Dan Berger: In a Pandemic, Prisons are a Problem

prisons in a pandemic

IAS faculty member Dan Berger published an article in the UW Center for Human Rights website on the problem pandemics pose for prison. "While Washington state has ostensibly abolished the death penalty, its approach to incarceration now puts thousands of people at risk–in and out of prison–of a most painful and preventable death due to coronavirus," Berger writes. "The safest measure to “flatten the curve” of the pandemic is to massively and quickly reduce the number of people incarcerated in jails, prisons, and detention centers."

Berger is also a faculty associate of the UW Center for Human Rights, and co-curates the Washington Prison History Project, whose website has been updated to include a page of writings from and resources about coronavirus in WA prisons.