
COVID Diagnosed the System
Lessons from the Pandemic in Massachusetts Prisons
Bridget Conley(Author)
Rutgers University Press
Will be published approx. on 12. May 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
210 pages
978-1-9788-4514-5 (ISBN)
Description
The American criminal justice system was in flux in 2020, a clash of possibilities for reform, retrenchment, and radical change - nowhere more so than in Massachusetts, which had just passed major criminal justice reform. The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted the moment with life-threatening force, ravaging people held in prisons and jails across the country. However, it did not so much create new deprivations and suffering, as it exposed prisons as sites of physical, institutional, and psychological violence that do not make communities safer. At the same time, advocates for people in prisons - including many incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people - seized on the pandemic's disruptions to demand change. Detailing the first year of the pandemic inside the Massachusetts state prison system, this book argues that the history of the pandemic inside prisons exposed both the cruelties of incarceration and the power of change when it is led by directly affected people.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New Brunswick NJ
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 214 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
299 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-9788-4514-5 (9781978845145)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Bridget Conley is the research director of the World Peace Foundation and an associate research professor at The Fletcher School at Tufts University. She is the coeditor of Accountability for Starvation.
Content
Contents
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Introduction: The Pandemic and the Prison
Chapter 2: COVID is a Prison Story (December 2019 - March 2020):
Chapter 3: How Do You Stop a Crisis Inside Prison? (January 2020 - April 2020)
Chapter 4: The First Wave (March 2020 - June 2020)
Chapter 5: Relentless Winter (October 2020 - March 2021)
Chapter 6: COVID Diagnosed the System (2021 and beyond)
Appendix A.
Index
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Introduction: The Pandemic and the Prison
Chapter 2: COVID is a Prison Story (December 2019 - March 2020):
Chapter 3: How Do You Stop a Crisis Inside Prison? (January 2020 - April 2020)
Chapter 4: The First Wave (March 2020 - June 2020)
Chapter 5: Relentless Winter (October 2020 - March 2021)
Chapter 6: COVID Diagnosed the System (2021 and beyond)
Appendix A.
Index