The warnings were clear: COVID-19 would spread like wildfire in jails and prisons. It has. The top COVID-19 clusters across America are overwhelmingly jails and prisons, and efforts to reduce jail populations have stalled amid a surge in infections. Among the hardest-hit is San Quentin State Prison in California, which is responsible for about a quarter of the state prison system’s COVID-19 infections and almost half its deaths. Guests: Danielle Harris, managing attorney for the San Francisco Public Defender's Integrity Unit. Emily Widra, research analyst at the Massachusetts-based Prison Policy Initiative. Sharon Dolovich, professor of law at UCLA School of Law, and director of the UCLA Prison Law & Policy Program. She also serves as director of the UCLA Law COVID-19 Behind Bars Data Project. News Beat is an award-winning Morey Creative Studios podcast. Producer: Michael "Manny Faces" Conforti Editor-In-Chief: Chris Twarowski Managing Editor: Rashed Mian Episode Art: Jeff Main Executive Producer: Jed Morey

While the coronavirus has indiscriminately ravaged communities across the nation, African Americans are dying at disproportionately higher rates, according to preliminary data. Those who study racial health disparities aren’t surprised, considering that African Americans suffer inordinately from chronic conditions, symptoms linked to systemic racism, and a deleterious physiological process dubbed “weathering” three decades ago. Features interviews with Dr. Uché Blackstock, a board-certified Emergency Medicine physician and founder & CEO at Advancing Health Equity; Dr. Sharrelle Barber, a social epidemiologist and assistant research professor at Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health; and Arline Geronimus, a professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, and associate director and research professor in the Population Studies Center at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. News Beat is an award-winning Morey Creative Studios podcast. Producer: Michael "Manny Faces" Conforti Editor-In-Chief: Chris Twarowski Managing Editor: Rashed Mian Episode Art: Jeff Main Executive Producer: Jed Morey

A career public defender is now on the other side of the law. We speak to San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin about embracing reforms as district attorney of a prominent U.S. city, and combating COVID-19. News Beat is an award-winning Morey Creative Studios podcast. Producer: Michael "Manny Faces" Conforti Editor-In-Chief: Chris Twarowski Managing Editor: Rashed Mian Episode Art: Jeff Main Executive Producer: Jed Morey

As part of our continuing coronavirus coverage, we examine the threat the virus poses to correctional facilities in Florida, which acted much later than other states to enact bans on nonessential workers. In the second part of the episode, we explore how the suspension of family visitation impacts inmates and their families. News Beat is an award-winning Morey Creative Studios podcast. Producer/Host: Michael "Manny Faces" Conforti Editor-In-Chief: Chris Twarowski Managing Editor: Rashed Mian Episode Art: Jeff Main Executive Producer: Jed Morey

On March 13, the foremost expert on healthcare in correctional settings appeared on this podcast and warned of a “perilous and looming threat” inside these facilities. Rikers Island now has more than 200 coronavirus cases and recorded its first COVID-19-related death last weekend. Advocates warn that anyone held in the jail is in mortal danger. For more on this issue, visit www.usnewsbeat.com.

As the coronavirus pandemic exposes long-standing inequities in the United States, advocates say marginalized communities are going to suffer the worst from the consequences of a broken economy, neglect, and a decaying social safety net. Featuring Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis (Poor People's Campaign), Maria Morris (ACLU), and Alieza Durana (Eviction Lab). News Beat is an award-winning Morey Creative Studios podcast. Producer: Michael "Manny Faces" Conforti Editor-In-Chief: Chris Twarowski Managing Editor: Rashed Mian Episode Art: Jeff Main Executive Producer: Jed Morey

One of the foremost experts on correctional health services warned of a “very perilous and looming threat” inside American correctional facilities amid the coronavirus pandemic outbreak. [BONUS EPISODE]