WE DEMAND:
1.IMMEDIATE CLEMENCYThe immediate granting of CLEMENCY to the most vulnerable population in prison, particularly our elder incarcerated parents and those with preexisting health problems.•
As a preventative measure, we demand the immediate grant of clemency for the most vulnerable population to COVID-19, including our elderly incarcerated parents and those with preexisting health problems who pose no public safety issue and have loving, supportive families desperately awaiting their safe return home, like William Underwood, Miquelle West, Tony Lewis, Orrin Jackson, Corey Evans, Pete Monsanto, and Jerry Vega, to name just a few.
• 25% of the U.S. incarcerated population are elderly incarcerated parents and grandparents.
• Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, says the COVID-19 virus pandemic is 10 times deadlier than the seasonal flu. “If you base on the things that we do know, we know that the most vulnerable people in our society right now are those people with the underlying conditions, particularly the elderly.”
• According to data from the Sentencing Project, people age out of criminality and the aging process leads to higher costs of incarceration, primarily due to increased health care needs. With the COVID-19 pandemic, we are gravely concerned about the wellbeing of our incarcerated elderly parents, grandparents and those with preexisting health problems.
• The annual cost of incarceration—generally estimated at about $30,000 per prisoner—can easily double for elderly prisoners, as they require more health resources as they age.
• Upon release, we demand that our most vulnerable population of people in prison, do not encounter any barriers in the reentry process and that certain restrictions are lifted, including Section 8 housing restrictions, the ban on food stamps and immediate release to their families, surpassing halfway house procedures.