Nearly 100,000 more people could die from COVID-19 in jails and surrounding communities if states fail to reduce jail populations. The time to act is now!

South Carolina’s jails and prisons alike have too often become our society’s solutions for people struggling with homelessness and mental health or substance use disorders. Our jail and prison logs are a daily reminder that our criminal justice system is a racist system that stops, arrests, convicts, and incarcerates Black people at staggering rates compared to white people.With COVID-19, our failings as a society leave each of the nearly 30,000 people incarcerated in South Carolina’s prisons and jails facing a potential death sentence. That’s because incarcerated people are highly vulnerable to contracting and dying from COVID-19. They are housed in close quarters and are often in poor health. It is impossible for them to follow the social distancing guidelines.For weeks, public health experts have been urging policymakers to do everything in their power to substantially reduce prison and jail populations to safeguard the lives of those who work and live there. The findings outlined in a new report released today by the ACLU amplify the need to reduce South Carolina’s jail populations immediately.The report focuses on a new epidemiological model that shows COVID-19 could claim the lives of approximately 100,000 more people nationwide than current projections stipulate if jail populations are not dramatically and immediately reduced. These projections hold even if communities across the United States continue practicing social distancing and following public health guidance.South Carolina’s unfortunate embrace of mass incarceration makes this problem even more dire. We’re talking about approximately 10,000 people in South Carolina’s jails alone.Here are three things that our judges, solicitors, law enforcement, and local political leaders can do immediately to substantially reduce South Carolina’s jail population.First, review all people currently held pretrial and immediately release on a personal recognizance bond all but the very few people where pretrial detention is absolutely necessary to ensure the person’s return to court or public safety. Approximately 75 percent of the over 10,000 people in South Carolina’s jails are incarcerated only because they are too poor to afford their bond. These people have not even been convicted of a crime.Second, end the war on marijuana. As we reported on Monday, South Carolina has the second highest rate of marijuana possession arrests in the country. Every 15 minutes somebody is arrested for possessing marijuana in South Carolina - a substance that is legal or decriminalized for personal use in 26 states and the District of Columbia. As we work toward the legalization of marijuana statewide, our local leaders, from solicitors, to city and county leaders, to police chiefs and sheriffs, can immediately stop enforcing South Carolina’s marijuana possession laws. That’s a reduction of around 34,000 arrests each year.Third, prohibit the use of arrests unless necessary to prevent imminent and serious bodily harm to another person and all non-incarceration alternatives have been exhausted. This would not only reduce unnecessary incarceration, but also strengthen trust in law enforcement - a key component to advancing public safety. As the Vera Institute of Justice noted, in “communities where distrust in police is high, people are less likely to report a crime or offer witness testimony, which impedes effective policing.”For weeks we have asked our South Carolina’s political leaders to listen to the experts and take immediate steps to reduce our incarcerated populations. Our political leaders are running out of time, as we saw yesterday moments after we, along with our pro bono partners at Arnold and Porter, filed a lawsuit seeking the release of people at heightened risk of contracting and dying from COVID-19 in South Carolina’s prison system. Shortly after we filed the lawsuit, the South Carolina Department of Corrections disclosed that a second incarcerated person tested positive for COVID-19 at Kirkland Correctional Institution, leading to a two-week lockdown at the facility. Because Kirkland is the facility where all newly sentenced people come before being sent to another prison, the Department of Corrections has announced that it will not take newly sentenced people for two weeks, leaving additional people warehoused in South Carolina’s jails until Kirkland opens again.As the new ACLU model found, aggressive action and policy change could save as many as 23,000 people in jail and 76,000 in the broader community if we stop arrests for anything but the five percent of crimes defined as most serious by the FBI — including murder, rape, and aggravated assault — and double the rate of release for those already detained.Incarceration should not become a death sentence. The ACLU model shows that a larger catastrophe can be prevented if governors and all system stakeholders drastically reduce their incarcerated populations.We cannot do this alone. Your voice can make a difference. Please click this link to learn how you can take action!

April 22, 2020

prison

South Carolina’s jails and prisons alike have too often become our society’s solutions for people struggling with homelessness and mental health or substance use disorders. Our jail and prison logs are a daily reminder that our criminal justice system is a racist system that stops, arrests, convicts, and incarcerates Black people at staggering rates compared to white people.

With COVID-19, our failings as a society leave each of the nearly 30,000 people incarcerated in South Carolina’s prisons and jails facing a potential death sentence. That’s because incarcerated people are highly vulnerable to contracting and dying from COVID-19. They are housed in close quarters and are often in poor health. It is impossible for them to follow the social distancing guidelines.

For weeks, public health experts have been urging policymakers to do everything in their power to substantially reduce prison and jail populations to safeguard the lives of those who work and live there. The findings outlined in a new report released today by the ACLU amplify the need to reduce South Carolina’s jail populations immediately.

The report focuses on a new epidemiological model that shows COVID-19 could claim the lives of approximately 100,000 more people nationwide than current projections stipulate if jail populations are not dramatically and immediately reduced. These projections hold even if communities across the United States continue practicing social distancing and following public health guidance.

South Carolina’s unfortunate embrace of mass incarceration makes this problem even more dire. We’re talking about approximately 10,000 people in South Carolina’s jails alone.

Here are three things that our judges, solicitors, law enforcement, and local political leaders can do immediately to substantially reduce South Carolina’s jail population.

First, review all people currently held pretrial and immediately release on a personal recognizance bond all but the very few people where pretrial detention is absolutely necessary to ensure the person’s return to court or public safety. Approximately 75 percent of the over 10,000 people in South Carolina’s jails are incarcerated only because they are too poor to afford their bond. These people have not even been convicted of a crime.

Second, end the war on marijuana. As we reported on Monday, South Carolina has the second highest rate of marijuana possession arrests in the country. Every 15 minutes somebody is arrested for possessing marijuana in South Carolina - a substance that is legal or decriminalized for personal use in 26 states and the District of Columbia. As we work toward the legalization of marijuana statewide, our local leaders, from solicitors, to city and county leaders, to police chiefs and sheriffs, can immediately stop enforcing South Carolina’s marijuana possession laws. That’s a reduction of around 34,000 arrests each year.

Third, prohibit the use of arrests unless necessary to prevent imminent and serious bodily harm to another person and all non-incarceration alternatives have been exhausted. This would not only reduce unnecessary incarceration, but also strengthen trust in law enforcement - a key component to advancing public safety. As the Vera Institute of Justice noted, in “communities where distrust in police is high, people are less likely to report a crime or offer witness testimony, which impedes effective policing.”

For weeks we have asked our South Carolina’s political leaders to listen to the experts and take immediate steps to reduce our incarcerated populations. Our political leaders are running out of time, as we saw yesterday moments after we, along with our pro bono partners at Arnold and Porter, filed a lawsuit seeking the release of people at heightened risk of contracting and dying from COVID-19 in South Carolina’s prison system. Shortly after we filed the lawsuit, the South Carolina Department of Corrections disclosed that a second incarcerated person tested positive for COVID-19 at Kirkland Correctional Institution, leading to a two-week lockdown at the facility. Because Kirkland is the facility where all newly sentenced people come before being sent to another prison, the Department of Corrections has announced that it will not take newly sentenced people for two weeks, leaving additional people warehoused in South Carolina’s jails until Kirkland opens again.

As the new ACLU model found, aggressive action and policy change could save as many as 23,000 people in jail and 76,000 in the broader community if we stop arrests for anything but the five percent of crimes defined as most serious by the FBI — including murder, rape, and aggravated assault — and double the rate of release for those already detained.

Incarceration should not become a death sentence. The ACLU model shows that a larger catastrophe can be prevented if governors and all system stakeholders drastically reduce their incarcerated populations.

We cannot do this alone. Your voice can make a difference. Please click this link to learn how you can take action!

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May 01, 2020
Eviction Car Protest

We Cannot Let People Lose their Home

From the exploitation of low-wage workers, to the denial of equitable education, to the failure to protect the rights of incarcerated people, COVID-19 has made clear the failings of our society to ensure the basic rights of all.Across the nation, the COVID-19 pandemic has already resulted in widespread and devastating economic consequences. As of last Thursday, over 30 million people have filed for unemployment insurance. And, because health insurance is often tied to employment in our country, the number of uninsured or underinsured people and families in America will increase in the midst of a global pandemic. This is unprecedented and doesn’t include undocumented people who also face additional harms and exploitation.In the face of staggering unemployment numbers and climbing medical costs, millions of people living in the United States -- and 1,473,765 renters in South Carolina -- face the imminent threat of losing their homes. These consequences risk further spread of COVID-19 throughout South Carolina and undermine efforts to protect public health and well-being. Moreover, the nearly guaranteed wave of evictions would inflict far-reaching and significant economic and social harm on thousands of South Carolina residents—particularly on women, people of color, low-income residents, and other vulnerable communities.Last week we sent a letter to Chief Justice Beatty and Governor McMaster urging them to take the steps necessary to prevent South Carolinians from losing their home during a global pandemic. Chief Justice Beatty’s order to halt evictions and foreclosures until May 15 is a welcome step, but our leaders must go much further. It is critical to immediately extend the moratorium period to at least July 25 to align with the federal CARES Act. Furthermore, our state leaders must take steps to provide additional protections to renters and prevent a surge of evictions after the moratorium expires, including halting utility disconnections, establishing rent payment grace periods, prohibiting evictions due to nonpayment of rent during the pandemic, and prohibiting late fees and rent increases.Evictions and utility shut-offs will disproportionately harm communities of color -- and particularly women of color. The ACLU’s Data Analytics team analyzed national eviction data from 2012 to 2016, provided by the Eviction Lab at Princeton University, and found that on average, Black renters had evictions filed against them by landlords at nearly twice the rate of white renters. Women of color, and particularly Black women, bear the burden of eviction. The harmful impact of eviction is further compounded by other racial, gender, and socioeconomic barriers—such as wealth gaps, pay disparities, and inequities in our healthcare system.Critically, the aftermath of an eviction persists for decades, as tenants with prior eviction records face major obstacles to accessing future housing opportunities. Landlords routinely employ screening policies that deny housing to any renter previously named in an eviction case, regardless of whether the case was dismissed, occurred many years ago, or was filed on unlawful grounds. As a result, eviction often exacerbates and reproduces conditions of economic insecurity for low-income women and communities of color.Utility shut-offs also disproportionately harm communities of color. A 2017 report by the NAACP found that Black households experience utility disconnections at a higher rate than financially similar white households. For households at or below 150% of the federal poverty level, only 5.5% of white-headed households experienced shutoffs as compared to 11.3% of Black-headed households. Similarly, another study revealed that residents in neighborhoods predominantly consisting of people of color faced 27% higher energy cost burdens than those in predominantly white neighborhoods. Research further shows that Black communities disproportionately experience higher water costs, water service terminations, and water liens, resulting in negative health and economic outcomes.South Carolina must expand a comprehensive moratorium on evictions, halt utility shut-offs and prevent mass evictions after the moratorium ends. In light of the widespread and devastating impact of eviction during the pandemic, we call on South Carolina to immediately issue a comprehensive moratorium on evictions and utility shut-offs throughout the entire state that prohibits every stage of the eviction process without exceptions for types of tenants or lease violations. South Carolina must also plan ahead for when the moratorium ends to prevent mass evictions and other enduring housing consequences for tenants hurt by the pandemic.Specifically, we call on South Carolina to: