Decarcerate. Since COVID-19 became a national emergency, that call has come from every corner of the country as a public health necessity. Prison activists, defense attorneys, and sheriffs alike have worked to thin jail and prison populations to prevent the spread of the virus.
The reasons for decarceration are numerous, among them:
• Prisons and jails are susceptible to overcrowding, making social distancing guidelines logistically challenging and nearly impossible to follow. California’s county jails are particularly susceptible to such conditions, since reform efforts in the last decade have filled them beyond capacity with people whose sentences previously would have landed them in state prison.