Sex, gender and COVID-19: Disaggregated data and health disparities

The impact on women in particular has been highlighted – in terms of immediate risks associated with their roles on the front line of health and social care, secondary impactsttps://blogs.bmj.com/bmjgh/2020/03/24/sex-gender-and-covid-19-disaggregated-data-and-health-disparities/

Policy makers must include migrant camps in their national plans

https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m1213

Children in temporary accommodation/ homeless and impact of Covid-19 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(20)30080-3/fulltext

Low-paid women in UK at ‘high risk of coronavirus exposure 

’Gender, Employment, Inequality: Low-paid women are at high risk of exposure to coronavirus as they are more likely to be in jobs such as social care, nursing and pharmacy, a study has found.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/29/low-paid-women-in-uk-at-high-risk-of-coronavirus-exposure

Domestic Violence & Covid 19

Letter in the Lancet with links to parenting and domestic violence resources https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30736-4/fulltext

Anti-Roma Racism is Spiraling During COVID-19 Pandemic:

Anti-Roma Racism is Spiraling During COVID-19 Pandemic

• Law profs have been contributing COVID-19-related articles since early March on the Sentencing Law and Policy Blog
• Hadar Aviram has been posting regularly about the situation on her blog, The California Correctional Crisis Blog, since mid-March.
• Austin Sarat wrote “Will Coronavirus Stop America from Carrying Out Executions?”  for Verdict (March 24).
• Robert F. Barsky wrote “Using the Rhetoric of Obscenity Against Vulnerable Migrants Amidst the Coronavirus Pandemic” for the Yale Journal of Regulation Blog (March 26). 
• Gavin Yamey has written “We Must Act Now to Protect America’s Most Vulnerable from Coronavirus” for Time (March 30). 
• Katherine Beckett and Anjum Hajat wrote “With coronavirus, prison and jail sentences could become death sentences” for the Seattle Times (March 31) 
• Vanessa Barker wrote “The Social Borders of Covid-19: From Social Darwinism to Social Recognition” for the Border Criminologies Blog (April 1).
  • And check out the Border Criminologies Blog for more excellent coverage of immigration issues in Europe and beyond!  
• Stephane D. Andrade, Brittany Pearl Battle, and Maretta McDonald wrote “The Stimulus Bill Punishes Parents Behind on Child Support. Now Is Not the Time.” (Slate, April 1)
• Johann Koehler wrote a (March 31) piece on the London School of Economics Blog  “COVID-19 recasts criminal justice reforms once deemed ‘unthinkable,’” which gives a much-needed multi-international perspective of what needs to be done.
• Charlotte Rosen writes for Belt Magazine about Pennsylvania facilities in the 1970s and 1980s when they also transferred prisoners due to unsafe conditions. The (April 3) article’s tag line reads: “Facilities across the region have begun releasing incarcerated people due to dangerous conditions. It’s not the first time.”
• David Johnson wrote an op-ed in the Honolulu Civil Beat (April 3) making the case for early releases of Hawaii’s prisoners, both at home and abroad (since many are imprisoned on the Continent and not on the Islands). “Hawaii Needs To Release Inmates Soon, And On A Large Scale.” 
• Joss Soss was interviewed by Dissent Magazine (April 6) about his book with Josh Page and about the pandemic and criminal justice predation.  
• Shaun Ossei-Owusu wrote for the Boston Review (April 8) about the effect of the pandemic on vulnerable populations, including incarcerated people. “Coronavirus and the Politics of Disposability.” 
• Ian Loader wrote “Coronavirus: why we must tackle hard questions about police power” for The Conversation (April 8).
• Sharon Dolovich writes for The Appeal (April 10), linking the argument for necessary (for public health and humanitarian reasons) releases with the larger decarceration project. The title and tag line read: “Every public official with the power to decarcerate must exercise that power now[.] Doing so will save countless lives, and in the process, they may show us by example how to begin, finally, to dismantle mass incarceration for good.” 
• Sahar Aziz wrote “Anti-Asian racism must be stopped before it is normalised” for Al Jazeera (April 12).
• Heather Elliot wrote “Parole hearings should be resumed for public health”  for AL.com (April 13).
• J.J. Prescott, Benjamin Pyle, and Sonja Starr writes for Slate about their research on recidivism and make the case for why people convicted of violent crimes need to be released. “It’s Time to Start Releasing Some Prisoners With Violent Records” (April 13). 
• Rachel Ellis has written “Underpaid and unprotected: Prison labor in the age of coronavirus” for the Contexts Blog (April 13).
• Candace McCoy wrote for The American Prospect “Why the Pandemic Won’t Increase Violent Crime Even If It Triggers a Depression” (April 15). 
• Ashley Rubin (that’s me!) wrote a (April 15) piece in The Conversation offering some 18th century historical perspective on the situation, contrasting the intentions for early prison design to the situation today. “Prisons and jails are coronavirus epicenters – but they were once designed to prevent disease outbreaks.” 
• Olga Zeveleva has written “Prison Riots and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Global Uprising?” on the Gulag Echoes Blog (April 15). 
• Jamie Rowen wrote “8 ways veterans are particularly at risk from the coronavirus pandemic,” which includes a discussion of how the situation is playing out with veterans courts and justice-involved veterans (The Conversation, April 16).
• Lucius Couloute has written “Prisons as a public health threat during covid-19” for the Contexts Blog (April 16) 
• Tyler Winkelman, Michelle S. Phelps, Kelly Lyn Mithcell, Latasha Jennings, Rebecca Shlafer have posted “Community Supervision and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Why We Need to Build a More Integrated Health System” to the Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Blog (April 17). 

Alex Luscombe and Alexander McClelland have created a fantastic website tracking how Canadian authorities are Policing the Pandemic, complete with database and white paper. 

Twitter threads:

• A short thread from Nicole Gonzales Van Cleve about how the pandemic-related lockdowns (and not-lockdowns) are affecting courts. 
• Here’s a long thread discussing the role of disease in penal reform throughout US history. 
• Here’s a medium thread using examples from the punishment and society literature to illustrate how our thinking about the pandemic trends are hurting our response.