Prison and Jail Populations Must Be Reduced Immediately: Base Decisions on Research and Data, Not Politics and Emotion

Joint statement by the Cook County Public Defender and the John Howard Association

As Illinois continues to take extraordinary measures to minimize all citizens’ exposure to COVID-19 and contagion, it is clear that there are places that inherently pose greater risk. These include nursing homes, jails and prisons.  This risk is present for the residents of these places as well as for the people that work in them.  A great deal about COVID-19 still remains unknown to the scientific community and the public. However, it is indisputable and beyond rational scientific debate that in the absence of actions to drastically reduce prison and jail populations in Illinois and across the country, there will be resulting unwarranted suffering and unacceptable risk to prisoners and to correctional staff and their families because of COVID-19. Full consideration of all of the public health ramifications of this deadly disease inside prisons makes clear that each person released from prison represents an opportunity to save not one life but many lives.