Appleseed
  • Chicago Community Bond Fund
  • Chicago Council of Lawyers
  • Chicago Feminist Action Group
  • Chicago Freedom School
  • Chicago-Kent College of Law Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild
  • Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights​
  • Chicago Torture Justice Center
  • Chicago Votes Action Fund
  • The Children and Family Justice Center
  • Circles & Ciphers
  • Columbus Freedom Fund
  • Community Renewal Society
  • Criminal Justice Policy Program
  • Dissenters
  • Exoneration Project
  • First Defense Legal Aid
  • For the People Artists Collective
  • Free Write Arts & Literacy
  • Giving Others Dreams God
  • Grassroots Collaborative
  • Justice for Our Neighbors Northern Illinois
  • Kuumba Lynx
  • Lawndale Christian Legal Center
  • #LetUsBreathe
  • Liberation Library
  • Lifted Voices
  • Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO)​
  • Live Free Chicago
  • Love & Protect
  • Loevy & Loevy
  • Lucy Parson’s Labs
  • Moms United Against Violence and Incarceration
  • National Lawyers Guild – Chicago
  • Northside Action for Justice
  • People’s Law Office
  • The People’s Lobby 
  • Pilsen Alliance
  • Precious Blood Ministry Of Reconciliation​
  • The Roderick & Solange MacArthur Justice Center
  • Rogers Park Solidarity Network
  • Shiller Preyar Gerard & Samuels
  • Shriver Center on Poverty Law
  • Slutwalk Chicago
  • Smart Decarceration Project
  • Transgender Law Center
  • Transformative Justice Law Project
  • Trinity United Church of Christ
  • UIC John Marshall Law School Black Law Students Association
  • UIC John Marshall Law School Public Interest Law Council
  • UIC John Marshall Law School Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild
  • UIC John Marshall Law School South Asian Law Association
  • UIC John Marshall Law School United Immigration Defense Organization of Students
  • Unitarian Universalist Prison Ministry of Illinois
  • Uptown People’s Law Center
  • Westside Justice Center
  • Women’s Justice Initiative
  • Working Family Solidarity