"It is my fervent hope that this will never occur to anyone else":

Content warnings for police brutality, mentions of death, discussion of unsafe living conditions, and images of a prison uprising. 

As COVID-19 infections continue to disable Missourians and other across the nation with Long COVID, the phrase “mass disabling event” has begun to crop up in the newsline. For many of us in the queer community, this is not the first time we’ve lived through a mass disabling virus; it’s difficult not to think of HIV/AIDS, and how it was mishandled by the government. 

Mass disabling events like these hit certain demographics the hardest:  Black, Brown, and Indigenous people, the AAPI community, low-income and unhoused people, and the queer and trans communities. 

This exhibit seeks to shed light on another, often-ignored demographic: people in incarceration. Through artifacts that show public policy as it deviates from lived experience, and how those most affected respond to these dire conditions, we will see a tale of two pandemics, unfolding 30 years apart, mirroring each other across time and space.

The artifacts displayed here discuss policies and protocols for HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 within the criminal legal system. It's important  to understand what the official rules are, so you can then understand how these rules are often either baseless and cruel, or not implemented at all, to create poor conditions for those incarcerated.

Despite the prevention policies above, in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, prison populations had infection rates five to six times higher than in general populations in the community, while mortality rates were two to three times higher (Piquero), and HIV rates in the early 1990s were almost 9.5 times higher. Below you'll find the statistics regarding both pandemics, as well as two individual accounts of the legal systems failure to handle situations with safety in mind. 

Here we see the consequences of the Missouri criminal legal systems’ action, with legal action and uprisings. Unfortunately, these actions have yielded little or no improvements.

The conditions those in the Missouri criminal legal system face currently with COVID-19, and have faced both historically and presently with HIV/AIDS, are unconscionable. We must advocate for the medical needs of those within the system, the accessibility of basic disease prevention tools, and adequate care for those who become infected and/or disabled as a result of these conditions. Local organizations are already doing this work; ArchCity Defenders has recorded the testimonies of incarcerated people and others impacted by the conditions of jails and prisons during the pandemic and the Missouri Appleseed Network has created a document detailing possible policies and protocols that jails and prisons could implement to stop the spread of diseases, whether that be COVID-19 or any future outbreaks of highly transmissible viruses. A complete reform and overhaul of the criminal legal system is desperately needed in the U.S.; learning about the prison abolition movement and getting involved helps us move toward that goal of freedom for all. None of us are free until all of us are free.

ON DISABILITY JUSTICE

Articles:

Indigenous Lives and Disability Justice by Jen Deerinwater

10 Principles of Disability Justice

Books:

Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice

All the Weight of Our Dreams: on Living Racialized Autism

Disability Incarcerated 

Exile and Pride by Eli Clare

Websites:

Sins Invalid YouTube Channel 

ON PRISON ABOLITION AND TRANSFORMATIVE JUSTICE

Articles:

Prison Abolition and Grounded Justice by Allegra M. McLeod

So You’re Thinking About Becoming an Abolitionist by Mariame Kaba

Books:

Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis

Captive Genders 

Websites:

Abolitionist Futures 

ArchCity Defenders

Missouri Prison Reform

Transform Harm 

Berk, Richard A. The Social Impact of AIDS in the United States. Abt Books, 1988. Accessed 3 December 2023.

Brien, Peter M., and Allen J. Beck. “HIV in Prisons, 1994.” Bureau of Justice Statistics, Mar. 1996, bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/hiv-prisons-1994. Accessed 3 December 2023.

“Caged During Covid: Story #7.” YouTube, uploaded by ArchCity Defenders, 13 May 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yF8O5pw1qA. Accessed 1 November 2023.

Carlton, Joseph. Citizen Complaint Form.  Box 25, Case Files–Joseph Carlton, HIV discrimination, 1990-1991. K0398 American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Western Missouri Records. State Historical Society of Missouri, University of Missouri-Saint Louis, Saint Louis, MO. Accessed 1 November 2023. 

Carlton, Joseph. Letter to Richard Berkeley. Box 25, Case Files–Joseph Carlton, HIV discrimination, 1990-1991. K0398 American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Western Missouri Records. State Historical Society of Missouri, University of Missouri-Saint Louis, Saint Louis, MO. Accessed 1 November 2023. 

Cohen, Robert. St. Louis Post-Dispatch. https://www.stltoday.com/print/a-section/activists-say-uprising-at-city-jail-facility-was-a-protest-of-inhumane-conditions/article_12f71ce1-fc12-51d9-962f-d86781c342cc.html. 6 February 2021. Accessed 3 December 2023. 

Glass, Dale. Precautionary Protocol Initiated Regarding Coronavirus 4-23-20. City of Saint Louis Justice Center, Corrections Division, 23 April 2020, https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/departments/public-safety/corrections/documents/upload/Precautionary-Protocol-Initiated-Regarding-Coronavirus-4-23-20.pdf. Accessed 3 December 2023.

Kansas Department of Corrections.  AIDS testing in prisons, 1987. Box 52, Research. K0398 American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Western Missouri Records. State Historical Society of Missouri, University of Missouri-Saint Louis, Saint Louis, MO.  Accessed 1 November 2023. 

Piquero, Alex R et al. “Staying Home, Staying Safe? A Short-Term Analysis of COVID-19 on Dallas Domestic Violence.” American journal of criminal justice : AJCJ vol. 45,4 (2020): 601-635. Accessed 3 December 2023.