Rep. Ayanna Pressley, on multiple occasions, has brought up the possibility of freeing prisoners as a means to combat the spread of coronavirus.
Pressley believes that prisons may be a breeding ground for the virus and as such, the only solution would be to grant clemency to those within prison walls.
Specifics, as you might imagine, were vague.
First Asked Dr. Fauci
Pressley questioned Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, about whether or not he had heard of the possibility of commuting sentences or granting clemency out of the administration.
“And just because the Administration has an express commitment to criminal justice reform, you know, this president has less commutations than the previous president,” she sneered. “However, with overcrowding, the federal corrections system is a breeding ground for deadly outbreak.”
“Dr. Fauci, has the president or any member of the task force raised clemency power to as a method of preventing a potentially devastating outbreak?” Pressley asked.
“To my knowledge, no,” Fauci smiled. “They may have done it not in my presence, but to my knowledge they have not.”
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Walls Work
It’s difficult to imagine Pressley’s proposal to release prisoners as a means to curtail infections would be considered a wise idea by Dr. Fauci himself.
Fauci notes that this country needs two things to happen in order to limit the spread of coronavirus: “To contain the influx of people who are infected coming from the outside and the ability to contain and mitigate within our own country.”
Containment, it would seem, is something he approves. If prisoners happen to contract a case of the virus, the best place for them to be would be remaining behind bars.
Can anyone read Morse code? I think she’s blinking T-O-R-T-U-R-E, which would make sense, given what agony it is to listen to this daffy cue ball head. pic.twitter.com/4gxPjGlTdd
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) March 14, 2020
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Pressley Doubles Down
Pressley reiterated the suggestion that freeing prisoners would be an important step in the fight against coronavirus in an interview with MSNBC’s Al Sharpton.
“Given the crowding and overpopulating in our prisons for a confluence of other reasons … are an ecosystem in a petri dish for the spreading of this pandemic,” Pressley explained.
She added that her colleagues – Reps. Nydia Velasquez, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rashida Tlaib – have joined her in asking the Bureau of Prisons to “use their full power and to communicate guidance for how we will contain and mitigate this epidemic behind the wall.”
“I think now would be the time to commute some sentences, to exact clemency and to take care of our most vulnerable,” Pressley told ‘The Rev.’ “10% of those incarcerated are over the age of 60 and already have an underlying condition.”
Last week, Pressley slammed New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for using prison labor to help make the state’s own line of hand sanitizer, calling it “especially demeaning, ironic [and] exploitive.”
If they’re surrounded by hand sanitizer, they’re in better shape than most of the public.
