Tag: Andrea Circle Bear

From the Buried Alive Project, Dallas Attorney Brittany K. Barnett reflects, “I feel that we’ve spent a lot of time trying to reform things that should be completely reimagined, completely transformed. I’m almost getting allergic to the word ‘reform’ because we’re just tinkering with a broken system.”

Here at the Lakota People’s Law Project, we’ve seen a lot and worked hard to address a variety of important issues over the past 15 years – among them criminal justice reform for American Indians. Now, in the coronavirus era, this problem has raised its ugly head again: A 30-year-old woman from my tribal nation, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, died in federal custody in a Texas prison on Tuesday, April 21, just three weeks after giving birth. The cause of her death? COVID-19.

We call on you to immediately use your executive clemency and emergency powers to grant release of adults aged 50 and older, medically vulnerable populations with underlying conditions such as HIV/AIDS, diabetes, asthma, and heart disease, pregnant individuals, juveniles, and individuals with less than one year left on their sentence, irrespective of the offense and who don’t pose a reasonable risk to public safety.