Today, families and advocates of people incarcerated took to the streets of Lansing. They were honoring the lives of prisoners who died of COVID-19, while also showing support for others currently incarcerated.<\/p>\n
Dozens of cars drove to the Department of Correction Director\u2019s house and placed tombstones on her lawn.<\/p>\n
Peter Hohstedler was one of the organizers. He said prisoner lives matter.<\/p>\n
While they don\u2019t know the names of every prisoner who has died, Hohstedler said they\u2019re driving in their honor.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re here to memorialize them. And so when we say prisoner lives matter, that\u2019s also what we mean. Is that we want to honor the dead and we\u2019re also here to fight for the living,\u201d Hohstedler said.<\/p>\n
One of those prisoners they\u2019re fighting for is Jerry Wallace. Jerry said he\u2019s been in prison for about four years. Today, he made sure his voice was heard.<\/p>\n
His wife, Amy Wallace, held the phone while Jerry spoke about his living conditions. He said safety measures aren\u2019t being taken to protect prisoners from getting the virus.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we were to social distance properly, there would only be two men in every cube, but there\u2019s eight men in every cube and they did nothing to alleviate that overcrowding during this pandemic. Nothing at all,\u201d Jerry said.<\/p>\n
Amy said she hasn\u2019t seen her husband in over a year. Jerry said this was a time when she needed him now more than ever.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wife\u2019s dad died while this was happening. And she couldn\u2019t come here and get a hug or get the comfort,\u201d Jerry said.<\/p>\n
Heather Moore\u2019s husband is also incarcerated. She said her husband has health issues, and making a mistake shouldn\u2019t equal death.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody received a death sentence and it\u2019s unfair to justify that just because they\u2019re in prison. The public needs to pay attention because this is effecting their communities as well,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today, families and advocates of people incarcerated took to the streets of Lansing. They were honoring the lives…\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3148,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n