Close to 100,000 surgical masks have been sent to prisons to protect inmates from the coronavirus, courtesy of rapper Meek Mill, Sixers partner Michael Rubin, and their criminal justice reform organization.
On Friday, with the help of author and prison reform advocate Shaka Senghor, the Reform Alliance rushed 50,000 masks to New York’s Rikers Island, where hundreds of inmates and staff have been infected with the virus.
It plans to deliver 2,500 to a Rikers’ medical facility; 40,000 to the Tennessee Department of Corrections; and 5,000 to the Mississippi State Penitentiary, the organization said in a statement.
“Governors and people who run jails and prisons in this country need to take the pandemic in Rikers as a warning,” news commentator, author, and Reform Alliance CEO Van Jones said in a statement. “We’re in danger of seeing prisons coast to coast turn into morgues. It is important to get medical supplies in, and it is equally important to get more human beings out.”
Thank you Meek Mills for your generosity and for not forgetting those who have no ability to protect themselves from the disease.