According toCBS News, REFORM Alliance is sending nearly 100,000 surgical masks to different correctional facilities throughout the country. Some of those facilities include the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman and the Rikers Island jail in New York City. The masks will be used to help protect the inmates, healthcare workers, and correctional officers.
Jessica Jackson, the chief advocacy officer at REFORM said, “It’s a very vulnerable population. We’re really worried about the number of people coming in and out of the facility, and the fact that the people living there might be sitting ducks during this pandemic.”
REFORM Alliance announced on Friday that 40,000 masks were going to the Tennessee Department of Corrections, 5,000 masks were going to Parchman and 50,000 to Rikers Island and another 2,500 to a Rikers medical facility.