Government

Prisons In A Pandemic Are Nothing To Sneeze At

No Patrick, handcuffs are not PPE.

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While there may be no goofy questions — there are definitely goofy answers, and whoever thought building prisons was the way to curb COVID-19 needs to be given a gold plated dunce cap. In other words, Alabama is back at it again.

Lawmakers from the Cotton State are trying from to divert some $400M in funding from the American Rescue Plan toward building three new prisons that would hold about 4,000 inmates. Not everyone is happy about it.

“Shay Farley of the SPLC Action Fund highlighted the fact that Alabama’s small businesses and health care facilities are still facing urgent funding needs due to the pandemic. ‘That means $400 million less for assisting small businesses, funding over-burdened rural health care facilities, providing schools with much-needed personal protective equipment, and much more.'”

I think that Farley is right, especially considering that Alabama currently has the highest COVID death rate in the country. This is one of those moments that really drives home the idea that racism is its own pandemic — how else would you explain a state leaning on the 13th Amendment rather than addressing the coughs and sneezes killing grandma and grandpa?

Keep wearing masks and try to avoid committing any state or federal crimes because it’s really hard to socially distance in a jail cell.

Alabama Wants To Use $400 Million in COVID Relief Money To Build More Prisons [Vanity Fair]
Does An Exception Clause In The 13th Amendment Still Permit Slavery? [History]
CDC Director Declares Racism A ‘Serious Public Health Threat’ [NPR]
Alabama Leading US In COVID-19 Death Rate Over Last 2 Weeks [U.S. News]

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Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. Before that, he wrote columns for an online magazine named The Muse Collaborative under the pen name Knehmo. He endured the great state of Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com.

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