Note: On 4/8/20, this petition was officially delivered to the recipients (the judges & officials named below) with 1,100 signatures. If you would like to support the campaign, you can still sign the petition to sign up for our email updates, or stay connected in other ways: Linktree, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.

To Judge Barrows, Judge McIntosh, Judge Browne, Judge Gill, and local officials:

Due to the global public health crisis provoked by the spread of COVID-19, we call on you to release those detained in Franklin County Correctional Centers I and II and the Franklin County Juvenile Detention Center, and to ensure that no one is criminalized, policed, prosecuted, jailed, or detained for new crimes throughout the duration of this crisis.

    Incarcerated people have an inherently limited ability to fight the spread of infectious disease since they are confined in close, often overcrowded and unsanitary quarters, without access to sufficient medical care, and unable to avoid contact with people who may have been exposed. Now, these preexisting crises within our jails and detention centers have set the stage for unimaginable danger to our incarcerated loved ones. Without the rapid decarceration of our three local facilities, COVID-19 will be a death sentence for those inside, the majority of whom are being held solely because they could not afford to pay their way out, and all of whom deserve safety.

    Ohio has taken significant steps to enable social distancing, which the Ohio Department of Health declares is saving lives—but Franklin County has taken no meaningful steps to extend these life-saving measures to those who are incarcerated. Responses such as lock downs, placing people in solitary confinement and limiting access to visits from loved ones are punitive and ineffective responses to outbreaks according to health professionals. Adults and children in the local jails and detention facility are stuck in cramped quarters and forced to share communal facilities such as toilets and sinks, a risk factor for COVID-19. They cannot wash their hands at will and lack basic hygiene products, like water and soap. On March 12, Gov. DeWine decided it was not safe for children to attend school together; yet Ohio’s incarcerated children, statistically more vulnerable to COVID-19, remain inside facilities with other youth, separated from their families.

    In other jurisdictions, COVID-19 is already proving to be substantially more dangerous in jails than it is in the general population. In Rikers Island Jail, the rate of infection is more than seven times the rate of infection in New York City. In Cook County, the number of positive diagnoses in the jail rose from 2 to 134 within a week. With staff exiting and entering these facilities every day, it is only a matter of time before those staff bring the virus into the jails and detention facility, where incarcerated adults and children do not have the tools or space to protect themselves. At best, the failure to release people immediately will result in severe outbreaks; at worst, we will have sentenced many of the children and adults trapped inside to death. Other Ohio counties have already taken steps (including Cuyahoga, Hamilton, Licking, Allen, and Montgomery) to respond to this grave danger, as have some individual judges in Franklin County. It is time for us to do more.

In a global pandemic, our collective health depends on each other. It is time for judges and local officials to prioritize the lives and safety of all people in our communities, including those who are criminalized and trapped behind bars. The risk of virus spread, illness, and death is becoming greater with each day. We must act now.

We call on county judges and officials to adopt these guidelines:

1. SEND PEOPLE HOME: Release all people incarcerated in the Franklin County Correctional Centers and the Franklin County Juvenile Detention Center, including the immediate release of individuals with a heightened risk, including the elderly, pregnant people, people with illnesses and health conditions, and people with otherwise compromised immune systems, or other vulnerabilities.
2. HALT NEW ADMISSIONS: No new people should be entering the jails and detention facilities. End arraignments and arrests for new criminal charges. Issue no new bench warrants.
3. DROP FINES AND FEES: These function as a regressive tax on the poor, especially now. Vacate fines and fees and do not impose new ones.
4. END CRIMINALIZATION: Cancel all court-ordered classes, in-person drug testing, and probation, parole, pretrial, and diversion court meetings; modify all reporting conditions to phone-reporting. Cancel remote surveillance operations, such as ankle and GPS monitors, which interfere with individuals’ capacity to social distance, get medical care, come to the aid of others, and cost a great deal.
5. KEEP PEOPLE INSIDE SAFE: Ensure facilities are as empty, safe, and clean as possible; coordinate with local public health experts to ensure that all facilities have adequate supplies of soap, bleach, hand sanitizer, tissues, and other hygiene products, and that these are made available to incarcerated adults and children for free; ensure access to medical testing and treatment, and free access to phones and internet to allow for contact with loved ones.