Eve Hanan

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I wrote an op-ed for the Nevada Independent urging the selective release of incarcerated people to reduce the risk of a severe Covid-19 outbreak.

There is a growing, national consensus that preventing serious Covid-19 outbreaks requires reducing the prison population. In Nevada, this can be done through the Pardons Board as well as through habeas corpus actions in the courts. Although the law is not clear in this area, it is also possible that the governor has emergency powers to release prisoners during a pandemic. So why is so little being done?

As I recently argued in an article forthcoming in the UC Davis Law Review, it can be hard to muster sustained public attention to prisons because prison life is largely invisible. Prisons sequester people deemed worthy of harsh treatment. Yet understanding what life is like inside prisons is essential to public policy and—as Covid-19 has made clear—to public health.

Covid-19 illuminates both how marginalized groups bear an outsized burden during times of hardship and how we are all connected. In prisons, incarcerated people are uniquely vulnerable. Already isolated, they rely on others for their most basic hygiene and safety needs and they often endure long waits for medical services. Yet when a Covid-19 outbreak happens in a Nevada prison, the staff will also be at risk, as will their families and communities.