Coronavirus Conversations: COVID in U.S. Prisons and Jails

Co-Hosted with the Harvard Petrie-Flom Center For Bioethics, the Stanford Law School Center for Law and the Biosciences, The Marshall Project, the Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law, and the Yale School of Public Health.

Congregate living spaces, and especially jails and prisons, have become COVID-19 hotspots due to ease of transmission and a lack of options for social distancing or quarantining.  In our nation’s jails and prisons, inmates have little freedom of movement, often lack access to adequate hygiene and healthcare facilities, and may be unable to isolate if infected.

Join Duke Science & Society and our panel of experts in a discussion of how COVID-19 has spread through jails and prisons, how that is affecting not only inmates but also surrounding communities, what corrections officials are—and are not—doing to address COVID-19, and what should be done to improve health outcomes for and control the spread of COVID-19 among this often forgotten population.

Panelists:

Joseph Neff; Staff Writer, The Marshall Project

Maria Morris, J.D.; Senior Staff Attorney, National Prison Project, ACLU

Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein, Ph.D.; Assistant Professor of Social Medicine, UNC-Chapel Hill

Moderator:

Brandon L. Garrett, J.D.; L. Neil Williams, Jr. Professor of Law, Duke Law School

Suggested Readings/Links: 

• Stanford Criminal Justice Center April 2020 Panel on Covid-19 and Prisons
• Articles by Joseph Neff of The Marshall Project on COVID and Prisons
• COVID-19 Exposes Need for Progressive Criminal Justice Reform

This virtual event series is open to the public. Press covering the coronavirus outbreak are welcome to attend. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for updates.

Have an idea for a future Coronavirus Conversation?

Coronavirus Conversations: A virtual event series from Duke Science & Society

The global pandemic affects every corner of society and brings into focus new and existing ethical and policy issues. Over the course of this event series notable scientists, doctors, bioethicists, researchers, and other policy experts will convene to discuss specific themes as they relate to the Coronavirus and how the U.S. and the world continues to respond.