WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.600
I pray the Lord shall praise three times a day.

00:00:05.600 --> 00:00:07.500
He prays for the friends.

00:00:07.500 --> 00:00:10.400
He left behind in a place with one of the highest covid-19

00:00:10.400 --> 00:00:16.100
race in the country prison when I was inside it was quite scary

00:00:16.100 --> 00:00:20.400
and you don't never know when you close your eyes at night.

00:00:20.400 --> 00:00:24.600
What are you going to be sick with this virus the following

00:00:24.600 --> 00:00:28.800
day people behind bars are infected by the coronavirus

00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:32.600
at a rate more than five times higher than the general population

00:00:32.600 --> 00:00:37.300
Rufus is so worried about it and he wants to shout it to the

00:00:37.300 --> 00:00:39.900
world. And so it's 69 years old.

00:00:39.900 --> 00:00:42.200
He's figured out how to go live on Facebook.

00:00:43.800 --> 00:00:44.600
Locked up.

00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:46.700
Where are balls?

00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:48.700
dolls that kiss

00:00:49.900 --> 00:00:57.900
overcrowded unsanitary inadequate Medical Care the same conditions

00:00:57.900 --> 00:01:00.600
that have been called out in prisons and jails for decades

00:01:00.600 --> 00:01:05.000
and turns them into Co-op spots holding 2.3 million Americans

00:01:08.400 --> 00:01:13.700
Humane treatment Advocates and public health experts are pushing.

00:01:13.700 --> 00:01:17.100
Governor's to release hundreds of thousands of inmates but resistance

00:01:17.100 --> 00:01:20.000
is high. The stakes are higher.

00:01:21.100 --> 00:01:25.300
When you got three men's stacked on top of one another time

00:01:25.300 --> 00:01:29.300
is this because they might not make it.

00:01:33.700 --> 00:01:38.500
Yes, it's a Rufus Rochelle calling in kind of ability princess

00:01:38.500 --> 00:01:40.100
is calling into a halfway house.

00:01:40.100 --> 00:01:43.800
He's out of prison but still in custody finishing a 40-year

00:01:43.800 --> 00:01:46.200
drug sentence at his sister's home near Gainesville,

00:01:46.200 --> 00:01:49.300
Florida. He's been transferred from prison to home confinement.

00:01:49.300 --> 00:01:53.400
He's one of more than 8,000 federal inmates allowed to do this

00:01:53.400 --> 00:01:57.700
there a Groove deemed both medicine at risk and non-violent.

00:02:01.600 --> 00:02:03.900
Yes, I feel safe.

00:02:03.900 --> 00:02:06.600
I am still in prison.

00:02:06.600 --> 00:02:08.900
Let's not get that mistaken.

00:02:11.100 --> 00:02:14.800
In late March former Attorney General William Barr wrote a memo

00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:18.400
prioritizing home confinement where appropriate to protect

00:02:18.400 --> 00:02:21.600
the health and safety of prison personnel and the people in our

00:02:21.600 --> 00:02:26.100
custody, but that memo isn't enough some Public Health experts

00:02:26.100 --> 00:02:31.300
argue. And unless we let out masses of people nearly 100,000

00:02:31.300 --> 00:02:36.000
could die of covid-19 cording to an ACLU study local jails

00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:39.300
have become veritable volcanoes for the spread of the virus

00:02:39.300 --> 00:02:41.400
into their surrounding communities.

00:02:41.400 --> 00:02:47.000
There are 10 million Jail admissions every year one every 3 seconds

00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:50.400
the high turnover there means people arrested and then released

00:02:50.400 --> 00:02:53.100
can carry the virus in and out.

00:02:55.200 --> 00:03:00.100
This is what's going on as I'm sitting right here with his is

00:03:00.100 --> 00:03:03.300
using his home confinement to do these Facebook live.

00:03:03.300 --> 00:03:09.700
He doesn't every single night 2007 friends now and I was told

00:03:09.700 --> 00:03:12.100
that's a lot of friends again.

00:03:12.100 --> 00:03:14.400
And again, he makes the same demand.

00:03:16.900 --> 00:03:18.200
commuter services

00:03:19.500 --> 00:03:20.400
Allow them.

00:03:21.600 --> 00:03:22.400
Google home

00:03:24.800 --> 00:03:28.600
it's the same urgency Cynthia Carter young felt as her brother

00:03:28.600 --> 00:03:37.700
near the end of his 25-year prison sentence with the coronavirus

00:03:37.700 --> 00:03:40.900
and the next week.

00:03:40.900 --> 00:03:41.800
He told me

00:03:46.300 --> 00:03:49.800
Leonard Carter had been granted parole in January.

00:03:49.800 --> 00:03:52.100
He was set to be released in the spring.

00:03:53.100 --> 00:03:57.600
He said I really hope I don't get it because we're not out there

00:03:57.600 --> 00:03:58.200
so.

00:03:59.900 --> 00:04:01.400
I hope they don't bring it in.

00:04:02.400 --> 00:04:07.300
in mid-april Cynthia's phone rang Leonard had covid-19

00:04:08.400 --> 00:04:10.900
and they called me and told me that it's hot.

00:04:10.900 --> 00:04:12.400
Stop beating.

00:04:13.100 --> 00:04:18.100
But we revived he was an oxygen than a respirator.

00:04:18.100 --> 00:04:23.800
I love you, and he said I love you more.

00:04:28.600 --> 00:04:30.600
Go to the last words.

00:04:32.200 --> 00:04:35.900
He died a little over a month before he was supposed to be released.

00:04:37.200 --> 00:04:39.600
Cat gently into the next life Leonard.

00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:44.800
We hold your memory as a blessing Leonard with 60.

00:04:50.200 --> 00:04:51.000
And I'm here.

00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:53.200
How about Windows today?

00:04:54.400 --> 00:04:59.300
Like Rufus and Leonard nearly 250,000 prisoners are considered

00:04:59.300 --> 00:05:04.300
aging 55 and older 40% of the overall prison population

00:05:04.300 --> 00:05:07.800
has at least one chronic health condition and a disproportionate

00:05:07.800 --> 00:05:09.100
number are people of color.

00:05:09.100 --> 00:05:12.300
So the same communities that are over-represented

00:05:12.300 --> 00:05:15.900
in prisons and jails are also the ones that have suffered

00:05:15.900 --> 00:05:17.600
most at the hands of covid-19.

00:05:18.900 --> 00:05:21.900
What this is about human dignity and respect right?

00:05:21.900 --> 00:05:25.000
This is about how are we going to treat some of America's

00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:26.600
most vulnerable people?

00:05:28.500 --> 00:05:34.200
It's like you salad in there and no one is hearing your voice.

00:05:35.100 --> 00:05:37.200
I am not South.

00:05:42.600 --> 00:05:43.400
That's not working.

00:05:45.600 --> 00:05:49.200
Working recently a prisoner close to Rufus was getting out.

00:05:50.200 --> 00:05:51.000
is brother

00:05:56.600 --> 00:06:02.100
Richard Williams freed after 29 years and 11 months

00:06:10.600 --> 00:06:16.100
Richard was serving two life sentences for selling drugs until

00:06:16.100 --> 00:06:19.500
a few weeks ago when a judge ruled that he served long enough

00:06:19.500 --> 00:06:23.700
for a nonviolent crime and that his poor health could not be ignore

00:06:23.700 --> 00:06:24.200
right now.

00:06:25.900 --> 00:06:27.200
Winnie's are you

00:06:28.400 --> 00:06:29.300
I'm free now.

00:06:29.300 --> 00:06:31.300
Listen Richard both start.

00:06:31.300 --> 00:06:34.800
I'm here at Coleman Federal Prison and the guards always told

00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:37.700
them they'd walk out together, but the brother is worried

00:06:37.700 --> 00:06:38.200
covid-19.

00:06:41.800 --> 00:06:47.600
For the past several months since March we basically lives

00:06:47.600 --> 00:06:48.800
in it in one room.

00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:55.100
Reduce 35 days lockdown that means you don't leave 24 hours

00:06:55.100 --> 00:06:57.600
a day. You take a shower 3 times a week.

00:06:58.900 --> 00:07:00.100
You don't come out.

00:07:00.100 --> 00:07:04.500
It's not just inmates who feel unsafe correction workers

00:07:04.500 --> 00:07:08.600
from Arizona to Georgia, Illinois to California to Connecticut

00:07:08.600 --> 00:07:11.300
have raised safety concerns in New York,

00:07:11.300 --> 00:07:15.100
the correctional officers Union bought 100,000 masks for its

00:07:15.100 --> 00:07:18.700
workers because the state was slow to respond and then we still

00:07:18.700 --> 00:07:21.100
weighs heavily on the Union's vice president.

00:07:21.100 --> 00:07:22.200
We've lost members.

00:07:22.200 --> 00:07:28.900
I may be unnecessarily that if are concerned early on with the

00:07:28.900 --> 00:07:32.600
Department of Corrections and Community Supervision and the office

00:07:32.600 --> 00:07:37.500
of mental health had listened to our maybe those members

00:07:37.500 --> 00:07:38.500
would still be here today.

00:07:38.500 --> 00:07:42.000
They even commented they work and I provide nest because

00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:47.700
of the Optics that we were looking like we were promoting

00:07:47.700 --> 00:07:51.100
a virus and being distant agent, right that is not it wasn't

00:07:51.100 --> 00:07:55.100
believed to be back in March, but now we have a whole different

00:07:55.100 --> 00:07:55.700
picture.

00:07:56.500 --> 00:08:01.300
Around 420,000 Corrections staff go in and out of prisons

00:08:01.300 --> 00:08:05.400
and jails everyday over eighty four thousand of them have tested

00:08:05.400 --> 00:08:10.800
positive for the coronavirus 139 have died with those numbers

00:08:10.800 --> 00:08:14.300
in mind criminal justice Advocates reached out to guards and

00:08:14.300 --> 00:08:17.900
other correction workers even suggested they all team up to push

00:08:17.900 --> 00:08:19.000
for prisoner releases.

00:08:21.800 --> 00:08:26.400
The response the response has basically been well,

00:08:26.400 --> 00:08:30.600
we're looking out for our own as if all of our safety and well-being

00:08:30.600 --> 00:08:32.900
is instead of tied up with each other.

00:08:34.500 --> 00:08:37.600
Safety and well-being are always part of the conversation.

00:08:37.600 --> 00:08:42.200
Now anytime Tiana Jenkins talks to her brother in prison Ty Lue

00:08:42.200 --> 00:08:44.100
Jenkins does not feel safe.

00:08:44.100 --> 00:08:45.800
They're not around the guards.

00:09:04.300 --> 00:09:08.300
Tai Wu was sentenced to 40 years for assault and he served

00:09:08.300 --> 00:09:08.900
half his time.

00:09:08.900 --> 00:09:14.900
He has chronic asthma so he's high-risk when I'm alone in my thoughts.

00:09:25.900 --> 00:09:26.800
It hurts so much.

00:09:32.600 --> 00:09:39.300
I know him better than anyone and I know he doesn't deserve

00:09:39.300 --> 00:09:39.600
this.

00:09:41.500 --> 00:09:45.100
Around half of all adults in the US have had an immediate

00:09:45.100 --> 00:09:48.100
family member locked up for at least a night.

00:09:49.800 --> 00:09:53.800
Legal aid went to court to get tae-woo and hundreds more out

00:09:53.800 --> 00:09:55.600
a judge dismissed.

00:09:55.600 --> 00:09:59.400
I was petition writing surely their right to be protected

00:09:59.400 --> 00:10:02.900
from the virus must be weighed against the right of their victims

00:10:02.900 --> 00:10:06.900
their victims families and members of the public to be safe

00:10:06.900 --> 00:10:10.800
from them Richard Pompeo represents victims and he knows the

00:10:10.800 --> 00:10:15.700
terrain personally, his son was murdered and the Killer is nearing

00:10:15.700 --> 00:10:19.300
the end of his prison sentence in New Jersey a state that just

00:10:19.300 --> 00:10:22.500
freed thousands of inmates to address a haikova.

00:10:22.500 --> 00:10:26.800
Right. Richard doesn't know if his son's killer is about to get

00:10:26.800 --> 00:10:29.800
out and the only reason I don't know is because I haven't

00:10:29.800 --> 00:10:30.800
made inquiry.

00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:32.700
and

00:10:33.900 --> 00:10:35.700
it may sound a little bit strange,

00:10:35.700 --> 00:10:36.500
but even after.

00:10:39.300 --> 00:10:46.600
31 years. It's it's it's so painful to confront.

00:10:46.600 --> 00:10:49.700
So we haven't even gotten to that point.

00:10:51.000 --> 00:10:51.700
I'm in law enforcement.

00:10:51.700 --> 00:10:55.200
They letting hundreds of thousands out of prisons and jails

00:10:55.200 --> 00:10:57.500
will only start a new crisis.

00:10:58.700 --> 00:11:01.400
The system is already overburdened and now you want to reintegrate

00:11:01.400 --> 00:11:04.200
these individuals back into society try to find a job.

00:11:04.200 --> 00:11:05.900
Try to find them housing.

00:11:05.900 --> 00:11:09.200
Try to find them the appropriate medical help.

00:11:09.200 --> 00:11:12.400
You don't have this capability despite the resistance

00:11:12.400 --> 00:11:16.600
at the start of the pandemic governors in 15 states signed

00:11:16.600 --> 00:11:20.900
executive orders, encouraging or mandating releases, but none

00:11:20.900 --> 00:11:25.700
of those orders were fully implemented the buck stops with Governors

00:11:25.700 --> 00:11:29.500
and they have failed and unless we get them out today you are

00:11:29.500 --> 00:11:30.100
going to die.

00:11:30.100 --> 00:11:34.800
They're going to die inside prisons and jails and and and and

00:11:34.800 --> 00:11:38.300
and and these infections are going to spread to the rest of the

00:11:38.300 --> 00:11:39.500
United States and they already have

00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:49.600
What is the answer nobody seems to have one so at random one

00:11:49.600 --> 00:11:58.100
person two people may get relief and several hundred will not

00:11:58.100 --> 00:12:02.100
Richard will now report to a parole officer for the next decade

00:12:02.100 --> 00:12:07.100
Rufus remains under constant monitoring the can't really go beyond

00:12:07.100 --> 00:12:08.100
the front yard without permission.

00:12:08.100 --> 00:12:12.900
He's determined to send his message much farther than that.

00:12:12.900 --> 00:12:16.800
We're not going there.

00:12:19.000 --> 00:12:21.900
behind Barz based on covid-19

00:12:24.400 --> 00:12:26.600
on a mission