Home WebMail Friday, November 1, 2024, 03:35 AM | Calgary | -3.6°C | Regions Advertise Login | Our platform is in maintenance mode. Some URLs may not be available. |
Posted: 2020-04-10T09:45:16Z | Updated: 2020-04-10T17:33:16Z

Every day, Richard Lee Chalk prays that hell be let out of prison. He applied for clemency five months ago and now that theres a coronavirus outbreak, going home is even more urgent. The 61-year-old has a heart condition and Type 2 diabetes, which means catching COVID-19 could be deadly. But even apart from his health and age, Chalk is the perfect candidate for clemency.

Hes spent more than three decades behind bars for a felony murder charge, even though he didnt pull the trigger. Since then, Chalks become a mentor, taken courses on law and conflict resolution, and worked as a cook in the prison kitchen, making big meals for family visitation days.

I have done everything possible during this incarceration to change from the person who I was when I came to prison to the person who I am today, Chalk wrote in a message from prison.

Hes hoping New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) will release prisoners like him with health issues. But Chalks sister, Linda Luciano, worries about what could happen if he isnt allowed to go home.

Not my brother, or nobody else, deserves to die from this virus in prison, she said.

Granting clemency to people like Chalk should be a no-brainer. Prisons are highly susceptible to an outbreak, and releasing people is the only surefire option to slow the coronavirus spread. And yet governors around the U.S. are not using their power to release people in any meaningful way, despite the fact that more than 40 staff and detainees in state and federal facilities have already been killed by the coronavirus, according to data compiled by UCLA School of Law.

While multiple lawsuits have called for the release of sick and elderly incarcerated people, legal experts say it wouldnt be enough to stave off the public health crisis in prisons. Governors could use clemency to dramatically reduce prison populations by letting out those who are imprisoned for minor violations, close to the end of their sentences, or who have pending applications that just need to be signed. But only nine have taken advantage of this power, albeit in minor ways.

Governors have the power to save lives. Instead, theyre showing political cowardice.

If you dont have the will to release people when literal lives are at stake, what does that say? said Rachel Barkow, a faculty director at NYU School of Law. I will blame the governor of my state when people die in prisons here. I will blame him because he had the power to do something.

Public health experts have called prisons tinderboxes for outbreaks since people sleep mere feet apart and dont have ready access to cleaning supplies, masks or soap. If prisons release more people, theyll have more space and supplies to keep those still incarcerated safer ideally, enough to maintain social distancing and remain clean.