ACLU of ConnecticutKonto zweryfikowane

BREAKING: The DOC has announced that it will close the COVID-19 unit at Northern Correctional Institution, the state’s supermax prison, and instead place that unit in the MacDougall building of MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution.

While it is good news that the DOC will no longer send sick people to Northern, it never should have sent them there to begin with. And the best way to protect incarcerated people from COVID-19 remains releases.

"The DOC's decision to close its COVID-19 unit at Northern is the direct result of incarcerated people & their families bravely & persistently speaking out about how the DOC’s choice to send sick people to a fortress built for punishment is the very definition of cruelty."

"It took people who are incarcerated to point out to the DOC that the fear of Northern, which the DOC had worked so hard to instill, meant people would do anything to avoid being sent there, including hiding symptoms of a deadly illness."

"The Department of Correction chose to send sick people to Northern, a facility known for inflicting human misery and suffering. The DOC’s hands were not tied, its decision to send people to Northern served no public health benefit and in fact undermined it." - @claudine515

One more time for the people in the back: the DOC's decision to close its Northern COVID unit is the direct result of advocacy from incarcerated people and their families, who risked themselves to speak out against it.