Dear Friends,

We hope you and your loved ones are safe and well. In times of crisis, we rely on one another to persist. For the Art for Justice community, this means ensuring that everyone – including those involved in the justice system – can protect themselves from COVID-19 and have access to quality health care.

The Art for Justice Fund is a time-limited grantmaking initiative that uses proceeds from art sales and other contributions to disrupt mass incarceration. We support artists and advocates working together to reform our criminal justice system. Our grantee partners quickly mobilized around the pandemic to demand life-saving system changes. We’re writing to share updates about this urgent work.
 
Even under “normal” circumstances, jails and prisons are detrimental to public health. Think about it: close confinement, differing bans on hand sanitizer, often unsanitary conditions and limited access to health care increase an individual’s risk of getting an infectious disease. Social distancing is not possible for the 2.3 million people behind bars in the U.S. and difficult for the 4.5 million people on parole and probation who have to regularly check-in with officers. In the face of COVID-19, our grantee partners are advocating for the following:

• Releasing the elderly and those with complex medical needs from overcrowded jails and prisons

• Reducing jail admissions by using citations rather than incarceration

• Halting non-essential community supervision, visits to crowded offices and technical violations for people on parole and probation

• Eliminating medical co-pays for incarcerated people which creates a huge barrier to care

• Cutting the cost of phone and video calls to loved ones from jails and prisons (visitation has been curtailed or stopped in almost every facility)

• Developing a higher standard of control and care for COVID-19, while prohibiting solitary confinement and lock-downs as disease control methods. Such strategies violate people’s rights and fail to address underlying conditions

COVID-19 continues to spread at an alarming rate. We need to act immediately to contain the pandemic for everyone. Info about COVID-19’s impact on the justice system is compiled here:
https://thejusticecollaborative.com/covid19/ including links to advocacy activities in which you can participate. We’ll be in touch with further updates. Please be healthy. 
 
Thanks, as always, to the Fund’s generous supporters.
 
Warmly, 

The Art for Justice Team 
www.artforjusticefund.org