March 17, 2020
COALITION CALLS ON CITY OF ROANOKE TO HALT NEW JAIL ADMISSIONS AND RELEASE ALL PEOPLE INCARCERATED IN ROANOKE FACILITIES IN RESPONSE TO COVID-19 VIRUS
ROANOKE, VA – We, the undersigned organizations, call on Roanoke City Mayor Sherman Lea and Roanoke City Sheriff Tim Allen to immediately release all of the people currently held in Roanoke City Jail and halt any further incarceration. We further urge Roanoke General District Court Chief Judge Jacqueline F. Ward Talevi and Roanoke Commonwealth’s Attorney Donald Caldwell to stop funneling more people into Roanoke’s jails—this step must include continuing all current court cases so that defendants are not charged with a Failure to Appear for self-quarantining.
With the recent arrival of COVID-19 (coronavirus) in our city, it is only a matter of time before it spreads to our incarcerated populations, whose crowded living conditions and lack of adequate medical care make them uniquely vulnerable to the virus. The City of Roanoke has taken some laudable steps to curb the spread of COVID-19—yet incarcerated people remain conspicuously absent from the city’s plans.
It is well-established that jails and prisons are inherently unhealthy environments where access to quality medical care is limited by expensive co-pays and structural capacities. It is fair to say that even before the arrival of COVID-19, Roanoke’s incarcerated population was experiencing a health crisis. However, the close living quarters in jails, combined with the high number of elderly and otherwise immunocompromised incarcerated people, make our present situation especially dire—without serious decarceral action, Roanoke’s jails will inevitably worsen the spread of the pandemic. Reporter Kelsey Kauffman of The Appeal writes: “While fewer than one million people are in jail today, 10.6 million will cycle through them this year. Indeed, many people are there for only a few days—just long enough to catch the virus and take it home with them, if not to your neighborhood, then perhaps in line behind you at the supermarket or within six feet on public transit.”
None of the City of Roanoke’s current COVID-19 management plans sufficiently address the urgent needs of our incarcerated people. The only way to guarantee that incarcerated people, jail staff, attorneys, judges, and visitors do not circulate the virus amongst each other and out into their personal networks is to release everyone currently being held and provide all affected personnel with paid sick leave. For the sake of public health, and in the name of justice and compassion, we demand that the City of Roanoke give this problem its only practicable solution: release of all incarcerated people and suspension of new jail admissions.
Sincerely,
Roanoke Jail Solidarity
Roanoke Peoples’ Power Network
The Hope Center
Virginia Harm Reduction Coalition
Community ARTSreach
Coalition For Justice – Blacksburg