What We're Reading

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  A Carceral Crisis

  Published on October 15, 2020

  A new report from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security urges officials to take "urgent and swift action" to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus in jails and prisons. "The lack of preparation—the lack of a public health system—that exists in these facilities is really concerning," Crystal Watson, who co-authored the report, said.

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  How a 63-year-old inmate was the first to die from COVID-19 in the Dallas County jail

  Published on October 16, 2020

  Reporters for The Dallas Morning News describe how Channel Lee Greer, 63, died of COVID-19 in June, three months after he was arrested on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a controlled substance. Dallas County officials announced Greer's death in August and filed a custodial death report in October.

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  1,010 people have been shot and killed by police in the past year

  Published on September 23, 2020

  In its annual summary of shootings by law enforcement, The Washington Post reports that the number of shootings each year has remained steady since The Post's first report five years ago. Additionally, the report states, "the rate at which black Americans are killed by police is more than twice as high as the rate for white Americans."

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  The U.S. Prison System Has Reached 1,000 COVID-19 Deaths

  Published on August 28, 2020

  Reason Magazine's Scott Shackford reports that the number of people who have died of COVID-19 in American prisons has passed 1,000 (inmates and staff), based on data collected by The Marshall Project.