Dan Berger: As the Coronavirus Spreads, Prisoners are Rising Up for their Health

IAS faculty member Dan Berger published an op-ed in The Appeal about the rising number of protests in jails, prisons, and detention centers against the spread of the pandemic. More than 3,000 incarcerated people have participated in more than 75 protests and uprisings, Berger and his coauthors write. He coauthored the op-ed with two researchers from Perilous Chronicle, a digital timeline of prisoner unrest in the twenty-first century. The protests, they write, are demanding public health. "Each new uprising reminds us of this central fact: Public health and mass incarceration are incompatible." The op-ed draws on letters published at the Washington Prison History Project, an online archive Berger coordinates.