Incarceration amid pandemic can be a matter of life and death

From the Immigrant Legal Resource Center:

Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order last month prohibiting the release of inmates on personal bonds if they were accused or convicted of a violent crime. The order allowed their release only if they paid cash bail.

The order was in response to counties addressing the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and their inability to guarantee the health and safety of inmates and the staff assigned to watch over them.

This order propagates the existence of cash bail and dehumanizes and relegates to the trash heap anyone convicted of violent crimes. Release from jail should never be predicated upon one’s ability to pay cash bail. Abbott trumpets the danger posed by the release of anyone with a history of physical violence, then irrationally allows release of these individuals if they can post cash bail.

Worse, Abbott has decided that in this period of crisis some Texans are deserving of life and others are not. LatinoJustice and the Immigrant Legal Resource Center reject his stance. We assert that everyone in a Texas cage is worthy of compassion and consideration for release, not just those nearing the end of their sentence, or those of a certain age, or afflicted with certain illnesses, or convicted of offenses deemed minor or lesser.

Our criminal justice system is racist and overly punitive. A Cato Institute report cited “persistent, measurable, widespread, and common racial disparities in criminal justice enforcement.” The American desire to cage individuals stems from a lack of imagination, from a refusal to concede that other systems of justice exist. Read more…

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