Promoting Public Health & Public Safety During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Congressional Staffer Briefing
Experts discuss the Congressional action needed to protect public health during the COVID-19 pandemic while maintaining public safety.
Related to: Federal Advocacy, COVID-19, Incarceration
People incarcerated in the United States are at high risk of infection, serious illness and death from COVID-19. While testing for the coronavirus in prisons and jails is sporadic, reports of infections in prisons alone exceed 25,000 and impact 41 states and the federal prison system. Action is required to protect the people who are incarcerated and work in correctional facilities and limit the spread of COVID-19 between communities and facilities. Experts on the front lines of this crisis discuss the Congressional action needed to protect public health while maintaining public safety.
Speakers:
Sister Helen Prejean, Activist and Author of Dead Man Walking
Dr. Homer Venters, Former Chief Medical Officer of NYC jails
Melody Brannon, Federal Public Defender for the District of Kansas
Ashley Jackson, We Got Us Now, North Carolina
Amber Edmondson, Brother Incarcerated at Kentucky’s Green River Correctional Facility
Captain Nathan Neff, Jail Administrator at Black Hawk County, Iowa Sheriff’s Office
Moderators:
Kanya A. Bennett, American Civil Liberties Union
Kara Gotsch, The Sentencing Project
