Statement on
COVID-19
Our current COVID-19 crisis is highlighting the failures of our capitalist system, as well as the violence inherent to the systems of social control that maintain it. Jails, prisons, police, and prosecutors have never been a healthy or safe response to social problems in our community. People in jails and prisons across the country are being released to decrease the spread of COVID-19. People who are incarcerated are living in close quarters, have a lack of access to soap and cleaning supplies, have inadequate healthcare, and many have a higher likelihood of contracting the virus due to age and medical conditions.
We are a part of a movement across the country with the echoing demand to decarcerate our prisons and jails.
The district attorney has the power to influence policing and prosecution--the power to decide what to charge people with, when they should go to prison, and for how long. Oregon DA for the People has been building pressure on candidates who are running for DA in the May 19th, 2020 elections to listen to those most directly impacted by the criminal legal system. The demands of the People’s platform are needed now more than ever.
Given current events, we are calling on the current and prospective DAs to immediately help stop the spread of COVID-19 by:
Declining to prosecute charges that criminalize our community but don’t keep us safe, including charges related to racial profiling, mental health crisis, houselessness, sex work, and drug use, thereby decreasing the number of people in our courts and prison system.
Calling for the immediate release of all prisoners over age 50, those who will be more at risk of a lethal COVID-19 infection due to underlying health conditions, and those who have one year or less left in their sentence; for the immediate release of all people who are being held pretrial in jail; and for the immediate release of all people currently detained in ICE detention centers.
Advocating for the reallocation of funds saved from the decrease of people in our prisons, jails, and court systems to programs outside of the criminal legal system. This means programs that support our community members, including people who have just exited prison or jail, with mental and physical healthcare, housing, and other vital services.
What we’re seeing now, during the COVID-19 crisis, reflects what impacted communities have always known about our criminal legal system. It has never been safe, just, or humane to remove people from their communities and crowd them in jails and prisons. Incarceration as our primary response to mental health issues and addiction has always been a public health crisis.
We are currently seeing communities and neighbors show up for each other in ways that we haven’t seen before. Safety, health, and healing directed by and held within the community is possible. We are building the world we want to see right now.
The excuses for why transformative change can’t happen, why we've always been told by those in power that it isn’t possible or we have to wait, are all falling apart. All it took was a moment big enough to make it feel necessary to those in power. We are being propelled into a true abolitionist moment. Big, immediate, system-wide changes were always possible. They will continue to be possible after this crisis is over. It simply requires political will and people power to make it happen. If you’re new to thinking about how communities can thrive and solve our problems without police and prisons, this is the moment to learn.
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