COVID-19 is spreading through the U.S. prison system like wildfire and people who remain locked up on cannabis and nonviolent drug charges are being forced to face their mortality.

Cannabis prisoners in the U.S. — whether they are pre-trial or serving a life sentence — have had their punishments de-facto upgraded to potential death sentences in the wake of COVID-19, which has swept rapidly through penitentiaries around the country.

Advocates have repeatedly called for the release of at-risk individuals and nonviolent drug offenders over the past month in light of the coronavirus pandemic and the unique threat it poses to prisoners who, due to the overcrowded state of U.S. prisons, are incapable of practicing social distancing and, in many cases, even maintaining sanitary conditions and personal hygiene.

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