We’ve been here before. We have seen the devastating consequences of COVID-19 outbreaks in prisons. Yet, nearly two years after the start of the pandemic, more than half of the women currently incarcerated at Danbury Federal Institution Camp in Connecticut have tested positive for the virus in the past week and are being denied proper access to medical care.

And this is just what’s being reported. We’re hearing from sources incarcerated at Danbury Camp that ALL of the women are currently infected. The facilities are on total lockdown with zero access to phones, computers, the law or leisure library, and classrooms. The original 13 women who tested positive for COVID-19 have been moved back into the general population, and people are suffering from body aches, cough, fever, and potential pneumonia. 

This is a humanitarian crisis. The lack of transparency and inhumane treatment of women incarcerated at Danbury is of the utmost concern. Desperate families have no way to know whether their incarcerated loved one is safe or healthy: Their only choice is to wait in agony as news is shared through the rumor mill. 

Over the past 2 years of living through COVID-19, we’ve confirmed that prisons are among the most significant battlefields of the pandemic. Not only is social distancing next to impossible, but people who are incarcerated are also at greater risk of serious complications or death from the virus because of health issues caused and exacerbated by conditions and lack of access to healthcare and services inside prisons.

We’ve also confirmed that releasing people who are incarcerated to home confinement to finish their sentences can help curb the spread of COVID-19 in jails, prisons, and surrounding communities, and can serve as a crucial harm reduction step toward our goal of ending racialized mass incarceration.  

Thousands of people released to home confinement under the CARES Act passed by Congress in March 2020 have already successfully rejoined their communities. They’ve been able to get jobs, start school, help take care of elderly parents and children. In fact, home confinement under the CARES Act has had a 99% success rate. 

This is just further proof that people will always have a better chance at surviving and thriving outside of cages and when surrounded by community and chosen family. 

The Bureau of Prisons has the authority to release more medically vulnerable people to finish their sentences safely through home confinement under the CARES Act. And yet only about 5 percent of the people in federal prison have been granted release to home confinement. 

We can’t sit and wait while people’s lives are at risk. 

This is why in partnership with The National Council of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, we’re calling on the Bureau of Federal Prisons to release all medically vulnerable people to finish their sentences on home confinement immediately. 

Here is the Petition:

Dear Michael Carvajal, 

We are writing to you with great concern about the treatment of women incarcerated at Danbury Federal Institution Camp in Connecticut where more than half of the women currently incarcerated have tested positive for the virus in the past week and are being denied proper access to medical care. 

And this is just what’s being reported. We’re hearing from sources incarcerated at Danbury Camp that ALL of the women are currently infected. The facilities are on total lockdown with zero access to phones, computers, the law or leisure library, and classrooms. The original 13 women who tested positive for COVID-19 have been moved back into the general population, and people are suffering from body aches, cough, fever, and potential pneumonia. 

This is a humanitarian crisis. The lack of transparency and inhumane treatment of women incarcerated at Danbury is of the utmost concern. Desperate families have no way to know whether their incarcerated loved one is safe or healthy: Their only choice is to wait in agony as news is shared through the rumor mill. 

Over the past 2 years of living through COVID-19, we’ve confirmed that prisons are among the most significant battlefields of the pandemic. Not only is social distancing next to impossible, but people who are incarcerated are also at greater risk of serious complications or death from the virus because of health issues caused and exacerbated by conditions and lack of access to healthcare and services inside prisons.

We’ve also confirmed that releasing people who are incarcerated to home confinement to finish their sentences can help curb the spread of COVID-19 in jails, prisons, and surrounding communities, and can serve as a crucial harm reduction step toward our goal of ending racialized mass incarceration. 

Thousands of people released to home confinement under the CARES Act passed by Congress in March 2020 have already successfully rejoined their communities. They’ve been able to get jobs, start school, help take care of elderly parents and children. In fact, home confinement under the CARES Act has had a 99% success rate.

This is just further proof that people will always have a better chance at surviving and thriving outside of cages and when surrounded by community and chosen family. 

This also isn’t the first time women incarcerated at Danbury have experienced a COVID-19 outbreak or inhumane treatment. 

In December of 2020, 34 out of the 50 women incarcerated at the minimum-security Danbury Camp facility tested positive for COVID-19. And though isolation is critical to curbing the spread of the virus, women were forced into makeshift quarters in the prisons’ visiting rooms where they didn't have beds, showers, or access to important medications and prescriptions. Some women were so sick they couldn’t eat or hardly move. People experienced panic attacks and dehydration so severe that they were sent to the hospital. This is unconscionable, and it is happening yet again. 

It’s been over a year since that outbreak and once again women at Danbury are being exposed to COVID-19, denied isolation, tests, and protection.

The Bureau of Prisons has the authority to release more medically vulnerable people to finish their sentences safely through home confinement under the CARES Act. And yet only about 5 percent of the people in federal prison have been granted release to home confinement. 

This is why in partnership with The National Council of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, we’re calling on the Bureau of Federal Prisons to release all medically vulnerable people to finish their sentences on home confinement immediately. 

We can’t sit and wait while people’s lives are at risk. Please release people to home confinement today.