SCHOOL OF LAW NEWS
OSLER AND STUDENTS FIGHT TO THIN PRISON POPULATION DURING PANDEMIC
In April, the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) announced a program to use Conditional Medical Releases (CMRs) to reduce its prison population due to the coronavirus. They called upon law professors Mark Osler of the University of St. Thomas, Perry Moriearty of the University of Minnesota and Jon Geffen and Brad Colbert of Mitchell Hamline to help develop an application and review process. The four professors were optimistic about the program and even coordinated about 25 of their students to work a helpline and assist inmates with their applications. The DOC received more than 2,300 applications for CMRs and determined 729 of those applicants suffered from a medical condition that put them at a high risk if they contracted COVID-19. As of September, the DOC had released 143 individuals, a number Osler views as disappointing. “While it certainly could have been worse, we could have and should have done better,” said Osler and Geffen in an op-ed they co-authored for the Star Tribune newspaper. “This failure resonates deeply in us,” they said. “We invested into this project that which is most important to us: our students. We work hard so that they will see and support a justice system that is worth being a part of. We asked them to learn the stories of those in prison, to listen to hard truths, and they did. It is disappointing to know that the outcomes they are seeing represent a devaluing of life that should be beneath us as Minnesotans.”
Mark Osler
Page 6 St. Thomas Lawyer
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