New York Prisoners Offered PPE & $6/Hour To Dig Mass Graves For COVID-19 Victims

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"Yesterday The Intercept’s Ryan Grim confirmed that what we reported last month had indeed come to pass and that prisoners from the notorious Rikers Island jail are now being made to dig graves. Inmates have been promised the princely sum of $6 per hour to risk their lives disposing of the disease-ridden victims, with authorities insisting that they will be given adequate personal protective equipment, a dubious claim considering that hospital workers in the city have had to improvise, wearing plastic trash bags as shields against the deadly virus.

Bizarrely, a spokesperson for Mayor de Blasio’s office said the offer was not related to coronavirus. This is hard to believe; inmates already conduct burials for thousands of poor, homeless or unidentified people on the island and, until yesterday, were paid only $0.50 for the work. Why New York City would suddenly be offering prisoners a 1,200 percent pay rise during a nationwide economic collapse that has seen even frontline doctors and nurses having their pay drastically slashed, if not due to the desperately urgent need for more labor, is unclear."