The recent death of Rikers Island inmate Michael Tyson of COVID-19 in New York City grimly reminds us that we must not lose sight of the impact of this virus on those on the margins.
Tyson, 53, who had been incarcerated at Rikers, became a victim not only of the COVID-19 but of a plagued and hopelessly broken criminal justice system.
Before his death on April 5 at Bellevue Hospital, to which he had been moved after contracting the virus, Tyson was one of 100 detainees named in a lawsuit by attorneys for the Legal Aid Society. The suit sought immediate release for noncriminal technical parole violators of advanced age or with underlying medical conditions due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The crime for which Tyson was sent to Rikers? He was arrested Feb. 27 on an absconder warrant issued more than nine months earlier, after he failed to report to his parole officer. His final revocation hearing was slated for April 20.
Noncriminal technical violators can be detained for such minor noncriminal infractions in facilities like Rikers Island, which has well-documented overcrowding as well as squalid and unsanitary conditions. Tyson’s death underscores the arguments that have been made by human rights lawyers and activists for weeks, highlighting the need for proactive measures to protect the lives of prisoners and detainees.
Inmates themselves have launched numerous underreported protests, hunger strikes and other actions to dramatize conditions in facilities that could easily become breeding grounds for the virus. Such concerns have even led some immigrant detainees to ask for immediate deportation rather than face the prospect of contracting COVID-19.
In a just society, detention should not rob a person of his or her basic human rights. Not only must we care equally for and about every human being, we must stop the pandemic’s spread in every sector of society, including the most overlooked and forgotten.
Enlightened nations are already taking steps to address these concerns. To help flatten the curve, Portugal, for instance, recently decided to grant temporary citizenship to all migrants and asylum seekers to enable them to access the country’s health care system.
Yet in the United States, shortsighted policies — exacerbated by racist and xenophobic rhetoric from the highest political office —have rendered all of us less safe.
On March 27, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced plans to begin the release of hundreds of low-level technical parole violators from local jails. But as the news outlet The City reported, “the process has taken time because each case is reviewed by prosecutors and state prison officials.”
Tyson, who had prior convictions for attempted rape and attempted robbery, would not have been eligible for release under Cuomo’s directive. Tina Luongo, attorney-in-charge of the Criminal Defense Practice at Legal Aid, said the group was “both heartbroken and outraged to learn that our client, who was held on Rikers Island for a technical parole violation, has passed away from COVID-19.”
We cannot continue to be indifferent. The stakes are too high. In order to reduce the threat to public health, a nation cannot ignore any segment of its population. If we do, we do so at our own peril.
Yohuru Williams is dean and McQuinn Distinguished Chair of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn. This column was produced for the Progressive Media Project, which is operated by The Progressive magazine, and distributed by Tribune News Service.
