The National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice—whose mission is to assess the impact of COVID-19 on the justice system—reports that the rate of COVID cases in federal and state prisons is more than four times the national rate. Eddie Conway talks to Jose Saldana, director of Release Aging People in Prison, about the public health threat, why prisons and jails are hotbeds of contagion, and how punitive measures for infected prisoners are making everything worse.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.