Tell Governor Carney & Commissioner DeMatteis to Protect Those Living & Working in DOC Facilities

WE NEED YOUR HELP - TAKE ACTION NOW

As COVID-19 cases continue to be at all-time highs in Delaware, our correctional facilities are facing a crisis that advocates have warned about since March.

On December 7, 2020, the DOC reported 574 positive cases in DOC facilities between incarcerated people, correctional staff, and contracted staff. Stakeholders have received reports of infirmary overflow, mail blocking, lack of hygiene items, and safety protocols not being followed every day since the numbers inside DOC facilities have started to climb again.

11 people have died from the virus under the care of the Department of Correction – the third highest rate in the nation – and with current infection rates sky-rocketing we know that number is in serious danger of rising quickly.

We need your help to save those lives.

We sent a letter to Governor Carney and DOC Commissioner DeMatteis asking them — again — to take necessary steps to protect those living and working in Delaware’s correctional facilities.

Show Governor Carney and Commissioner DeMatties that you care about what happens to the people living and working in our correctional facilities: send a letter asking them to act immediately on the recommendations we sent in our letter to reduce the spread and save the lives of incarcerated people and DOC staff.

Message Recipients:
Governor John Carney
Commissioner Claire DeMatteis

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Your Message

Subject

Dear Governor Carney and Commissioner DeMatteis,

Incarcerated people, DOC staff, and contracted staff are highly vulnerable to outbreaks of COVID-19 in our correctional facilities. As of December 8, 2020, 1,223 people living and working in DOC facilities have tested positive for COVID-19 and 11 have died — making us the third-highest rate of incarcerated deaths from COVID in the nation.

Governor Carney and Commissioner DeMatteis, you can do something to reduce the deadly path of this virus in DOC facilities. You have the tools and the power to reduce the spread and save lives, and I’m asking you to use it immediately.

Message Body

In a letter sent to you by the ACLU of Delaware and the First State Chapter of the National Medical Association, there was a series of recommendations that you can follow to help ensure the safety of those living and working in our prisons:

1. Making hygiene and basic needs items readily available to those in quarantine at no cost;
2. Ensuring that incarcerated people and their families have the ability to check in on each other’s well-being with free mail and phone calls;
3. Implementing widespread testing of incarcerated people and correctional staff and strictly enforcing the mask mandates for correctional staff;
4. Waiving any copay to see medical staff during this public health crisis;
5. Minimize any new admissions to the prison; and
6. Release anyone whose sentence would end in the next six months or who is identified as particularly vulnerable by CDC guidelines (where it is safe to do so).

Further, I am asking you to address the state of COVID-19 in Delaware’s prisons in a transparent and direct manner. Every Delawarean should have a complete understanding of the steps you’re taking to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 in DOC facilities.

Thank you for the steps that you’ve taken since March to reduce the pandemic’s impact in DOC facilities. Please recognize that we need to do more to protect those living and working in Delaware’s correctional facilities and consider this ask with a sense of urgency, responsibility, and ultimately, humanity.

Thank you for considering this request,

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Tell Governor Carney & Commissioner DeMatteis to Protect Those Living & Working in DOC Facilities

WE NEED YOUR HELP - TAKE ACTION NOW

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