Meek Mill and Jay-Z’s criminal justice reform organization REFORM has donated roughly 100,000 surgical masks to correctional facilities including in the states of New York, Tennessee and Mississippi.
The organization said it donated 50,000 masks to New York City’s Rikers Island Correctional Facility, 40,000 masks to the Tennessee Department of Correction and 5,000 to Mississippi State Penitentiary. Spin reports that an additional 2,500 masks were sent to a Rikers medical facility.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says correctional facilities are particularly vulnerable places for COVID-19 to spread.
“Incarcerated/detained persons live, work, eat, study, and recreate within congregate environments, heightening the potential for COVID-19 to spread once introduced,” according to the CDC. Other vulnerabilities include the fact that incarcerated people, for the most part, can’t leave and, depending on the size of the facility, space for someone to medically isolate could be limited.
“We need to protect vulnerable people behind bars & GET THEM OUT!” REFORM said in a tweet. The organization sees this as a threat to public health and said on its website that it is working with experts and advocates “to develop a set of common-sense recommendations that would make us all SAFER.”
They also announced on Twitter that they helped the South Carolina Department of Corrections locate 36,000 masks for their population.
Across the nation, COVID-19 cases have been popping up in correctional facilities, including North Carolina, Florida and Tennessee
