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The New York Supreme Court recently decided that all incarcerated people in NY prisons will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine. Because 6,000 people already tested positive, and Black people in general are still discriminated against with vaccine distribution, this news is significant. But is it enough?
Many people in the past year compared quarantining in their houses to being in "prison." But, there are people in actual prison, crammed into tight quarters, who live in fear of this virus or have gotten it already. Especially elderly incarcerated people.
Elderly incarcerated people face unsanitary and unsafe conditions that make prisons a playground for COVID-19. But the virus is even more deadly among the elderly – putting them at extreme risk.
According to the Release Aging People In Prison Campaign, 8,291 incarcerated New Yorkers are over 50. Many are eligible for parole or even clemency. So, why won’t Governor Cuomo let more of them out? That’s the question the campaign is asking now.
Like Aging People in Prison, we must apply pressure to these governors to ensure that incarcerated people get the vaccine as quickly and effectively as possible. And, if they have the power to free more of our people, they should do so! Incarcerated people are not a metaphor for us to compare ourselves to. For many of them, this life and death!