More than a year after launching their very own prison-reform alliance, Jay-Z and Meek Mill have donated more than 100,000 surgical masks to prisons and jails across the country to help combat the spread of the coronavirus. Per CBS News, the masks have been sent by the REFORM Alliance to locations such as New York City’s Rikers Island and Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman to be used by correctional officers, health care workers, and inmates. Ever since the coronavirus was classified as a pandemic in March, a significant amount of prisoners, especially in New York, have voiced their outcry over unsanitary conditions that have contributed to a sharp rise of infection behind bars — including lack of access to soap, water, and sinks. Last week, Governor Andrew Cuomo responded by committing to free 1,100 prisoners statewide who’d been locked up for noncriminal technical parole violations.
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