News Information and Media Site: The battle to depopulate prisons

THE BIG STORY

How do you social distance in prison? You don't. You get COVID.

Through clemency, governors can either erase a conviction or shorten a prisoner's sentence. It's a practice that has long been decried by advocates as an inequitable system that benefits the rich and the politically-connected.

But in the middle of a global pandemic, another opportunity has presented itself: clemency could be used to depopulate prisons ravaged by COVID-19 outbreaks.

In New York alone, during the pandemic, applications for clemency from those incarcerated in state prisons jumped roughly 80% from 2019 to 2020, according to the New York Department of Corrections.

But not many have been granted. In crowded prison cells across the country — where COVID is running rampant — appeals for clemency for thousands of prisoners have gone unanswered or flat-out rejected.

For prisoners with no political clout, it is literally a matter of life and death. COVID cases are exploding in an environment where the population has little access to healthcare or the ability to socially distance, with at least 1 in 5 inmates infected.

A vigil outside the Queensboro Correctional Facility on April 23, 2020, in New York City. Johannes Eisele / Getty Images

STAYING ON TOP OF THIS

Fauci says working with Biden now instead of Trump is "liberating"

Guess who's back? Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, returned to the spotlight — and looked visibly more upbeat.

He told reporters he felt liberated to be able to stick to science without fear of repercussion now that former president Donald Trump is out of office.

Fauci drew a strong distinction between working for President Joe Biden and for Trump, who pushed a string of unproven COVID-19 cures, including sunlight, bleach, and the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine.

"One of the new things in this administration is if you don't know the answer, don't guess, just say you don't know the answer," he said at one point. Asked if he felt like he was back, Fauci said, "I think so."

Dr. Anthony Fauci laughs during a press conference, Jan. 21. Alex Brandon / AP

SNAPSHOTS

"This is not a peaceful protest": prosecutors charged Capitol rioters using their own words. Charging documents in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection quote Trump supporters prepared — and excited — for violence. Like the one Trump supporter who posted that it's "time to bring the pain."

A home security tech hacked into cameras to watch people undressing and having sex, prosecutors say. Telesforo Aviles admitted he took note of homes where attractive women lived and hacked into more than 200 accounts. According to his guilty plea, he accessed the customers' accounts more than 9,600 times over more than four years.

Michelle Obama's stylist explained the thinking behind the former first lady's inauguration look. On Instagram, stylist Meredith Koop explained how she assembled the look, adding, "What I want to convey most, though, is that this particular outfit is about the woman wearing it more than anything."

Kim Kardashian is reportedly saving the details of her "divorce" from Kanye West for a "major storyline" of Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Kim has been largely quiet about the rumors, and a new report says it's because the divroce will "feature heavily in the final storyline" of the show's last season.

WHAT GOES AROUND

WhatsApp fueled a global misinformation crisis. Now, it's stuck in one.

First, WhatsApp rolled out a new privacy policy. Then, within hours, the misinformation was flying thick and fast.

Messages went viral on the platform, telling users not to accept the policy. "Once you do, your WhatsApp account will be linked to your Facebook account and Zuckerberg can see all your chats," one message said.

This isn't actually true. From the 4,000-word policy, it was clear that the new changes applied only if people used WhatsApp to chat with businesses, not private conversations with friends and family.

The company desperately tried to explain: No, the new terms would not let Facebook read your WhatsApp chats. But because of the misinformation chaos, the policy is now being delayed by three months.

The story speaks to a larger moment: WhatsApp became an instrumental pipeline of misinformation, and now it is the subject of it.

YOU MADE IT

Forget the week and dive into these weekend longreads

Who taught women that they should only eat 1,200 calories a day. Women may not even remember the first time they heard the 1,200 number. Scaachi Koul explores how we got here: "A 1,200 calorie diet, according to most nutritionists or food experts, is a restrictive, unsustainable, likely unhealthy diet for any adult woman. So if it's so bad for us, why do we keep trying it — and failing — only to blame ourselves instead of the diet itself?"

Netflix's Night Stalker is a gory mess. Alessa Dominguez writes about how a new documentary turns "Night Stalker" Richard Ramirez, one of the most well-known serial killers in history, and his reign of terror into a one-dimensional police procedural.

How are you or your family members detangling from QAnon? With President Joe Biden's inauguration, many QAnon followers are having doubts. If you know someone who was a QAnon supporter but is now detaching from the collective delusion, we'd love to hear from you.

Return to the things that bring you calm today,

Elamin

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