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Violence Architecture. End Prison Slavery. The terror of the prison industrial complex. By August 4, 86,639 people in U.S. prisons tested positive for the virus and 94 died. 44 states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) show no system moved with the urgency required to meet recommendations of public health officials to reduce incarceration in response to COVID-19. Over 12,400 infected correctional officers, nurses, chaplains, wardens and other workers carried the virus between their communities and workplaces. The very physical and social architecture of prisons makes distancing impossible. People inside jails are more likely to be immunocompromised; they may have diabetes, hypertension, mental illness, substance use problems, or other chronic health issues. When cases began to spike at North Carolina’s Neuse Correctional Institution, prison officials tested all 700 prisoners and 250 staff. At least 65 percent prisoners had the virus and 98 percent were asymptomatic. Due to convict leasing, prison laborers are picking produce at a rate not seen since Jim Crow, filling a labor shortage caused by u.s. anti-immigration policies. Convict leasing allows states to sell prison labor to private farms. This was prohibited for most of the 20th century UNTIL the Justice System Improvement Act of 1979. Prison labor tends to be more highly concentrated in southern states. This reflects the roots of prison labor in slavery and the post-slavery practice of convict leasing. 46 states have agriculture production within their prison systems and over 20 percent of states have large scale operations. Arizona Correctional Industries gained a $5 million contract with Hickman's Family Farms, the fourth largest U.S. egg producer, and a $2 million contract with Nature Sweet which established a base pay of $2.00 per hour before wage deductions. Arizona’s minimum wage for most non-incarcerated farm workers is $11.00 per hour. Prisons can garnish inmate wages for incarceration costs, victim restitution, court fees, and other debts. Incarcerated laborers are: • Excluded from federal minimum wage protections • Prohibited from organizing for higher wages and working conditions • Not legally considered employees, which means they are excluded from protection under parts of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Equal Pay Act, Fair Labor Standards Act, National Labor Relations Act and Federal Tort Claims Act Exploiting the incarcerated to address farmworker shortages only continues the historic trend of selecting politically and socially vulnerable groups as the laborers of the food system. The CARES Act included expanded eligibility for inmate release. BOP stated it prioritized those who met COVID-19 risk factors, were at least 60 years old, and served at least 50 percent of their sentences, or who had less than 18 months left and served 25 percent of their sentences. However, they gave confusing signals on evaluating releases, and changed official guidances a few times. The application process is slow and tedious: each application needs approval from the governor, secretary of corrections, and assistant district attorney. Months after the CARES Act, fewer than 160 people were released from BOP facilities. District Court Judge Alison Nathan called the release process “Kafkaesque,” with prisoners quarantined in close quarters while the virus runs rampant through prisons, and 14-day quarantine clocks resetting as inevitable positive cases appear. A woman’s husband incarcerated at Oakdale prison in Louisiana said she drove from out-of-state to pick him up — only to find he was no longer going to be released. Meanwhile, Michael Cohen (Trump’s former personal lawyer, three year sentence) and Paul Manafort (Trump's campaign manager, seven and a half year sentence) won early releases in May. Both served less than a third of their time — not meeting the original federal criteria for early release. 
The information presented here is adapted from these sources:

The Conversation
Convicts are returning to farming – anti-immigrant policies are the reason

Federal Bureau of Prisons
Frequently Asked Questions Regarding Potential Inmate Home Confinement In Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Food First
Is Prison Labor the Future of Our Food System? 

HEAL Food Alliance
The Prison Industrial Complex and Agricultural Labor 


The Marshall Project
A State-by-State Look at Coronavirus in Prisons

Few Federal Prisoners Released Under COVID-19 Emergency Policies

Freed From Prison, Dead from COVID-19, Not Even Counted

Prison Populations Drop by 100,000 During Pandemic

Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort Got to Leave Federal Prison Due to COVID-19. They’re The Exception.
These Prisons Are Doing Mass Testing For COVID-19 — And Finding Mass Infections

Why Jails Are So Important in the Fight Against Coronavirus


Takepart
A Disturbing Trend in Agriculture: Prisoner-Picked VegetablesVera Institute of Justice
People in Prison in 2019
Running on Cargo