Jan 6

Jan 6 First 90 Days: Prisoner Resistance To COVID-19 / Duncan Tarr

Duncan Tarr, prison abolitionist and researcher for Perilous: A Chronicle of Prisoner Unrest Across the US and Canada, joins me to discuss their recent report on the wave of strikes, rebellions, and general acts of civil disobedience—organized by detainees in prisons, jails and ICE detention centers—that have occurred since the coronavirus pandemic began early last year.

At Perilous: A Chronicle of Prisoner Unrest we track all instances of prisoner protest across the US and Canada since 2010 that involve multiple prisoners. In early 2020 we were paying close attention to the outbreak of prisoner rebellions, escapes, riots, and resistance in other parts of the world in response to the coronavirus, most notably in Italy. As COVID breached the shores of the U.S. (where we live) we prepared ourselves as best we could to document what we anticipated would be a huge uptick in prisoner organizing and action.
That wave did in fact crash, and we subsequently counted 119 instances of prisoner resistance in the first 90 days of the COVID crisis. These actions occurred in prisons, jails, detention centers, and more. We mark the date of that crash as March 17, the date of the first two actions that we are aware of in which the participants clearly articulated the actions as responses to the spread of COVID-19 behind bars. (http://bit.ly/3ojqA7i)

Bio:

Duncan Tarr is a writer and organizer living in Lansing, Michigan. Perilous is a digital research and media project documenting and publicizing acts of prisoner resistance and unrest across the US and Canada.