The families of prisoners are demanding their loved ones be released because of the COVID outbreak. It is unsafe, they are telling us.
How much safer would they be on the outside? The pandemic is at a crest. People are perhaps not any safer out of prison than in it.
Still, I believe there is worthiness in releasing prisoners. It is worthy to consider what each one is in there for. How many are there simply because they did not report their new addresses to probation officers? How many are there for technical issues? Yes, we have criminals who belong in prison. Yes, many belong there. But, I believe there might (I say might, for I must yet study more) also be some who are there for technical issues for which we should not be imprisoning them in the first place.
Leave the ones who belong there, there. But, if there are those who don't really deserve to be there, this is as good a time as any to release them.
Another consideration should be whether we can isolate them. If we can isolate them while they are in prison, they are surely as safe as they will be outside the prison.
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