Protecting inmates from COVID-19   

To the Editor;

I call for the release of as many jail and prison inmates as possible in light of the threat to inmates of the COVID-19 virus. If anyone going into a locked facility, where inmates and staff have no good option of safe distancing, has the virus, it will be almost impossible to prevent a health and safety crisis.

Anyone, who is “pre-trial” and accused of a nonviolent crime (charged but only there because they cannot afford bail) or who is serving time but is approaching the end of that sentence, should be released from jail or prison. Furthermore, anyone pre-trial with monitors on the outside should not be charged for their monitors since their court dates have been postponed due to no fault of their own. I believe the monthly fee for these monitors is exorbitant and should not be charged to people who are innocent until proven guilty.

Please contact Troy Morton, Penobscot County Sheriff, and Mary Ann Lynch, District Attorney for Penobscot and Piscataquis counties, and urge them to release as many inmates as possible as a health and safety measure.

Ginny Schneider 

South Portland