Release Nonviolent Criminals to Reduce Spread of COVID-19 in Prisons

Target: Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House

Goal: Release all nonviolent offenders serving short sentences to reduce prison population.

Prisons are becoming more and more of a hotbed of COVID-19 every day, and something needs to be done. There are thousands of criminals serving short sentences for nonviolent crimes in prison who could be released, rather than risking their own infection and creating one more source for other prisoners to potentially catch the novel Coronavirus.

Prisoners who have less than a year on their sentences need to be released. In the case of longer sentences, transferring offenders to a home arrest situation is going to be safer than leaving them crammed into already crowded prisons. There are far more humane options than leaving nonviolent criminals to get infected and spread the virus to others. Sign our petition and demand that something is done to reduce prison populations during the pandemic.

PETITION LETTER:

Dear Speaker Pelosi,

The prison population is becoming a major source of infection in the country. Far too many prisoners are being exposed to COVID-19 and employees, inmates, and others are at severe risk. During the pandemic, the prison population needs to be severely decreased.

To start, any nonviolent offenders who are serving short sentences need to be released on parole, and those with longer sentences need to be temporarily transferred to home arrest situations. Anything we can do to stop the spread of COVID-19 needs to be done. People in prison should not have to die just because they have made mistakes.

Sincerely,

[ Your Name Here ]

Photo Credit: Frank Schulenberg