Our guest will be Michael Barajas, staff writer for the Texas Observer. Michael covers civil rights issues in general, but lately has been focusing on Texas prisons. We will discuss Texas prisons during the time of COVID-19. We’ll also hear about visitation policies and how some family members lose their visitation rights arbitrarily, and in many cases for no stated reason. Finally, we’ll learn about how the state dismantled its Office of Minority Health Statistics and Engagement (originally called the Center for Elimination of Disproportionality and Disparities), which could have proved very useful during the current pandemic.
(Note: program was originally scheduled for June 2, but did not air due to a station malfunction.)