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SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY The South Side Weekly is an independent non-profit newspaper by and for the South Side of Chicago. We provide high-quality, critical arts and public interest coverage, and equip and develop journalists, photographers, artists, and mediamakers of all backgrounds.

Volume 7, Issue 16 Editor-in-Chief Jacqueline Serrato Managing Editors Martha Bayne Sam Joyce Sam Stecklow Deputy Editor Jasmine Mithani Senior Editors Julia Aizuss, Christian Belanger, Mari Cohen, Christopher Good, Rachel Kim, Emeline Posner, Adam Przybyl, Olivia Stovicek Politics Editor Jim Daley Education Editor Ashvini Kartik-Narayan, Michelle Anderson Literature Editor Davon Clark Nature Editor Sam Joyce Food & Land Editor Sarah Fineman Contributing Editors Mira Chauhan, Joshua Falk, Lucia Geng, Carly Graf, Robin Vaughan, Jocelyn Vega, Tammy Xu, Jade Yan Staff Writer

AV Benford

Data Editor Jasmine Mithani Radio Exec. Producer Erisa Apantaku Social Media Editors Grace Asiegbu, Arabella Breck, Maya Holt Director of Fact Checking: Tammy Xu Fact Checkers: Abigail Bazin, Susan Chun, Maria Maynez, Sam Joyce, Elizabeth Winkler, Lucy Ritzmann, Kate Gallagher, Matt Moore, Malvika Jolly, Hannah Faris Visuals Editor Mell Montezuma Deputy Visuals Editors Siena Fite,

Sofie Lie, Shane Tolentino Photo Editor Keeley Parenteau Staff Photographers: milo bosh, Jason Schumer Staff Illustrators: Siena Fite, Katherine Hill Layout Editors Haley Tweedell Davon Clark Webmaster Managing Director

Pat Sier Jason Schumer

The Weekly is produced by a mostly all-volunteer editorial staff and seeks contributions from across the city. We distribute each Wednesday in the fall, winter, and spring.

Over the summer we publish every other week.

Send submissions, story ideas, comments, or questions to editor@southsideweekly.com or mail to: South Side Weekly 6100 S. Blackstone Ave. Chicago, IL 60637

IN CHICAGO IN THIS

ISSUE

Where you live can determine your health. Black people make up just thirty percent of Chicago’s population, but as widely reported this past week, the majority of deaths in Chicago from COVID-19 have been in the Black community, on the South and West sides. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that older adults and people with underlying conditions have a higher risk of developing a severe illness from the novel coronavirus, and Black communities are known to suffer disproportionately from conditions like asthma, heart disease, and diabetes.

But it’s systematic factors that contribute to these conditions, and to shorter life expectancy in these neighborhoods, and the pandemic is only intensifying those inequities.

Stressors like industrial pollution, lack of access to healthy food, and over-policing; inadequate public transportation, health care, and proximity to resources; shuttered schools, voter suppression, street violence, low wages, and poverty in general all weaken the immune system.

But keeping accurate data on race can get complicated. Latinx and Hispanic people, for example, are known to be undercounted in government and survey counts; and when they are counted, they are often categorized as white. At this moment, much of Chicago’s Mexican population, which represents above twenty percent of the city’s residents, is reeling from the demolition of a century-old coal plant in Little Village that is exposing their homes to potentially toxic dust during a respiratory crisis, and public dollars are partly subsidizing it.

S ocial distancing is difficult for homeless Chicagoans and for the poor and working-class families who live cramped in a city with increasingly less affordable rents.

Jails, prisons, and immigrant and juvenile detention centers in Illinois are epicenters of the pandemic on a national scale and have already claimed Black and brown lives. The Cook County Jail population is currently at its lowest after the gradual and temporary release of non-violent detainees during the stay-at-home order, but more needs to be done. As we report in this issue, detainees there report a dire lack of policy and practice needed to keep them safe. Three deaths have been reported at the facility, said to be home to the largest outbreak in the country. And five deaths have been reported at Stateville Correctional Facility near Joliet, with advocates predicting many more if drastic decarceration measures are not taken.

In order to better understand the public health of our city and to properly advocate for just allocation of care and resources, we must see clearly the way illness and mortality appear along geographic and racial lines of disparity, neighborhood by neighborhood, and all solutions must be based on racial and economic justice.

The South Side Weekly live tracker of COVID-19 deaths by community area, created by Bea Malsky and updated hourly with information from the Cook County Medical Examiner, is intended to be a tool toward those ends.

Check it out every day at covid19neighborhoods.southsideweekly.com

risk is in the air

taylor moore....................................4 uofc medicine takes to the streets

susy liu..............................................6 how and when to use masks during a pandemic

jade yan..............................................8 it’s national poetry month!

davon clark.......................................9 almost-empty streets

sebastián gonzález........................10 nathaniel mary quinn’s garden from the robert taylor homes

jocelyn vega....................................12 census spotlight

jim daley..........................................13 “not

getting no treatment”

maira khwaja and emma perez, invisible institute.........................14 op-ed: toward a free, carbon-free, police-free cta

bobby vanecko.................................16 incarcerated at home

kiran misra......................................17 survival healing: traditional mexican remedies

laura de los santos.......................19 essential sacrifices?

Chicago Amazon workers strike jacqueline serrato.........................21 who gets to work from home?

yiwen lu...........................................22

For advertising inquiries, contact: (773) 234-5388 or advertising@southsideweekly.com

Cover Photo by Alejandro Reyes APRIL 15, 2020 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 3

Risk Is in the Air

BY ALEJANDRO REYES

O

nce immortalized in Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel The Jungle, the meatpacking factories that made Chicago “hog butcher for the world” and gave Back of the Yards its name left the city nearly fifty years ago. But the scent of industry still lingers.

“There’s a saying in Back of the Yards,” says Billy Drew, cofounder of Neighbors for Environmental Justice. “‘It’s not just a place.

It’s a smell.’”

Though the Union Stockyards closed in 1971, the working-class Southwest Side neighborhood is flanked by railyards to the east and south, where idling trains emit diesel exhaust fumes that increase the likelihood of cancer by a factor of ten, according to the Chicago Reporter. “For people who have grown up here, it’s part of the environment, being surrounded by industrial pollution,” Drew says.

In neighboring McKinley Park, complaints of nausea, headaches, and asthma have increased following the construction of the MAT Asphalt plant in 2018. Many residents have reported seeing trucks carrying asphalt without tarps, allowing dust to radiate into the air. MAT maintains that the plant is environmentally friendly and operates well under the legal limits for carbon dioxide and particulate matter (hazardous dust particles). Disputing this account are the residents, who have lodged 160 complaints of odor and visible smoke, among other violations, according to WTTW. For people who live in the shadow of industrial pollution, there is no worse time for a pandemic.

On March 20, Governor J.B. Pritzker announced a stay-at-home order in Illinois due to the outbreak of COVID-19. Though the virus can besiege even the healthiest immune system, regardless of race or class, early reports show that communities of color in Chicago are disproportionately harmed.

4 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

¬ APRIL 15, 2020

An analysis from WBEZ found that seventy percent of the eighty-six people confirmed to have died from COVID-19 in Chicago were Black, despite African Americans only making up twenty-nine percent of the city’s population. (Numbers for Latinx residents are still unclear, as it appears the medical examiner’s office may have counted many as “white.”)

Experts in public health generally agree that your health isn’t just based on your genetics and personal choices. It’s also based on extenuating factors known as the “social determinants of health,” which the World Health Organization defines as “conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life.”

“The pandemic is really just doubling down on these communities and causing additional harm, where folks were in public health emergencies already.”

“Where you live has a huge influence on your overall health,” explains Dr. Susan Buchanan, clinical associate professor of

If you live in an area where the air quality is poor, your lungs are already going to be stressed, so you may be at higher risk of COVID-19

BY TAYLOR MOORE

environmental and occupational health sciences at the UIC School of Public Health.

“And not just in terms of the environment— the air you breathe—but also in terms of the other stressors going on in the area where you live, including food deserts, violence, lack of decent sanitation, and lack of sufficient housing.”

In Chicago, African Americans and Latinos experience greater rates of poverty and live in neighborhoods that receive a fraction of the investment that majoritywhite neighborhoods do. They are also far more likely to live in close proximity to industrial pollution and more likely to have asthma, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health. A difference in ZIP code can result in a life expectancy difference as large as thirty years.

All of these factors contribute to higher rates of asthma, obesity, diabetes, stroke, depression, cardiovascular disease, and other ailments, Buchanan says. And since COVID-19 is a respiratory disease that causes pneumonia, existing pollution can aggravate the situation. “If you live in an area where the air quality is poor, your lungs are already going to be stressed, so you may be at higher risk of COVID-19.”

For people breathing polluted air, respiratory illnesses can be even more deadly. In 2003, Chinese patients with SARS, a similar species of coronavirus, were twice as likely to die from the disease if they lived in an area with high air pollution, according to a study published in the journal Environmental Health. A preliminary study from statisticians affiliated with Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health that is still undergoing peer review found that, as of April 4, a small increase in particulate pollution is associated with a fifteen percent higher death rate from COVID-19.

Juliana Pino, policy director for the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, has noticed the health effects

of industrial pollution in the majorityLatinx community—and she sees the issues as intertwined. On March 11, Pino tweeted, “#coronavirus and #COVID19 are an #environmentaljustice issue. Where do you think thousands of elders with compromised immune systems, respiratory and heart diseases, and other so-called ‘comorbidities’ caused by pollution + racism w ‘higher risk’ live?”

Known for helping shut down the Crawford and Fisk coal plants in 2012, LVEJO has quickly shifted its organizing priorities to COVID-19 education and rapid-response work, such as checking on seniors, offering transportation to medical appointments, and compiling public health resources in both Spanish and English.

On April 11, Hilco Redevelopment Partners demolished a smokestack at the defunct Crawford Power Generating Station in Little Village, sending billowing clouds of coal dust—nearly a hundred years’ worth— into a neighborhood already experiencing the brunt of pollution-induced illness.

“Demolition of large structures near residences needs to be carried out with the utmost of care to control dust emissions.

Dust from older facilities may contain many harmful substances including lead, mercury, PCBs and other carcinogenic chemicals,” Buchanan says. Hilco denies that lead and asbestos were spread in the demolition, but did not provide evidence, according to Block Club.

Residents say they weren’t given proper notice by Hilco or 22nd Ward Alderman Mike Rodriguez of the demolition, which is expected to pave the way for a 1.2-millionsquare-foot Target warehouse and distribution facility that will bring dozens of diesel trucks a day into the neighborhood.

As a result, LVEJO has demanded that the city stop the ongoing demolition of the plant, and that the Cook County Assessor's Office rescind the $19.7 million tax break

ENVIRONMENT

that Hilco received in 2019. The city has moved quickly, with the mayor issuing a stop-work order later that day.

The potential health impacts of the demolition worsen the already precarious situation that many Little Village residents are in. “[Neighbors] are really concerned about safety at home and at the workplace,” Pino told the Weekly. In Little Village, some street vendors are only making $20 per day, according to ABC 7, so they can’t afford not to work. Others work in “essential” industries, such as food service, construction, and warehouse distribution, where hours are long and social distancing measures are not being enforced.

On top of that, many people do not have access to masks, gloves, and cleaning supplies and, due to water shutoffs that occurred during the Emanuel administration and have continued into Lightfoot’s, aren’t even able to wash their hands, Pino says. “The pandemic is really just doubling down on these communities and causing additional harm, where folks were in public health emergencies already.”

Incarcerated people at the Cook County Jail, one of the largest single-site jails in the United States, are also at severe risk. As of April 12, 306 detainees and 218 staff members have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the Cook County Sheriff ’s Office. Hygienic measures are virtually nonexistent due to shortages of personal protective equipment and, as a result, criminal justice reformers have called for a mass release of detainees who are only there because they can’t afford bail.

Because the jail is located in Little Village, incarcerated people have been similarly susceptible to industrial pollution.

Pino says, “They're breathing the same air, so you can assume that those folks are also impacted by respiratory distress.”

Furthermore, say environmental justice organizers, the problem of pollution may worsen during the pandemic. On March 26, the federal EPA suspended enforcement of environmental laws, waiving regulations on chemical plants, oil refineries, and all other corporations for the foreseeable future.

Locally, Neighbors for Environmental Justice saw an Illinois EPA hearing for the MAT Asphalt plant, planned for March 23, postponed until further notice due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The community meeting was intended for public comment on the IEPA’s draft of a ten-year operating permit for MAT, but with no date on the

books, it could take several more months to decide the fate of the plant, which continues to operate despite its expired construction permit. Like LVEJO, Neighbors for Environmental Justice is looking to do mutual aid work for its neighbors in McKinley Park, Brighton Park, and Back of the Yards.

To be able to weather the pandemic, the city will need to do more than tell people to stay home, says Pino. In addition to decarceration in jails statewide and turning on water access for those whose utilities have been shut off, Pino believes the city needs to tailor the COVID-19 response for the city’s least protected communities.

“I think we need to see detailed guidance for communities like Little Village, where you have pollution consequences and higher levels of respiratory distress, [on] access to care under the pandemic and best practices for cohabitation and collective living that are translated in all of the languages where that would be applicable,” Pino says, mentioning that many immigrant households are multigenerational. “That's really important, this can't just be in English.”

Pino also supports “priority access to testing” for people with preexisting health conditions, suspending immigration enforcement, and sending stimulus money to all Chicagoans, “whether they're undocumented or not.”

Of these demands, the city has only responded to the testing component so far.

On April 6, Mayor Lightfoot announced the creation of a “racial equity rapid response team,” which will deploy street outreach workers usually used to prevent gang violence to perform wellness checks on people over fifty and those with underlying health conditions on the South and West Sides.

“Supports will include symptom monitoring, testing and pro-active health care engagement,” the mayor said in a press conference. “This team will be integrated into the city’s emergency operations center just as all of our other working groups have been fighting day and night to fight this disease.”

As of publication, the city had not responded to requests for information about whether the city was deploying additional resources specifically to neighborhoods with high rates of air pollution or of asthma and other respiratory illnesses. Twenty-fifth Ward Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez and 2nd Ward Alderman Brian Hopkins have called on Governor Pritzker and Mayor

Lightfoot to suspend operations at scrap metal shredders in Pilsen and Lincoln Park.

To push forward this agenda, LVEJO has partnered with multiple organizations, including the Southeast Environmental Task Force, Neighbors for Environmental Justice, People for Community Recovery, Organized Communities Against Deportation, and the Chicago Community Bond Fund. Currently, however, opportunities for in-person organizing are limited, if not impossible.

Dr. Buchanan has seen the effects of COVID-19 firsthand as an occupational medicine physician working at the UIC employee health clinic. Unfortunately, being forced to stay inside also presents a health issue for people living under industrial pollution, because indoor air can be more hazardous than outdoor air under normal circumstances, Dr. Buchanan says. When there is no air exchange in the home, “toxins build up because they can't get out, and [if ] you're sitting many more hours inside your home, you might notice health effects that you didn't notice before.” Combined with outdoor air pollution, which prevents many from safely opening their windows, it’s a nowin situation for many Chicagoans.

To mitigate potential respiratory irritants, Dr. Buchanan recommends reducing use of space heaters and stovetop ranges (or cracking a window if those are necessary), as these appliances emanate particulate matter that could upset people with asthma. Dr. Buchanan also recommends cleaning any mold in the home

with bleach solutions (not more than ten percent concentration) and using nontoxic chemicals for cleaning and pest control (the EPA’s “Safer Choice” label is a reliable guide).

Following CDC guidelines and practicing social distancing are important, but enacting policies to protect the most vulnerable will go further in the fight for environmental justice, she says. She recommends pushing federal and state representatives to pass policies like sick leave and childcare support, especially for gig workers.

“I just want to make sure that people stay home and stay healthy and maintain their activist ideals, so we can get back in the streets once this pandemic passes.” Taylor Moore is a freelance journalist who has written for VICE, CityLab, Chicago magazine, Chicago Reader, and other outlets.

She last wrote about Bridgeport’s Big Boss Spicy Fried Chicken for the Weekly and can be found on Twitter at @taylormundo.

BY ALEJANDRO REYES

APRIL 15, 2020 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 5

HEALTH

UofC Medicine Takes to the Streets Medical students work with The Night Ministry to bolster the South Side’s street medicine presence

BY SUSY LIU

F

orty-four years ago, the Rev. Tom Behrens drove through the streets of Chicago with a trunk full of food and medical supplies, seeking to help people experiencing homelessness in need and engage with them on a personal level.

Since then, his work has expanded into a nationally recognized organization, The Night Ministry, which has served thousands of people by providing them with food and medical care and connecting them to housing resources. Now, the organization is helping University of Chicago medical students serve people on the South Side, where, according to the city’s 2019 pointin-time count survey, close to one-quarter of Chicago’s unsheltered people reside.

Street medicine, a concept The Night Ministry borrowed from Dr. Jim Withers’s street medicine program in Pittsburgh, brings the medical care typically provided in a doctor’s office to those who live on the streets and cannot easily access medical resources. In 2016, the University of Illinois at Chicago became interested in joining the effort and began its own program, Chicago Street Medicine (CSM), in partnership with The Night Ministry. CSM later expanded to include other Chicago medical schools. Last year, the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine established its own chapter of CSM, bolstering the South Side’s street medicine presence by providing healthcare, food, and other resources to people experiencing homelessness on the South Side.

Street medicine takes a very different approach than traditional medical institutions, which often fall short in providing the care people experiencing homelessness need. Stephan Koruba, a senior nurse practitioner on The Night Ministry’s street medicine team, worked as an emergency room nurse in the Loyola University Health System for a couple of years. Koruba said he felt that the ER was ill-equipped to help people experiencing homelessness who came in for help. “If 6 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

¬ APRIL 15, 2020

all we do is throw [people experiencing homelessness] back out on the street with no support, they get sicker and weaker, they come back, a lot of money is spent on them, they go back out, they get sicker and weaker, and they eventually die,” he said.

“The average life expectancy for [a person experiencing homelessness] is twenty years less than the average American.”

Koruba says that his street medicine patients typically have bad experiences with the healthcare system and tend to avoid it for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, people experiencing homelessness are worried about leaving their belongings unattended.

ER wait times or hospital stays often cause

of the care he provided if there were a social worker present. Just as homelessness is often a structural issue, there seems to be an institutional lack of knowledge and competency in terms of caring for people experiencing homelessness as well. “I feel that police and EMS are in the same boat.

We tell them to give [people experiencing homelessness] our number, and a lot of them were just like, ‘Thank you so much for giving us something we can do.’ ” In the street medicine world, empathy and honesty take precedence. Health professionals with their medical supplies typically traverse parts of the city in vans or set up pop-up clinics at specific locations.

“UChicago CSM relies heavily on community partners who know the South Side well and have already built mutual trust and respect.” those struggling with opioid use disorder to experience withdrawal to the point where they decide to leave before receiving care for another health issue; withdrawal symptoms are severe, and many patients fear inconsistent treatment of opioid dependency at Chicago hospitals. Stigma toward those experiencing homelessness, and embarrassment about the way others may perceive them, can also discourage people from going to clinics and hospitals. In general, if people experiencing homelessness encounter a lack of proper medical and personal treatment in a healthcare interaction, it can encourage mistrust toward the healthcare system.

The health problems people experiencing homelessness face are often due to structural socioeconomic inequalities and need to be addressed more holistically, with housing, employment, and rehab resources.

Koruba said that as an ER nurse, he would have felt more secure in the effectiveness

Koruba said the important things for street medicine are being emotionally present with patients, being real and honest about what street medics can offer, “and being really, really okay when they say, ‘I’m not going to do that, even though you’re telling me it’s the best thing for me right now,’ and replying with, ‘Okay, when you’re ready, we’re here for you.’ ” David Wywialowski, director of the Outreach and Health Ministry at The Night Ministry, also emphasized the importance of building a human connection, establishing trust, and listening to the patient’s needs.

“We have seen other groups pull up to an encampment, literally just set the food on the sidewalk, get back in their vehicle, and pull away,” Wywialowski said. “Sometimes the encampments get overwhelmed with food,” which can attract rats. “We always go out with food, but we’ll ask, ‘Do you need food?’ and allow them to say yes or no.”

The Night Ministry has between four and six people on each street medicine run, including a nurse practitioner, a case manager, and an outreach professional.

Other members may include a social worker, a substance abuse professional, a peer advocate, or additional outreach workers who drive the van and answer calls from patients. The street medicine van, which operates seven days a week, is a fifteen-passenger van equipped to have a medical professional see a patient inside.

The van visits the harder-to-reach homeless encampments and is more flexible in its coverage; a Night Ministry bus staffed by medical professionals, social workers, and community partners who provide hot meals also makes regular stops in specific communities six days a week. Between the two services, The Night Ministry goes out sixty hours a week and hits about forty locations. As the organization has gotten to know the people it serves well, word of mouth has established it as a regular fixture in Chicago’s homeless community. The Night Ministry is always on the lookout for new encampments, and patients often inform its workers of areas where there are people in need.

When medical schools in Chicago became interested in street medicine, The Night Ministry provided guidance by bringing medical students on runs and participating in a monthly collaboration phone call between medical schools involved in street medicine, such as UofC, UIC, Northwestern, and Rush. The Night Ministry coordinates with the other street medicine efforts to ensure efficient and broad healthcare coverage on the streets.

The Chicago Street Medicine chapter at UofC, known as UChicago CSM, was founded by medical students who believed street medicine was a meaningful and effective way to practice medicine and help hard-to-reach communities. The organization is still very new, but it sets up a pop-up clinic once a week, alternating

HEALTH

between two different locations. In addition to medical students, who triage patients to determine whom to prioritize, a licensed faculty member and an attending doctor treat patients and ensure they receive proper care. A South Side community partner, the Nation of Islam, distributes hot meals. When no attending doctor is available, UofC’s street medicine team goes on resource runs, where medical students assess patient conditions, refer patients to health resources, and provide health education. Sometimes, a social worker or lawyer also helps people obtain up-to-date identification like driver’s licenses in order to connect them to various resources and public assistance programs.

On a warm day, UofC’s street medicine program serves fifty to one hundred people.

In colder weather, the program has also tried to hold public indoor clinics, which are typically smaller.

Reaching and serving people experiencing homelessness on the South Side poses unique challenges. Compared to the Loop and some areas on the North Side, where there are many large, visible encampments, the South Side sees more transient homelessness, where people experiencing homelessness are taken in by friends and family for the winter.

BY MELL MONTEZUMA

As such, UChicago CSM relies heavily on community partners who know the South Side well and have already built mutual trust and respect. UChicago CSM visits the same spots the Nation of Islam has been visiting for a long time, refers patients to Iman Community Health Center—which provides primary care at a low cost—and learns from organizations such as the Heartland Alliance and the Chicago Recovery Alliance. Working with community partners is especially important because the relationship between the University of Chicago Medical Center and the South Side has long been strained, as evidenced by the years of protests calling for an adult trauma center before the university announced at the end of 2015 that it would reopen one. Additionally, UofC’s street medicine team, like The Night Ministry, is mindful of how it approaches patients.

Philip Sossenheimer, one of the founders of UChicago CSM, said, “Even if people are ‘homeless,’ the space where they’re living is kind of their home. You still need to respect their privacy.”

Another challenge is that many of the biggest health issues UChicago CSM sees are chronic disorders resulting from poverty.

In Sossenheimer’s experience, diabetes and

heart disease are the most common health problems among UChicago CSM’s South Side patients, whereas Koruba’s patients, who are concentrated more toward the center of Chicago, suffer mostly from health issues related to physical trauma and substance abuse. Further, the South Side has well-documented resource deserts, which can make it difficult to refer patients to an accessible community health clinic.

Although UChicago CSM does its best to treat patients with chronic disorders, Sossenheimer says the root of the problem is ultimately social.

Sossenheimer has great ambition for the future of UChicago CSM. The organization is working on expanding its volunteer pool, especially of attending doctors, and increasing the frequency of its street medicine runs. In terms of medical care, Sossenheimer hopes to expand the group’s services to include harm reduction, which is a healthcare approach designed to reduce negative consequences of behaviors such as drug use. He added that they are also exploring opportunities to give prescriptions to patients, but that it’s “very tenuous” because finding a way to follow up with patients is challenging.

Follow-up is a challenge that The Night Ministry faces as well. Additionally, CSM at UChicago is pushing for an automatic referral system—which has no precedent at hospitals in Chicago—at the University of Chicago Medical Center for any homeless people admitted, which would connect them to social workers and inform the street medicine team for any necessary follow-ups.

The group is also working with The Night Ministry to extend its services through runs on “L” trains to reach more people.

Sossenheimer is optimistic about the visibility universities can bring to street medicine, as they wield large amounts of political and financial power in the medical world. Furthermore, he says medical students, who may have more time and energy than medical professionals, can contribute a lot to the street medicine effort, and that students will become better healthcare professionals through the practice. “I think street medicine will go a long way in changing the culture of medicine,” he said. “I think if every doctor does street medicine, they’ll all be better doctors and more empathetic people who are better adjusted to live in society—a just society.”

Koruba shares Sossenheimer’s optimism. “I think it’s a really neat time in Chicago for street medicine,” he said.

“There’s a lot of interest—a lot of resources, people and energy coming into street medicine now. And I think in the next couple years, it’s going to be a completely different scene. I think it’s just going to really grow and develop as a service in Chicago.”

Since the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 began spreading in the U.S., The Night Ministry and UChicago CSM have faced new challenges. The Night Ministry is still doing its best to support those on the street, working with a reduced staff of two to three people on each run.

Patients are no longer allowed inside the street medicine van, and if they need to be transported to healthcare resources—which are becoming increasingly limited—The Night Ministry calls an Uber for them instead. Staff members are fully equipped with masks, gloves, and gowns, and are giving out tents and sleeping bags to help people self-quarantine if needed.

UChicago CSM has suspended its street medicine runs, but the group has multiple initiatives in place to continue to serve the South Side’s health needs. The group’s members have created a fundraiser drive at the Pritzker School of Medicine for survival equipment, hygiene supplies, food, and personal protective equipment such as gloves and masks, and have committed to donating sixty sandwiches a week to The Night Ministry to continue supporting the homeless community. They are also working to disseminate educational material related to COVID-19, and are working with local government and healthcare centers to advocate for better health services during the pandemic. One specific program is emergency isolation hotels for people experiencing homelessness during the pandemic, which they say must include those with mental health or substance use disorders.

Koruba said The Night Ministry is dealing with the pandemic one day at a time.

“But our protocols are ready, our people have been trained,” he said. “We’re just trying to stay healthy, because we’re really the last people doing a lot of services out there. So many teams have had to call it back and [put] a hiatus on their plans.” Where some of the work has fallen off, other efforts have ramped up, he added. “We’re just trying to keep doing what we can.” Susy Liu grew up in Boston and is currently an undergraduate student at the University of Chicago studying economics and sociology. This is her first contribution to the Weekly.

APRIL 15, 2020 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 7

How and When to Use Masks During a Pandemic The Weekly discusses the proper use of masks—homemade, surgical, and N95—with an expert

BY MELL MONTEZUMA

BY JADE YAN

I

n the months since the outbreak of COVID-19, the question of who should wear masks when, and what kind, has been the subject of mixed messages and debate. Until recently, institutions such as the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have only recommended masks for use by people who are symptomatic, or for people who are caring for someone who is, on the grounds that masks do not by themselves guarantee protection from transmission of the coronavirus.

But on April 3, the CDC abandoned its no-mask stance and recommended that everyone should wear a cloth mask when leaving their home, whether they’re symptomatic or not. The same day, Illinois Governor J.B Pritzker recommended that people wear masks or cover their nose and mouth with fabric if they go outside.

Proponents of the widespread use of masks have argued that the messaging around masks has been confusing. They have said, for example, that the order to only wear a mask when you’re sick doesn’t make sense because asymptomatic people may not know that they are sick. Due to public stockpiling and widespread shortages, masks are also often not readily available, which can be anxiety-inducing and provoke panic.

According to Dr. Evelyn Figueroa, a family physician and professor of clinical family medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the confusing messaging around masks stems specifically from the fact that people often aren’t talking about the same type of mask. The information that follows can help you understand when, where, and how to use a mask.

“A mask is something that can help you and the people around you a lot, if you know how to use it,” said Figueroa. “But if you don’t know how to use it, a mask can give you a sense of false security.”

There are two widely recommended types of mask: N95 respirator masks, and 8 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

¬ APRIL 15, 2020

surgical face masks. Both are used in hospital conditions and clinics; however, the N95 is applied in specific high-infection-risk healthcare encounters, while the surgical mask is used under regular hospital infection control conditions. The N95 respirator mask is ninety-nine percent effective at keeping out small aerosolized particles such as certain chemicals and viruses like SARSCoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

According to Figueroa, the N95 mask is not appropriate for people outside of a healthcare environment.

“The reason why N95 [use] outrages me is because it’s for [patient care] at a very close range,” Figueroa said, noting that these masks are meant for frontline healthcare providers working less than three feet from a patient. “We only use them in the clinic if we’re literally sampling someone for COVID-19.”

Figueroa said she believes that N95 masks are unnecessary for everyday use outside of medical settings. They need to be fitted properly: this entails an annual fit-test for the healthcare professionals who usually use N95 masks, because the mask becomes much less effective if anything—such as facial hair—breaks the seal. N95 masks also provide incomplete protection: the user would also need to wear goggles or a face shield to cover their eyes.

“If you’re not doing all of these things, then the N95 really doesn’t function better than just a scarf or a [surgical mask],” Figueroa said.

The surgical mask is much less effective than the N95 mask, but Figueroa believes that these masks—along with homemade cloth masks, bandanas, or scarves—are better than nothing. In general, surgical masks lower the recommended space for practicing effective social distance from six feet to three, because they prevent splatter.

But while they provide a physical barrier against visible splash or spray, airborne particles and germs can still get through.

Due to the short supply of readymade masks, people have taken to washing or disinfecting their surgical masks and wearing them again. However, Figueroa said that this doesn’t work. Washing these masks or spraying them with alcohol damages the masks by eroding the fibers, making the masks less effective as a result. Disinfection also often doesn’t get rid of disease-causing viruses that may be present, because for total disinfection the mask would need to stay moist for at least sixty seconds, or would need to be completely soaked in an appropriate disinfectant.

Reusing a mask multiple times is also risky, because it can make the wearer sick and spread disease. Using the same surgical mask repeatedly also moistens them and ruins their barrier function.

“If you don’t know how to use it, a mask can give you a sense of false security.”

“There’s research that suggests you can actually infect yourself with a [dirty] surgical mask,” Figueroa said. “A lot of people move their masks around, touching the middle of the mask, pulling the mask under their chin to talk. They’re taking contamination under their chin and lifting it to their nose,” and contamination reaching the nose, mouth, or eyes is the main way to transfer the disease.

Masks also may provide wearers with a false sense of security; they may lead to people not washing their hands as frequently, or touching their face more to reposition the mask.

For Figueroa, the mask provides the chance to educate. She has started wearing masks when seeing patients at the UI Health

clinic. This often prompts patients to ask why she is wearing a mask and gives her the chance to talk to them about hygiene and when it is appropriate to wear a mask. She does the same thing at UI Health’s Pilsen Food Pantry, which she runs.

“I use [the mask] as a vessel to have discussions about good hygiene and social distancing. It’s sort of the bait to get someone to talk to me about it,” she said.

Figueroa has created a campaign to make cloth masks, gathering professional seamsters to sew cloth masks. Part of Figueroa’s goal with the campaign is to create a barter system: if any Chicago residents have hospital-appropriate N95 masks, she is hoping they will exchange them for cloth masks. People who want to donate unused medical-grade masks or homemade cloth masks can drop them off at UI Health (914 S. Wood St.), the Pilsen Food Pantry (1850 S. Throop St.), or at a donation box at 2432 N. Mozart Ave. Cloth masks need to be three layers thick, with centers made of non-woven fabric, such as fabric softener sheets or baby wipes, said Figueroa. However, she also believes that if thinner masks have the psychological benefit of making people more careful and aware, then they are important to use. Improvised masks can also offer some of these same benefits: last week, U.S. Surgeon General Jason Ward demonstrated how to quickly and easily make a mask with a bandanna and two rubber bands.

“Addressing people’s concerns is a necessary part of containment and mitigation of this disease,” said Figueroa. Jade Yan is a contributing editor to the Weekly.

She last wrote about challengers to Bobby Rush in the March 2020 primary race for Illinois’s 1st Congressional District and their contention that he is disconnected from his district.

LITERATURE

It’s National Poetry Month!

Thirty poems in thirty days

BY DAVON CLARK

T

his month, South Side Weekly is taking part in National Poetry Month with its own version of the 30/30 challenge. We have a Google doc with some daily prompts and inspiration that you can find on Instagram and Twitter @southsideweekly.

We’re also taking creative writing submissions for our South Side Weekly People’s Media initiative highlighting work that shows how you’re experiencing life

during the COVID-19 pandemic. It can be art that directly speaks to your situation or anything that you’ve been making during this time. Submissions are reviewed on a rolling basis and published weekly. Find out more at resources.southsideweekly.com/ peoples-media. ¬

By David Gaines ___________________________

Davon Clark is the Lit editor at South Side Weekly.

soft boy knows he’s soft but doesn’t want you to think he’s soft. soft boy not like the other boys. soft boy has feeeeeeeeelings

A poem for every dying woman holding it together by a half-severed thread ~

By Sara Rezvi _____________________________ I have words but I don’t know where to put them I have silence but don’t know how to stay still I have rage but only these smoky ruins remain Shall I wrap them softly?

Swaddled in burnt ember?

Somewhere in the crawl space of my heart I keep these words I keep them quiet, I keep them safe I fear their lighting — a burnt match A pathway winking into existence To a smoldering anger undying, to worlds that I would end with just one glance

soft boy

Eternal, unvanquished, immortal They say to women, find your voice They say to women, find your dignity They do not warn you no they do not warn you What happens when you do — --the only infinity that exists is this rage I can no longer remember the name of the dish my mother used to prepare — the sucking up of juices of boiled bones What else can you call the dripping of savory blood down your chin Except a kind of feral hope?

& no idea what to do with them. soft boy loves his momma. soft boy sensitive. soft boy cries. soft boy wears sweaters & cuffs his jeans. soft boy listens to Fleetwood Mac. soft boy switches to Biggie around his niggas.

soft boy wears a dress. soft boy reinventing masculinity or so soft boy says. soft boy wolf in femme clothing. soft boy evolved fuck boy. soft boy cries. soft boy likes your posts. soft boy slides in your DMs, respectfully. soft boy doesn’t fuck. soft boy makes love. soft boy loves to cuddle. soft boy little spoon. soft boy doesn’t believe in labels. soft boy ghosts you.

soft boy is terrible at sports & being aggressive in general.

soft boy sorry. soft boy has been going through it.

soft boy claims he ain’t gay but feels threatened around men more attractive than him.

soft boy makes you feel guilty. soft boy cries.

soft boy cries. soft boy reads books. soft boy woke. soft boy feminist. soft boy says “free the nipple!” so he can get a better view. soft boy paints a picture of patriarchy always landscape, never self-portrait.

soft boy victim. soft boy cries. soft boy cries. soft boy cries. soft boy working on himself. soft boy trying his best. soft boy thinks his efforts enough. soft boy thinks his softness enough.

APRIL 15, 2020 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 9

PHOTO ESSAY

Almost-Empty Streets

South Side scenes

BY SEBASTIÁN GONZÁLEZ

A

photographer captures individual Chicagoans from several neighborhoods going about their lives during the stay-at-home order.

They’re practicing social distancing, but not always staying in. They are walking down the block, waiting for the bus, getting groceries, and doing essential work. Sebastián González is a journalist with experience in digital strategy and video production. He was previously at Univision Chicago creating Spanish-language content.

This is his first contribution to the Weekly.

10 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

¬ APRIL 15, 2020

PHOTO ESSAY

APRIL 15, 2020 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 11

VISUAL ARTS

Nathaniel Mary Quinn’s Garden from the Robert Taylor Homes The artist’s “Soil, Seed, and Rain” prompts discussion around artistic roots in community

BY JOCELYN VEGA

I

n late February, the National Public Housing Museum (NPHM) and Red Line Service, an organization that helps provide arts access to Chicagoans experiencing homelessness, hosted painter Nathaniel Mary Quinn to share his experiences growing up in the Chicago Housing Authority’s (CHA) Robert Taylor Homes. The artist talk and dinner was held at the NPHM’s temporary River North location as part of the opening of Quinn’s exhibit “Soil, Seed, and Rain,” which was on view at the Rhona Hoffman Gallery in

West Town through March 28. The event was open to all, especially those who have or continue to experience homelessness, and was supported by a $40,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Quinn welcomed the attendees, who were crossing the room’s rows of chairs to get plates of warm food provided by the event. He began by providing a grounding of his artwork’s roots, which “harkens back to my upbringing in Chicago, growing up with Robert Taylor.… Residents living in that community were not seen—particularly

"LIGHTS OUT, 2019" (COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND RHONA HOFFMAN GALLERY; PHOTO BY TOM VAN EYNDE)

12 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

¬ APRIL 15, 2020

as viable citizens of Chicago, as human beings.”

Quinn paused before adding, “But we were human beings. We had dreams.

We had aspirations, there were things that we wanted to achieve. So, I was able to understand that. I feel very fortunate that, fast forward to today, that I'm in a position to make works of art that can highlight the underpinnings of one's humanity.”

The Robert Taylor Homes was at one time the largest public housing project in the country, and was inadequately planned.

Systemic inequities and disinvestment led to its infamous reputation of overcrowding and a lack of basic resources and safety. However, Quinn reminded the audience that these inequities cannot overshadow the individual and communal lives within these homes and their resilient connections.

Quinn described an early childhood memory about his brother Charles, with whom he no longer has any contact. “[Charles] says, ‘Nate, you know, mom used to whoop you all the time for drawing on the wall. One day, you made a drawing on the wall, and she's going to spank you to teach you a lesson, right? And he stops her and says, ‘Wait, before you spank him, look at the drawing.’ And my mother and him looked at the drawing, and they both realized that there was some evidence of talent there. And ever since, my mom would let me draw on the walls of the apartment.

The walls of the project apartment became my first drawing pad. And from that point on, I loved to draw.”

He continued, “My father would also sit with me at the table which at the time was like a piece of wood on top of milk crates.

You know, this is real project living. This is the crème de la crème of the project living,” to which laughter burst into the room.

Quinn continued, “He would take the brown grocery bags from Super Jet. He ripped them in half and made them flat… and he ripped the erasers off my pencils.

He would say, ‘Never erase a mark, for every mark that you make, you make for a reason.

If you make a mistake, there are no mistakes.

Find the way to use the mark.’ He also taught me how to draw from my shoulder.

Most artists draw from the wrist, but my father said, ‘There's no real mobility here.

Use your entire arm as your tool.’ He was my first real teacher. And this is someone who could not read or write and had no formal education. I still use those tools to this day to make my work.”

Quinn lived with his mother, father, and brother until he accepted a merit scholarship to attend Culver Academies boarding high school in Indiana, about a two-hour drive away. Unfortunately, his mother unexpectedly died the month after he started classes, and his remaining family left their former home later that year.

To honor her, Quinn independently adopted his mother’s name into his before graduating high school. “My mother never had an education,” he said. “She never graduated from anybody’s school. And I thought if I use her name, like her first name as my middle name, they will have to print that on my high school diploma, and it will say Nathaniel Mary Quinn. So, I kept it up the rest of my life.”

Earlier in the talk, he discussed the history of education in his family and the importance of that diploma: “Having two parents who were illiterate, couldn't read or write, and who had no formal education, [I went] to the local public school, which was a good school, but a school that in fact was absent of many other resources that more affluent communities enjoy.”

VISUAL ARTS Quinn’s desire to honor his childhood continues to breathe its own life through his art. Each piece is deeply connected to people’s humanity. He grew up witnessing “addicts of all kinds, drug addicts, alcoholics, hustlers,” and his friends as “all gang members and drug dealers.” However, at a young age, he recognized that these circumstances and “things of that nature were also just a shadow of no form, no solidity, and no concreteness—that no one seemed to have cared about them over time” was the reality shaping their lives.

The final pieces presented that night represented his last living family member: his nephew, whom he is no longer in contact with. “Through [this painting], my nephew will live forever,” he said. The painting reflects his lost relationship to his unnamed nephew who broke his trust and lied.

Quinn introduced him as “blood without commitment.” Then, Quinn turned to the audience and explained, “I imagined that... the pain of this betrayal is made permanent.

So, this is really a true visual reflection of how I feel.” In describing his painting, Quinn speaks with humbled compassion about its subject.

Quinn’s work engages in realities without judgement, reflecting “another world that expresses real complexity and the rainbow light spectrum of humanity.”

He encouraged the room to accept that “when you look at this work, you're not just looking at a reflection of this guy that none of you have ever met. You are, in fact, looking at a reflection of you. This is what you look like as well. Your identity is as complex and jarring and confusing and crude as this.” In sight, each portrait is a map from Quinn’s artistic and human dimensions.

Quinn emphasizes that complexity with his choice of materials. “I found these ways to combine these wet and dry materials together, which is not a particularly easy thing to do,” he said. It also allows him to connect to his childhood. “I love to draw.

When you work with a paint stick, it's a tool

that you hold. There's no brush, but it feels like drawing. That allows me to do the sort of things I've enjoyed doing ever since I was a child.”

Despite his paintings’ visual complexity, Quinn stressed they are not collages. He explained that this was how his childhood experiences and memories artistically present themselves, and encouraged the audience to carefully listen to each painting—his life experiences in that present moment.

Memories of growing up in the Robert Taylor Homes continue to influence Quinn’s artistic impulses. Quinn explained, “I just operate from the vision that is from my upbringing. Because growing up in the Robert Taylor Homes, you couldn't really make plans every day because the violence was so high. So, the moment you stepped out your door, you had to be able to think fast on your feet. That is evident in my studio practice and it works for me.”

He went on, “and while that history is behind me, while it may seem that on some

level that I am indeed disconnected from it, I am still at the same time very much connected to it.”

A final question perfectly ended the night. An audience member asked if he ever felt that he “needed to leave Chicago to find his voice, to find his [place],” leaving Quinn in deep reflection.

After pausing, Quinn concluded, “No, I did not feel that way. But when I left Chicago, that’s when I felt like [I was escaping] from poverty.”

“But you can't run away from yourself.”¬

programs coordinator at Gads Hill, said the organization has partnered with The Resurrection Project, the Pilsen Neighborhood Council, and other neighborhood organizations to maximize the impact of their outreach efforts.

Fear of deportation has been a significant barrier to convincing many immigrants— documented or otherwise—to fill out the census. “A lot of families fear that this is information that is going to be used for other purposes” such as identifying those who may lack immigration documents, Garcia said. In February, the Trump administration announced it would be sending Customs and Border Patrol tactical units to Chicago and other sanctuary cities, a move that could exacerbate fears and depress census responses further. “Immigrants are really under siege,” Garcia said. “Some of our communities are really scared. Immigrants have been an easy target for this administration, and as such, that is our fear—that they are not going to participate even at the sixty-five percent that they participated in 2010 because of the constant attacks.”

Rubio added that when outreach teams

have talked to families, they have often heard concerns about whether the census asks for place of birth or citizenship status. She and her teams have reassured them it does not.

Since schools closed March 17, Garcia said the organization has been able to stay in touch with 996 families, or about eighty-five percent of their clients.

“We are very confident that a significant percentage of [these] families are going to fill out the census form, because they have been reminded constantly, every week” by outreach staff. Gads Hill also followed up with email blasts to former after-school program participants to ensure they knew how and when to fill out the census.

“The consequences are so deep and long-lasting,” Garcia said. “I feel that every organization that has a strong relationship and trust with the communities we serve has to be participating in the census.” ¬

Images from Nathaniel Mary Quinn’s “Soil, Seed, and Rain” are available for view on the Rhona Hoffman Gallery’s website, rhoffmangallery.com Jocelyn Vega is a contributing editor to the Weekly. She last wrote in March about census outreach efforts by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

Census Spotlight Gads Hill Center

BY JIM DALEY

O

n March 10, a parade of dozens of young people marched down Ogden Avenue in Douglas Park on the city’s Southwest Side. Decked out in bright yellow t-shirts emblazoned with the slogan “Count Me—Inclúyeme,” the grade-school children, led by after-school educators from the nonprofit family resource organization Gads Hill Center, carried brightly colored crepe-paper pom-poms and handmade signs that read “Census 2020: Children Count.” The vibrant parade would be the last census outreach event Gads Hill was able to hold in person. The following week, an order by Governor J.B. Pritzker closed schools across the state in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Since then, Gads Hill has transitioned to doing census outreach primarily online.

Founded in 1898 as a settlement house—a social reform movement championed by Jane Addams—on Chicago’s lower West Side, Gads Hill Center provides after-school programming and resources to families in Pilsen, North and South Lawndale, Little Village, Brighton Park, and Chicago Lawn. “Our mission is to build

opportunities for children and their families to build strong lives through education, access to resources, and community,” said executive director Maricela Garcia. In addition to allocation of Congressional representation, the census determines the community’s access to resources, which affects the center’s mission. “Billions of dollars in federal money is calculated based on the count,” she said.

Garcia said the community the center serves is at risk of being undercounted in the census. In 2010, the census response rate was between sixty and sixty-five percent in the communities Gads Hill serves. Gads Hill works with immigrants, families who are in transition from homelessness, and people who don’t speak English—all groups that are at risk of being undercounted.

The organization also serves children less than five years old, “which is also a historically undercounted population,” Garcia said. “We’re very concerned that the communities that need the most programs and investments in their neighborhoods are the ones that are historically undercounted.”

Rosa Rubio, the community

Jim Daley is the Weekly’s politics editor.

APRIL 15, 2020 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 13

JUSTICE

“Not Getting No Treatment” Voices of medically at-risk detainees held at Cook County Jail BY: MAIRA KHWAJA AND EMMA PEREZ, INVISIBLE INSTITUTE

A

t the time of publication, Cook County Jail reports that three detainees have died from COVID-19: Jeffrey Pendleton, Leslie Pieroni, and Nicholas Lee were exposed to the novel coronavirus, along with at least 306 other detainees who have tested positive for the virus. This number is likely a low estimate; due to the conditions in the jail, detainees are exposed to the virus and are at risk of falling seriously ill. This is especially true for individuals in Division 8—the Residential Treatment Unit (RTU)—where detainees with injuries and medical conditions, making them especially vulnerable to infection, are housed.

Cases of COVID-19 in the jail continue to multiply, as reports from jail staff detail the extent to which proper sanitation and social distancing measures are ignored.

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart reassured the public on April 2 that “detainees are provided ample cleaning supplies, hand

sanitizer and soap… In addition, staff are provided with cleaning supplies, hand sanitizer, and gloves... Any detainee who shows symptoms of the virus is tested by staff at Cermak Health Services,” the jail hospital run by Cook County Health.

Detainees in the RTU report otherwise.

In phone interviews on April 6 and 7, six men inside a dormitory of thirty nine inmates described worsening health and sanitary conditions and a loss of access to their routine medical care.

The following interviews are the detainees’ observations on the jail’s response to the crisis, in their own words. We are unable to fact check the backstories provided, because we don’t know the detainees’ names.

We asked all interviewees to select their own pseudonyms as they passed the phone around, to prevent retaliation.

Interviews have been edited and condensed. Extended interviews were published on SSW Radio.

Ezell has been in Cook County Jail since 2018. He recently came out of isolation after thirty-five days in a segregation cell. He was not showing any symptoms of COVID-19.

He was then moved into the RTU, where he is surrounded by sick and immunocompromised detainees.

I was just in segregation. Thirty-five days. I came out Monday, and I was not in this quarantine deck, and they put me on the quarantine deck with people that were over here sick. And I wasn't sick at all. They needed the space for another inmate that was going to segregation. I think I would

have rather stayed there. It's a lot of people over here sick.

They need to do mandatory checks with the symptoms because some people over here are sick. I haven't had my temperature checked in months. My celly just left last night with a temperature of 101. And they didn't come clean or anything. We don't even have any cleaning supplies right now as we speak.

A sergeant said, it's not any avoiding it, we are all going to catch it and that there's nothing she could do about it.

14 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

¬ APRIL 15, 2020

BY J. MICHAEL EUGENIO

“You gotta be damn near dying to get medical attention.”

Mike is thirty-six years old and was recently moved to Cook County Jail after serving seventeen years at Menard Correctional Center. He was originally sentenced to seventyfive years as a juvenile, but a judge found his sentence to be equivalent to a life sentence.

He is in the jail awaiting an appeal. Mike has rheumatoid arthritis; the medication for his condition makes him more susceptible to infection.

We don’t have no cleaning supplies, we don’t see the medical doctors, it’s just horrible. It’s like, we’re not getting no treatment. You gotta be damn near dying to get medical attention.

And the nurses just come and pass our meds, and I’ve been trying to tell them I got rheumatoid arthritis, and that I’m not tryna

take my meds because it lowers my immune system. And I’m at high risk for catching the virus.

We expect great from America.

Whether you a convict or not, for them to treat us like this, it’s like we’re not humans at all.

When I was in Menard, Homeland Security sent me a letter... they were going to deport me. At that time, I had seventy-five years at one hundred percent. The Illinois Supreme Court found it to be a de facto life sentence for juveniles. I’m planning on getting deported back to Mexico. That’s my goal right now. Getting out and getting back over there. Most of my family are from here, Chicago. I did all my time here. This is where I grew up.

Michael is thirty-five years old and has spent the last three months in Cook County Jail. He has a number of medical conditions, including high blood pressure, an enlarged heart, a hernia, and a recent diagnosis of Stage 2 Hodgkin’s

Lymphoma. He has not been receiving treatment since the outbreak of COVID-19.

It's very nasty around here. I saw that Tom Dart came on TV saying that they’re giving us an abundance of cleaning supplies

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and hand sanitizer, which they’re not. The times that they have given it to us, it was like bleach or Fabuloso. But it wasn't enough.

No masks at all. No gloves.They’re letting the garbage get so full, it's overflowing.

On top of that, we’re not able to social distance. The phones are literally two feet from each other. The beds are three feet from each other. So you know, it's hard to social distance. They don't even allow us to cover our face with our towels and our shirts, which makes it even harder. They’ll tell us we can't do that because we have to have our face visible. They’re bringing new people from other decks and mixing them in with us. Someone just died yesterday. Someone passed out and died. Three people from

this tier, from last night to the morning, were hospitalized, and went to Stroger [Hospital] already.

We’re on a medical deck. Which means everybody here has some type of medical problem or some type of medical issues. I was just diagnosed with cancer.

I've been taking chemotherapy since I’ve been here for the last couple months. I don't have any medicine. I'm not seeing the doctors. The nurse is not coming. It's two nurses doing the entire building. And the nurses are just not coming.

They’re just keeping us here. I still don't know when the next time I’m even going to court to even possibly get a bond or even be let out on electronic monitoring.

Earl is fifty-one years old. He has been awaiting a new trial in Cook County Jail since February.

He was at Menard Correctional Center for two years, and Lawrence Correctional Center for ten months. Earl suffers from asthma, a heart condition, and diabetes.

I've been experiencing a lot of fatigue, lightheadedness, shortness of breath. I get hot then I get cold. I haven’t been seen. My vitals wasn't even taken.

You know, the officers don't even come on this deck where we at. We pretty much monitor and watching ourselves. The officers

go around with gloves and masks. We have nothing. They're not giving us sanitizer, cleaning supplies, and stuff that they claim they doing; that's not happening. Then they stay saying, “let's social distance.” It's impossible. You literally like two feet on top of each other. Two people that are asleep next to me now, they just moved in, but they moved in under medical emergency.

They temperature was like above 101, and they was real sick. Once they move them, they don't come in and you know, clean the area up or sanitize, disinfect, none of that.

Kingston is fifty-one years old and has been in Cook County Jail for the past three years. He was in prison for thirteen years before being moved to Cook County to await a new trial.

He was previously in a cell, but is now in a dorm in the RTU. Last week I was really bad. Now I'm getting better. I still got the hot flashes.

The guy that just died. I know him. We all know him. They took him from a cell environment and put him in the dorm and he died. He got the corona.

You have the directors giving these

orders to do this with these people in cells, and then the doctor saying okay, well, isolate them, isolate them, isolate them. Where is you isolating them to? You isolate them in the cell with somebody else that just got the corona? Y'all causing the people to be sick.

If people ain't sick, they making them sick.

The Attorney General and [Department of Justice] need to come in here and take a good look. When DOJ was here two years ago, the guards were so scared. And guess what? The DOJ visit changed everything in a day. The DOJ need to come in and see.

Marcus is thirty-three years old and has been in Cook County Jail for seven-and-a-half years; he has yet to be convicted of a crime. His bond is $2 million, and he has been unable to request a reasonable bond. He is in the RTU with a broken jaw and requires a liquid diet. Due to the reduced medical care, he is not getting enough nutrition.

This has really been impacting me. My jaws are locked shut cuz my jaw is broken. I gotta drink liquids. They give me three, you know, like the milks you get from school?

I get like half of those, three times a day.

So drinking Ensure [a nutritional shake that serves as a meal replacement] is vital.

But the nurses gotta bring the Ensure, and they’re not coming on the tier. I get Ensure probably every couple days. Gotta really beg for it. It seems like all the pre-existing medical things are getting pushed to the back right now.

We really fending in here for ourselves.

Officers don’t come on the deck no more.

Like they come to the deck for their counting, they out in the hallway the rest of the day. This is a deck where people got crutches, people got canes, people got a wheelchair. At the end of the day, we still detainees, and tensions are high. So we really fending for ourselves. If something happens, it just happens at this point.

I was so sick like three days ago. It lasted for like three-to-four days, so I feel like I probably beat the virus. I feel like all of us got it. They just took four or five people off the deck. We ask to get our temperature

checked, and they ask, “You finna pass out, you alright?” They should be taking our temperature every day. My temperature’s never been checked. I told the nurse I had to get my temperature checked. She said, “You feel like you gonna fall down?” I said, “No I just got a headache, I got a real bad headache.” [The headache was so bad] that I was scared to go to sleep for a minute.

If you ain’t finna pass out, finna die, really you just stuck.

If I had $200,000, they would let me out and wouldn’t blink twice. They’d let me walk out of here today and don’t care about violence or nothing. Walk right out of here.

But obviously, I can’t afford $200,000.

It’s forty people using the showers and the bathrooms. They wasn’t doing sheet change, but we made a big fuss about it and we got sheets changed this morning, but that was the first time we got it since this thing has been going on. They want the inmates to clean up too, but they’re not giving us gloves.

They’re not giving us masks. We cleaning up behind forty people, and they know we infected. They know it. You can find the full episode at sswk.ly/CCJcovid19 Maira and Emma work at the Invisible Institute, a journalism production studio on the South Side of Chicago. Maira and Emma last wrote an op-ed about the Fraternal Order of Police.

APRIL 15, 2020 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 15

OPINION

Op-Ed: Toward a Free, Carbon-free, Police-free CTA

It is imperative as a matter of racial and economic justice, as well as environmental and fiscal necessity

BY BOBBY VANECKO

O

n February 3, transportation columnist John Greenfield wrote an article for Streetsblog Chicago titled, “Caveat to Lightfoot: Over-police the CTA and you may face NYC-style subway protests.” Greenfield’s article was a response to Mayor Lightfoot’s announcement that she was in talks with the CTA and CPD to address a recent spate of violent crime on the CTA. In the article, Greenfield predicted protests in Chicago like those in New York City against increased police presence on the the city’s subways, writing that “if the additional policing leads to many more people of color and low-income residents being criminalized, let alone brutalized, don’t be surprised if the response is hundreds of angry Chicagoans storming the turnstiles.”

His prediction for Chicago came true less than a month later. On February 28, the same day that Mayor Lightfoot formally announced that a new 13,000-officer detail would be assigned to CTA trains and platforms, an officer shot thirty-threeyear-old Ariel Roman after stopping him for passing between train cars, which is forbidden by city ordinance (but widely practiced, and rarely enforced). One week later, the anti-gun violence organization GoodKids MadCity held a protest at the Lake Red Line station demanding, “No cops, no fares.”

The typical media response to such protests usually looks something like this article from the New York Post, with the opening line that labelled the protesters as “Cop-hating radicals” who “wreaked havoc on New York City’s subways on Friday.”

But instead of listening to this kind of scaremongering about a nonexistent “war on police,” or to those who argue for the sanctity of the illogical idea of “blue 16 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

¬ APRIL 15, 2020

life,” however, Chicago policymakers need to listen to residents who are actually impacted by police and gun violence.

Chicago policymakers should make public transit free, and they should not flood that transit with heavily armed police, which is an expensive and inefficient attempt to solve the CTA’s problems that also threatens the lives of people of color and the poor. We should not repeat New York’s failed policy.

The similarities between New York and Chicago would not just stop at the protests. In 2019, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo decided to assign 500 additional officers to patrol the subways as part of an effort to crack down on fare evasion. This was estimated to cost the Metropolitan Transit Agency nearly $250 million per year, and many New Yorkers were quick to point out that it would cost more than the estimated $200 million in savings from reduced fare evasion. But Cuomo went forward with the plan, and the result was numerous reported instances of police violence and disproportionate criminalization and arrests of people of color, prompting the state attorney general to open an investigation into the transit agency and police department’s fare evasion enforcement.

Fortunately, many cities throughout the country have gone in the opposite direction: decriminalizing fare evasion or, even better, making public transit free. This kind of approach has numerous benefits.

For instance, allowing for prepaid cards and rear-door bus boarding (which the CTA just implemented, but on an unfortunately temporary basis) can shorten trip times and attract more riders—a pressing need for many cities, who have witnessed nationwide bus ridership fall by eleven percent since

2007. In Chicago specifically, bus ridership has gone down by twenty-two percent since 2010. Nationwide, ridership has plummeted further in 2020—especially in the wake of the social distancing requirements of the coronavirus pandemic—even though many people still rely on public transit to commute to essential jobs and services such as grocery stores, medical facilities, and pharmacies.

Public transit agencies are also struggling financially, due to the wider economic crisis catalyzed by the coronavirus and the associated increase in sanitation and other operational costs. Fortunately, Congress’s stimulus package included $25 billion to transit agencies for emergency operating assistance, but a lot more still needs to be done. While initial legislative negotiations did not include any money for public transit, grassroots pressure and advocacy from groups like Transit For America ensured that the final legislation contained this essential funding.

Furthermore, environmental scholars and activists have been organizing and calling on Congress to better address the climate crisis in future stimulus legislation, with many excellent transit-oriented policy demands. One proposal, “A Green Stimulus to Rebuild Our Economy,” suggests “Creat[ing] thousands of new jobs by offering grants and no-interest, no-match loans to local transit agencies and municipal governments to complete their backlog of shovel-ready ADA-compliance and Complete Streets projects,” and “Provid[ing] grants and loans to local transit agencies and school boards to fund the purchase of electric railcars and engines and electric buses and electric school buses, with the goal of ending all diesel bus purchases by 2025.”

Another holistic solution to the issues

facing our nation’s public transit systems lies in Transit for America's plan for The Green New Deal for Transportation. The organization recently published a report detailing this vision, co-authored with TransitCenter, Data for Progress, and the University of Pennsylvania’s McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology. The plan aims to build a carbon-free public transportation system by changing government policy and designing cities to be more accommodating to public transit. One of the report’s principle policy recommendations involves infrastructure spending priorities. The latest stimulus package provided $25 billion to state governments for infrastructure spending, but, as the Green New Deal for Transportation report points out, local governments usually prioritize roadway

“Ultimately, public transit should be seen as a ‘common good,’ similar to other public services.” expansion, which increases carbon emissions. Further, the federal government currently covers eighty percent of the cost of highway and road projects, but only fifty percent of transit projects. Instead of continuing these unsustainable practices, the Green New Deal for Transportation

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suggests prioritizing transit spending, and focusing on roadway maintenance instead of expansion. However, the report does not explicitly name the goal of making public transit free, which is a major shortcoming.

Fortunately, there have been many different visions of what a Green New Deal could look like since it was popularized in America by U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and several plans do call for free green transit. In their book A Planet To Win: Why We Need A Green New Deal, authors Alyssa Battistoni, Kate Aronoff, Daniel Aldana Cohen, and Thea Riofrancos call for free, carbon-free public transit that is located in dense, mixed-income and working-class communities, anchored by fully-funded social housing and public schools. They do not explicitly call for police-free transit, but we should be combining these demands.

The beauty of the Green New Deal is that it does not artificially separate issues like racial justice and environmentalism—its calls for “environmental justice” for frontline communities absolutely can include policy changes which recognize that, just as people of color are disproportionately impacted by climate change, they are put at increased risk when we flood public transit systems with police. Ultimately, public transit should be seen as a “common good,” similar to other public services like healthcare, utilities, education, the postal service, libraries, and parks; and providing these services to all Chicagoans would help to address the city’s unconscionable levels of inequality.

Therefore, Chicago must guarantee free, carbon-free, police-free transit—as a matter of racial and economic justice, as well as environmental and fiscal necessity. Bobby Vanecko is a second-year law student at Loyola University Chicago. He is interested in criminal law and interns at First Defense Legal Aid and the Westside Justice Center. He last wrote for the Weekly in March about the need to uproot Chicago’s police “torture tree.”

Incarcerated at Home

Those on electronic monitoring face some of the steepest challenges to their survival as the pandemic escalates in America

BY KIRAN MISRA

W

hile the novel coronavirus spreads through Cook County Jail more rapidly than nearly any other place in the country—with 317 incarcerated people and 245 correctional officers and other Cook County Sheriff ’s staff who have tested positive for COVID-19, including three incarcerated people who have died, as of April 13—nearly 3,000 others in the county are incarcerated pretrial in their homes on electronic monitoring, vulnerable to the spread of the virus.

These Chicagoans, and those on electronic monitoring across the country, face some of the steepest challenges to their survival as the pandemic escalates in America. “When people are in jail and they're unable to meet their own needs, the state is required to ensure that they're fed; the state is required to ensure that they have access to... basic necessities. That is not true in the case of electronic monitoring,” explained Sharlyn Grace of the Chicago Community Bond Fund.

When someone goes on electronic monitoring, or EM, they are fitted with an ankle monitor that they must wear twentyfour hours a day, which emits a constant radio signal that notifies the supervising agency if the detainee leaves the home. This includes stepping out onto the porch for a breath of fresh air or venturing out the front door to pick up mail. That’s why you might hear electronic monitoring referred to as “ankle monitoring” or “house arrest.”

Receiving permission to leave the house, even in emergencies, is an arduous process that typically takes up to three days and often forces those on house arrest to choose between their safety and their freedom.

There are two types of electronic monitoring ordered for people who are awaiting trial and presumed innocent in Cook County: Home Confinement through Pretrial Services, directed by the Office of

the Chief Judge of the Circuit Court, and the Cook County Sheriff ’s Electronic Monitoring Program.

The Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) also has an electronic monitoring program for people who are exiting prison.

Because of a campaign that resulted in the Illinois Prisoner Review Board changing the rules for the program last year, the IDOC is required to grant those on monitoring at least twelve hours of movement, or time outside the house, a day, which is more than those on pretrial monitoring can expect.

However, the rule is poorly enforced; people in the program report that in practice they are usually given much less than twelve

not violate the conditions of electronic monitoring, information including the name and title of a contact person at the desired destination, the exact time of the visit or appointment, and the mode of transportation to be utilized must be called or emailed in to the Sheriff ’s Electronic Monitoring Unit seventy-two hours in advance, depending on the type of movement requested.

Such strict limitations mean that, should the need arise, those on EM wouldn’t be able to leave the house to get a prescription filled or to seek urgent medical care for themselves or a family member without a lengthy wait. If they do, they risk getting sent to jail.

“When you have a fever of 103 and you started showing symptoms of COVID-19... you just don't have time to sit around and wait for somebody to pick up the phone, and then chase down a parole agent. It just sets you up to be sent to jail.” hours.

The Sheriff ’s Office states electronic monitoring “is used as a communitybased alternative incarceration concept that allows... inmates to remain in the community instead of being incarcerated in jail.” However, in reality, those on EM aren’t allowed to remain in the community instead of being incarcerated. They’re still incarcerated, just in their own homes.

For anything short of a medical emergency, in order for movement to

D, a client of the Lawndale Christian Legal Center, is well aware of the dangers of getting sick while on house arrest.

Before the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 started spreading, he got sick enough to urgently need medication. But since he was on electronic monitoring, he risked being sent to jail if he went to the pharmacy. “There was no one around—my mom was working,” he said. He had to wait hours to get the medication he needed.

These health and safety risks aren’t APRIL 15, 2020 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 17

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unique to this moment; they’re a constant for those on electronic monitoring. Now, though, they’re heightened, not only by the pandemic increasing the possibility that someone will need to go to the hospital, but also through its disruption to existing support structures. Many on electronic monitoring already struggled to maintain independence, having to rely on relatives to get groceries and other necessities. “What if the support person for someone on electronic monitoring who might otherwise have brought them groceries is elderly? Or is immunocompromised?” asked Grace.

Cathryn Crawford, who works with emerging adults on electronic monitoring at the Lawndale Christian Legal Center, notes that the Sheriff ’s Office has communicated that emergency medical care will only be deemed as not violating the conditions of electronic monitoring during the pandemic if someone calls an ambulance to get to the hospital.

“We had a client who was feeling symptoms of coughing, and he had a fever,” she said. “But not only was taking an ambulance prohibitively expensive, it's also taking a very important ambulance off the street unnecessarily... It’s just an unreasonable position to take.”

As every day passes, it could become even harder for those on electronic monitoring to get necessary movement approved, as the number of probation officers, parole officers, and those staffing the electronic monitoring call centers gets cut to maintain social distancing protocols. And as many get exposed to the virus and have to quarantine or recover, staffing capacity could further dwindle.

This puts everyone in a position of extreme precarity. “When you have a fever of 103 and you started showing symptoms of COVID-19, or someone in your family member has that situation... when you're dealing with the kind of medical situations that we're dealing with now, you just don't have time to sit around and wait for somebody to pick up the phone, and then chase down a parole agent. It just sets you up to be sent to jail,” said James Kilgore, director of the Challenging E-Carceration project.

D worries that he may face such a decision, especially as representatives from the Sheriff ’s Office have traveled from places like the jail to his house twice since the number of cases in the county jail started rising.

Others on electronic monitoring have 18 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

¬ APRIL 15, 2020

experienced similar visits from sheriff ’s deputies and have been placed in deputies’ cars with no evident precautions taken to prevent the spread of the virus. They report that the deputies didn’t seem to be wearing protective clothing or taking any measures to ensure that the virus doesn’t live on surfaces in their squad cars.

“I mean, this is a breach of my security,” D said.

With schools, drug treatment programs, and more cancelled or moved online, Crawford has seen sheriff ’s deputies checking up on her clients more often, not less. “They have been very aggressive about making sure that you're not going somewhere else,” she said. “It’s sort of like this gotcha thing.… Oftentimes, they'll wait until several [minor] violations have occurred and then take them into custody.”

And for those new to electronic monitoring who are currently being released from jail as a result of the emergency bond review ordered by Chief Judge Timothy Evans as COVID-19 escalates, maintaining social distancing is nearly impossible. When someone from a monitoring agency affixes a monitor to someone’s ankle and installs it in their home, the two necessarily come within six feet of each other. This puts both parties at increased risk of contracting the novel coronavirus and spreading it to others—particularly when one of them goes from one house to the jail to another house and another house to install the monitors.

The Massachusetts Supreme Court was concerned enough about the risks to issue an order describing them and setting new limitations on ordering GPS monitoring as a condition of release, but no such rules have been implemented in Illinois. The Cook County Sheriff 's Office stated that they are regularly checking in with those on electronic monitoring and their families, and sending them information about how to combat the spread of COVID-19, but did not respond to further questions, including ones about whether they’re tracking how many people on EM have COVID-19 or about allegations of checking on monitored people without protective measures, by press time.

The health risks are combined with financial strain. Like many others, D’s financial situation has already been negatively impacted by the restrictive conditions of electronic monitoring. He has a small business, which he can’t run while on house arrest. He lives with his mom, but now her ability to work is also

BY LIZZIE SMITH

reduced—her job as an Uber driver is on hold indefinitely until the pandemic ends.

“Picking up strangers is a definite no-no, so she has to stay home,” said D. Like many emerging adults the Lawndale Christian Legal Center works with, D may be the person best positioned in his family to get work during this crisis.

But the requirements to leave home for a job interview while on EM don’t do much to help. If you’re on electronic monitoring, you need to submit a letter from a prospective employer stating that you have been invited for an interview and get it approved before being granted movement. Getting that letter is much more difficult without leaving the house.

With neither D nor his mom able to work, tensions are heightened at D’s house.

“Every day waking up, me and my mom get into it, we bicker about little stuff, and I can't leave and go for a walk or go to a different family member's house,” he said.

Crawford says that this type of response to monitoring isn’t unusual.

“The psychological effects of electronic monitoring, particularly in a period of chaos and uncertainty, are really debilitating. And

now that... you have more and more family members staying home, if someone lives in a home with several people, or with a sibling with whom they have a contentious relationship, it's really important to be able to go stand outside and be alone or walk around the block.”

F

or D, the last few weeks could be the beginning of a long journey, as his court date has already been pushed back one month. That’s one more month on house arrest, with no end in sight as court dates across the county are delayed until at least May 18. With the trajectory of shutdowns uncertain and a growing backlog of postponed cases, it could end up being four or five months, or more, before D’s case actually comes back to court—keeping him on electronic monitoring for much longer than he would have been otherwise.

However, the courts are still open to those looking to plead guilty. That could increase pressure on those on electronic monitoring to agree to a plea bargain and waive their right to a trial just to get rid of the constrictions of the device, whether or not they’re actually guilty.

HEALTH

With the soaring number of people infected at the jail, many are calling for releasing as many people as possible to protect their health and public health. But some are concerned that Cook County may want to release people onto EM instead of just letting them go home. So far, Cook County has declared no plans to release large numbers of people from jail to electronic monitoring. But some counties in states like Virginia, California, and New York have implemented these policies already.

Crawford has seen judges placing many people on Sheriff ’s Electronic Monitoring as a condition of their release when it's not necessary, stating, “It's not driven by the basic facts—it’s oftentimes driven by the predilections of a particular judge. And I think that, particularly in this time, it’s really important that the Chief Judge provide some tangible guidelines.”

Though increased movement during the pandemic can be granted by individual judges, this would require those currently on electronic monitoring to go back to court and appeal to their judge, who may or may not currently be seeing cases due to the partial shutdown of the courts. Then the judge would have to instruct the sheriff to give movement. And “if someone does get that, it would be just one person. The sheriff has the power to give everyone movement without judicial orders,” explained Grace.

These asks are part of a wider campaign by the Lawndale Christian Legal Center, Chicago Community Bond Fund, and more than one hundred other organizations to get people out of jail, grant those on electronic monitoring more freedom of movement, stop the influx of new admissions to the jail on money bonds and to EM programs, and improve access to virtual visitation and sanitation for those who remain in the jail, as rising coronavirus rates can make any form of incarceration feel like a death sentence. Their efforts have included a callin campaign to the Sheriff ’s Office, the Office of the Chief Judge, and the State’s Attorney’s Office, as well as a petition for mass release filed by the Cook County Public Defender’s Office and an emergency class-action lawsuit for the immediate release of medically vulnerable people in the Cook County Jail against Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart.

Advocates hope that this moment of change in the criminal justice system can bring to light the obvious inconsistencies in the logic of electronic monitoring, namely that it treats people as both a threat and not

a threat to public safety, and the fact that it hasn't been proven to do, well, anything.

“The fundamental piece about electronic monitoring in each and every situation is there is no research, there is no evidence that it has a positive impact on anything other than the bank balances and the companies that run the programs,” explained Kilgore.

“No one has done research to show that this is an effective measure to do anything to change behavior, to ensure appearance in court, none of it... It's only really in the criminal legal system that people get away with policies based on assumption.”

A 2014 study published in the Justice Policy Journal showed that electronic monitoring had “no effect on reducing recidivism,” and multiple other reports have come to similar conclusions. But the electronic monitoring system has been demonstrated to present numerous other concerns: it has been shown to plunge those on it into debt, call and record children without their consent, and malfunction in ways that can send many back to jail even if they never violate the conditions of their monitoring.

So what does Kilgore recommend should be done? “Take them all off,” he said. “Things like being able to have medical treatment, being able to access education, being able to access employment, those conditions would make electronic monitoring more manageable. But it doesn't justify the electronic monitoring.” Kiran Misra is a writer for the Weekly primarily covering criminal justice and policing in Chicago. She last covered the 2020 Cook County State’s Attorney’s race with interviews with Kim Foxx and Bill Conway and assessments of Foxx’s record and Conway’s campaign funding.

Survival Healing

Traditional Mexican remedies to treat body aches and symptoms of the common cold

BY LAURA DE LOS SANTOS

T

raditional Mexican healing practices are survival medicine. The earliest Mexican settlers to the Chicago area survived boxcar living during harsh winters with home remedies such as teas, massage, and ointments. Many people living in the boxcar barrios often preferred to pay parteras (midwives) to deliver their children in the boxcar homes, where they were relegated to live, instead of the local dispensary. In Mexican Labor in the United States, sociologist Paul S. Taylor documented the opinions of many people in these communities who expressed distrust of doctors and the medicines they offered.

I have been a student of traditional Mexican healing practices since childhood, and often visit Maya and Native American communities in the U.S. Raised by Mexican grandparents, I first learned these lessons around the kitchen table, listening to grandma tell me about the tea simmering on the stove. “Do you think I had time to go to the doctor’s office with six kids?”

Of course not. Nor was there money for doctors’ visits or medicine. She knew that with so many people to take care for, an ounce of prevention was worth much more than a pound of cure. “Drink your tea while it’s hot.”

Grandpa referred to these practices affectionately as brujerías (witchcraft).

His own mother, my great-grandmother, Fidencia, brought traditional Mexican healing practices with her in 1923 when she,

her husband, and her young child, Antonio (gramps), arrived to the Blue Island boxcar camp at 135th Street. In Guanajuato, my great-grandmother had learned to sobar (massage), learned about medicinal plants, and helped bring babies into the world. Her skills helped her young family survive physically and economically as they migrated north.

Traditional Mexican healing practices have survived conquest, colonization, and the professionalization of medicine because many modalities require little if any equipment, and what is needed is easily transported or easily obtained.

Information is transmitted orally, without need for documentation. Although some commonly used ingredients have Asian, European, or Middle Eastern roots, they were incorporated into indigenous Mexican healing practices during colonization and continue to be used today. Many of the plants used are widely available, relatively inexpensive, and effective.

I am not a medical professional, and this is not medical advice. I am not offering the cure for the coronavirus, for cancer, or for the common cold. What I am offering is some of the information I’ve learned over the years that I’ve found effective in alleviating pain and taking care of the people I love. The elements I recommend have been demonstrated to have medicinal properties that help prevent and treat various diseases.

APRIL 15, 2020 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 19

HEALTH

Hot herbal teas: Most of the teas I serve my family are based on plants and can be used in compresses or baths, or to make oils for massage. As a tea, they’re comforting, delicious, and warm you up on the inside.

Here’s some of the teas I most commonly prepare: At the first complaint of any flu-like symptoms, I simmer soft cinnamon/canela sticks in about a quart of water until the water is medium brown. After removing the sticks and reserving for a future simmer, I add honey and serve to everyone in the house.

We all get a bit of aromatherapy as the house fills with the wonderful cinnamon fragrance, and it makes us all feel good immediately.

Cinnamon has anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and antioxidant properties, and research suggests that it can have beneficial cardiovascular effects, although robust human trials still need to be conducted.

Chamomile/manzanilla is one of the most common natural aids for anxiety and mild depression in the Mexican culture and is thought by many to be a great sleep aid. There are many uses for chamomile; its medicinal use dates back to ancient Egyptian times.

When someone is feeling agitated, stressed out, or can’t sleep, or when someone’s tummy is upset, manzanilla is comfort in a cup. It’s the first tea I introduced to my children and grandchildren. Some parents use it as a home remedy for treating colic in infants and relieving stress in parents. I don’t have access to fresh chamomile, but I remember it grew wild in front of our house when I was a child. Fresh flowers are usually the tastiest and best for you, but dried chamomile can be found in Mexican grocery stores all over Chicago. Ready-made tea bags are also good, and those are just about everywhere.

I always have some in my kitchen and sometimes take a bag or two with me when traveling. Note: Expectant mothers should use caution when using any herbal remedies, but chamomile is one herb I was taught should be avoided during pregnancy.

Spearmint, mint/hierbabuena has been studied as a possible treatment for digestive issues and as a pain reliever especially for headaches, and is good for managing stress and anxiety. It is sometimes used to help alleviate asthma attacks as it calms the muscles in the respiratory system. It is an antioxidant and has antifungal and antibacterial properties and a very pleasing fragrance. Its oil is used in candles, bath and beauty products, and for diffusers.

Limes/limones are not just for margaritas, folks! Mexicans put limes on 20 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

¬ APRIL 15, 2020

practically everything! Two of the three types of limes most commonly cultivated globally, the Persian lime and the Key lime (commonly known as Mexican lime), are largely produced and consumed in Mexico.

The Mexican lime thrives in heat and grows abundantly there. It is believed that Portuguese and Spanish voyagers brought limes to the Americas in the early sixteenth century, and cultivation of Mexican lime in the United States began when it was brought from Yucatán to the Florida Keys in 1838.

Lime is used as a diuretic, for sore throats, coughs, and colds. People use it to soothe nervousness and anxiety, stress-related digestive disorders, and insomnia. Limeade has only three ingredients: water, limes, and sugar (add in that order). You control the amount of sugar added. It’s refreshing and good for you.

Honey/miel de abeja and the practice of beekeeping was documented in the Madrid Codex; creator god Itzamna, who is identified with the powers of curing, is shown holding a beehive. The stingless bees were important to the diet, economy, and medicinal and ritual practices of the ancient Yucatec Maya. Today, the Yucatán peninsula represents thirty-two percent of the total volume of honey produced in Mexico and some of the highest-quality honey produced for the international market, making the region an important beekeeping area of the world. While honey should not be given to babies under twelve months old, for everyone else, honey can help with digestive issues as well as with the symptoms of coughs and colds. Putting honey in tea can bring out the flavors of the leaves and make your tea more palatable. One natural remedy for children over the age of one is to infuse honey with eucalyptus, then give the children a spoonful.

The children in my family have never been able to get it down, though—eucalyptus has a very intense flavor.

Sobadas: Traditional Mexican massages have been used to treat digestive issues, musculoskeletal pain caused by tendon or nerve issues, and infertility, and to manage the effects of trauma on the body, mind, and spirit. During a sobada, the practitioner will likely use oil or an ointment made with plant matter. While there are many Mexican curanderas/os (healers, female and male respectively) who have chiropractic training or have apprenticed with a curandera/o, there are also many who have had little to no formal training at all. For some, the ability to sobar (massage) is a don (gift) that is learned and requires intuition and faith.

A sobada is different from a massage in several ways; firstly, a sobada is done when something is wrong, whereas massages are often preventative and for relaxation of muscle tension. Another difference is that sobadas focus on the injured area, but massages are typically for your entire body.

Massages often feel wonderful and are very relaxing. Sobadas are not relaxing; in fact, they can be quite uncomfortable and even pretty painful. Each curandera/o has their own technique; there is no one true way to sobar.

There are a few rules that people commonly adhere to when receiving a sobada. You should not bathe or get wet after receiving a sobada until the following day. The idea is that you’ll shock the body because it’s just been heated up with the therapy. Water, even warm water, will cause the muscles and tendons to stiffen, and it’s thought it can leave you open to catching a chill, especially through the compromised part of your body. It’s best not to eat before a sobada. While I’ve been told by some practitioners that it’s only necessary to have an empty stomach when working on issues within the abdomen, it’s possible that pain or the release of blockages could cause nausea, so it’s best not to eat before the treatment.

Oils—Eucalyptus, turpentine, menthol, and camphor (Vicks VapoRub): It’s a long-running joke that Mexican moms use vaporú for a lot of things. Originally called Vicks Coup and Pneumonia Salve, it was invented by a pharmacist in 1890.

Although its efficacy hasn’t been studied in detail, many Mexican moms know it helps with coughs and colds and is good for insect bites, headaches, and muscle fatigue. Its main active ingredients are eucalyptus, turpentine, menthol, and camphor. It has been proposed that these oils produce a cooling effect that makes us only think we’re breathing better.

However, either way, that’s helpful for coughs and colds; it can make breathing feel less congested. In my house, this process begins with a sign of the cross made on the forehead with a vaporúed finger and a prayer for healing. I warm about a tablespoon of the ointment in my hands (grandma used to warm it over an open flame in the metal can that it used to be sold in) by rubbing my hands together really fast. While I hold that heat in my hands, I put it on the chest, back, neck, throat, and feet, finally making sure the entire body is covered and warm.

Smudging: The practice of burning medicinal plant matter and using the smoke and vapor to cleanse and bless bodies,

minds, and the environment is practiced by many Native American peoples. Sage, sweetgrass, and cedar are some of the most commonly burned by tribes in the United States. In Ancient Mexico and modern day Mexico, this was and is commonly done with copal. Evidence of copal has been found in the Great Well at Chichen Itza in Yucatán in the Maya region of Mexico and at the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlán, now Mexico City.

In the pre-Conquest Codex Borbonicus, the story of Oxomoxo and Cipactonal, the ancestor couple of all humans, is portrayed.

Facing each other on a red mat, she casts lots while he holds an incense burner, smoke rising from it. Copal was and is used during ceremonies across what is now Mexico and the Southwest United States. It is thought to be mentally uplifting and calming. One study, published in 2018, found that rats demonstrated reduced fear behavior and an increase in active social interaction after being exposed to burning copal. The word copal derives from copalli, the Náhuatl (Aztec) term for the aromatic resins from a number of plants. It has been used for centuries as incense for religious ceremonies, as a food preservative, and as a treatment to cure headaches and to clean the body after being exposed to sick people. Copal resins were ground and dissolved in water to treat diarrhea, as an anti-inflammatory poultice, to plug tooth cavities, and to treat pneumonia.

It was used against uterine diseases, to treat fevers, chicken pox, sore throats, and to heal wounds. However, few studies have assessed its effect on the body today.

Some practices, such as burning of copal and use of the temazcal (sweat lodge/bath house) are not very commonly practiced here. Building and maintaining a sweat lodge is no easy task, and filling your home with smoke will get you a visit from the fire department. But making a cup of tea or providing a loved one a massage are easy ways to care for ourselves and each other.

While we wait for this time to pass, that’s all we can do, is care for each other. I wish you and yours good health and safety. Laura De Los Santos is an independent researcher and a docent in The Field Museum’s Ancient Americas permanent exhibit. This is her first contribution to the Weekly.

Essential Sacrifices?

Amazon workers strike due to multiple cases of COVID-19 in Chicago-area facilities

BY JACQUELINE SERRATO

D

ozens of Chicago Amazon employees scheduled to work decided not to clock in the first week of April upon learning of at least four combined cases of COVID-19 in two distribution centers in Chicago and suburban Skokie.

Amazon associate Laccoma Scott had not shown up to the Chicago warehouse, at 2810 S. Western Avenue between the Little Village and Pilsen neighborhoods, since she received a robocall about the first case of COVID-19 on March 23.

“I didn’t want to get sick. My husband has diabetes and asthma, and I have two children with asthma,” she said. “My fouryear-old actually has a pre-existing condition where his lung collapsed, and he was on the ventilator for ten days. And I know that my employer is not going to be there for me if I were to go through that again.”

Before Governor J.B. Pritzker issued a stay-at-home order on March 20, Amazon allowed workers unpaid time off for the entire month of March. But workers feared getting penalized for taking days off in April,

and decided to organize through DCH1 Amazonians United, a workers group that formed last year.

Scott joined her night shift coworkers on March 30 in what they called their first collective strike. “We are here because we want to work. This is not about Amazonians being lazy,” she said to her colleagues in the parking lot. “We want to work in a clean facility. We want to work where we’re gonna be safe and our kids and families are going to be safe. How can we be essential workers, but our lives aren’t essential?”

Workers from the morning shift also refused to go in the next day.

Employees said they were not notified about cases in the facility in a timely fashion and demanded the facility be closed for two weeks to ensure a thorough sanitization. They believe workers who show symptoms of COVID-19 should be granted quarantine pay to compensate for Amazon’s failure to implement protections during the pandemic.

In Skokie, warehouse workers were informed of a first case of COVID-19 by

LABOR

management on March 31, and some of them received robocalls during their work hours.

“Hey, your health and safety is most important,” the recording said. “In the next couple of days we will begin conducting a daily temperature check for everyone entering the building for the first time that day, at the start of their shift. If someone has a temperature of 100.4 F or above, we’ll require them to go home until you have been fever-free for seventy-two hours.”

Not all employees in every shift were properly notified. Tomas Uriostegui, a University of Chicago alum and Amazon associate in Skokie, said he talked to older Latina workers on the cleaning crew who told him they were unaware of the first COVID-19 case and had not been instructed to do anything differently. And it appeared that new hires were uninformed, too, when he asked for their support.

On April 3, employees in both distribution centers found out about second cases of COVID-19 in their respective facilities. Twenty miles apart, Scott and Uriostegui received the same text message from Amazon: “We have one additional confirmed cases [sic] of COVID-19. Your safety and health is our top priority. We continue to take measures to keep you safe, increasing social distancing to six feet, staggering shifts, extending breaks, and even more frequent cleanings... If you feel sick, stay home. You will not be penalized for any absences.”

That night, close to forty employees gathered in the parking lot at 2801 S. Western and refused to go in to work.

They wore face masks and handkerchiefs, practicing social distancing while they chanted, “Clean it up! Shut it down!” “Our lives matter!” and “What do we want? Clean facility! When do we want it? Now!”

Amazon associate Christian Zamarron said he was unsuccessful in setting up a group meeting with the Chicago site lead, Domonic Wilkerson, who stood outside during the protest and talked to police. “On behalf of your site leader, anybody that’s not working has to go on the sidewalk,” a CPD officer said over the bullhorn. “You have the right to protest, but you have to be on the public way. If you are on duty, according to your site leader, you have to clock out and go protest on the sidewalk.”

Zamarron said he heard about four coronavirus cases at the site, though management only confirmed two cases in the Chicago facility as of the first week of April.

An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment on the number of COVID-19 cases in local distribution centers but said the company had adjusted attendance policies to support sick workers.

“We’re continuing to monitor the situation in our facilities, and we are taking proactive measures to protect employees and associates who have been in contact with anyone who has been diagnosed or becomes ill... We are also offering all hourly employees unlimited unpaid time off through the end of April,” he said in a statement to the Weekly.

Additionally, a March post on the Amazon blog reads, “Effective immediately, all Amazon employees diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed into quarantine will receive up to two-weeks of pay.”

David Rosario and other workers at Amazon’s Skokie warehouse came south to support the Chicago strike on April 3.

“I’m here, I’m very upset, because our lives matter,” Rosario said. “I’m supposed to go back to work tomorrow, but I’m wearing a mask now, but they’re not providing us with masks.”

“We are here because we want to work...We want to work in a clean facility. We want to work where we’re gonna be safe and our kids and families are going to be safe. How can we be essential workers, but our lives aren’t essential?”

APRIL 15, 2020 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 21

PHOTOS BY JACQUELINE SERRATO

Rosario said his coworkers received emails from Amazon recommending the use of protective gear: “We will have facemasks in limited quantities for anyone entering the building to wear as a recommended preventative measure, and if you prefer you may bring your own mask, including fabric masks... If you would like a mask, please ask a manager or designated ‘Hand-out [point of contact]’ at the start of your shift.”

He said the Skokie warehouse delivers 80,000 packages per shift on any given day, and each shift has up to 200 employees.

“Now they’re hiring new employees to add,” he said. “I’m seeing a lot of new faces.”

Twenty-fifth Ward alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez, whose ward includes the Chicago facility, said Amazon notified him about the second COVID-19 case at that site. He filed a complaint with the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection and their Office of Labor Standards, which have jurisdiction over business licensees in the City of Chicago.

BACP is in conversation with the workers and gathering evidence, a spokesman said via email.

“We have assembled a team of investigator to response [sic] to violations where essential businesses may be in violation of the Stay at Home Order, including the Social Distancing Requirements. Failure to adhere to the Stay at Home Order can lead to fines of up to $10,000.

“Additionally, requiring employees to work while sick or retaliating against employees for using earned sick time can constitute a violation of the Paid Sick Leave Law.” The BACP encouraged workers to submit complaints to 311.

On Saturday, April 4, a caravan of community supporters showed up at the Western Avenue facility at 6am to honk their horns in support of picketers during the morning shift. About fifty cars circled the parking lot and inadvertently blocked 22 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

¬ APRIL 15, 2020

a fleet of Amazon vans from leaving the loading dock, prompting police to arrive and disperse the traffic.

“It was awesome to see so many community members come together to take part in the caravan,” said Pete DeMay, a union organizer affiliated with SEIU, who took part in the caravan. “The workers on the picket line are really brave— true warriors that inspire us all. It takes guts to take on a company like Amazon and put your livelihood on the line.”

Employees in the Chicago and Skokie facilities are collecting hundreds of petition signatures.

“Over 600 people work in the [Chicago] facility across different shifts from all over the Chicago area, northwest suburbs, northern Indiana... so places like this are steel petri dishes for coronavirus to be spread,” said employee and organizer Tedd Miin.

Amazon operates about 500 warehouses nationwide, and at least fifty of those warehouses have confirmed cases of COVID-19. Chicago-area employees joined hundreds of Amazonians around the country who are leading walkouts and protests during the pandemic, like they recently did in Sacramento, California; Detroit, Michigan; and Staten Island, New York.

“My message to people is please stand in solidarity with Amazon warehouse workers, please don’t order unessential items, talk with your co-workers,” Miin said. “A lot more people are going to get sick and die if we don’t make a stand and stop Amazon from using us as ‘essential’ sacrifices.”Jacqueline Serrato is editor-in-chief of South Side Weekly. She last wrote about the need for rent relief in Chicago during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Who Gets to Work From Home?

Transit operators, retail employees, and factory workers are deemed “essential,” but reporting to work puts them at risk of infection

BY YIWEN LU

A

s the entire city shelters in place, the essential infrastructure of Chicago is still running. And while ridership is down citywide, buses and trains continue to keep normal schedules.

But the CTA does not run itself. This means that close to 10,000 employees, including transit operators, janitors, instructors, and others, are still working, and many of them have to stay in crowded, enclosed spaces for eight to twelve hours a day.

“We have a great level of anxiety and anguish about not being able to be home with our families in a safe environment,” Ken Franklin, the president of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 308, which represents 3,000 rail operators, told the Weekly.

Just like health care providers, transit operators are frontline workers who strive to keep the lives of the rest of Chicagoans as normal as possible. Simply labeling them as “essential workers,” however, glosses over the fact that they are also marginalized communities who are more vulnerable than many other workers at this point.

CTA operators also may be disproportionately at risk of suffering from coronavirus-related illness and death. On April 5, WBEZ reported that seventy percent of people who have died from COVID-19 in Chicago were Black; according to a 2009 report on diversity hiring in the CTA (the most recent information available) about sixty-five percent of its workforce was Black.

Despite social distancing guidelines, most CTA terminals do not have the capacity to allow adequate physical

separation. Unlike riders who would be able to spread out across eight rail cars on the Red Line, for example, employees are unable to do so due to limited space, Franklin said.

While some terminals, such as the ones at the 95th Street and Howard Street Red Line stops, are larger, there are also more workers inside them.

The possibility of getting infected drastically increases in such an environment.

According to Franklin, as of April 1, five workers at the Howard terminal tested positive for COVID-19, one of whom was only given the test after they developed serious symptoms and had to go to an emergency room. A Pace bus driver tested positive on March 26. Others are waiting for accurate classification of confirmed cases from the CTA, but it is not easy: the employee had to get their Leave of Absence paperwork approved by ReedGroup, an absence management services company, and the CTA then got the paperwork from ReedGroup.

“That is an administrative nightmare because they all have to be talking in order to approve, pay, and so forth,” Franklin said.

Currently, test sites are still limited in number and hard to access; one has to show symptoms and contact a health care provider in order to get tested. However, for at-risk groups such as transit operators, the longer the wait, the greater their anxiety that they could be bringing the coronavirus home and infecting their families.

Meanwhile, the ATU says that sanitization of trains is not sufficient protection for workers. On March 25, the ATU called for stronger protections for

LABOR

transit workers, including providing them with personal protective equipment (PPE) and extending paid leave for workers who displayed symptoms, were exposed to symptomatic persons, or who had child care obligations due to shutdowns. These demands were echoed in a March 27 post on the Active Transportation Alliance’s website that also called on the CTA to consult with public health officials, extend hazard pay to workers, make cleaning schedules publicly available, and inspect air filtration systems. The union also demanded the CTA eliminate fares and allow rear-door entry on buses to support social distancing; on April 9, Mayor Lightfoot announced the CTA would do so until further notice.

In a statement to the Weekly, a CTA representative said “all CTA bus and rail operators and maintenance employees have been provided with proper PPE. CTA has issued masks, gloves and hand sanitizer to its employees…. Following the change in guidance [around wearing masks] from the CDC and CDPH, we immediately began the procurement process to locate and purchase additional masks. Masks began to be issued to on-duty employees mid-last week.”

Franklin told the Weekly that CTA has not yet taken any measures towards changing the cleaning schedules or inspecting air filtration systems. In the statement, the CTA representative said “our vehicles and facilities are cleaned and disinfected throughout each day, and receive deeper cleanings nightly and on a regular basis.” They added, “there is no evidence to support any claim that air filtration systems have any impact at all on the spread of COVID-19…. Per CDPH, air filtration systems for vehicles like our rail cars or buses are not designed to be medical grade.”

Retail Workers Are Beginning to Die from COVID-19 Retail workers are also facing increased infection risks compared to those in other sectors. In late March, two employees at a Walmart in south-suburban Evergreen Park—Phillip Thomas, 48, and Wando Evans, 51—died after contracting COVID-19.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, grocery store workers are risking their lives every day.

Individual stores have also adopted different measures regarding whether employees are required to wear masks and gloves. Some stores have not closed for deep-clean days

after crew members reported COVID-19 cases, the New York Times reported.

The Trader Joe’s Union Coalition started a petition last month asking for hazard pay for workers due to the pandemic.

The company raised wages by two dollars an hour for all employees, but according to the Twitter account of a group of Trader Joe’s organizers, the company stopped short of referring to the increase as hazard pay. On April 6, the Washington Post reported that a Trader Joe’s worker in New York State died from COVID-19.

To essential workers facing anti-union efforts, small wage increases may be far from enough. According to a March 31 report by the Brookings Institution, workers in transit, grocery stores, packaging, and manufacturing are usually minimum-wage employees who carry less health-related insurance than health care providers or white-collar employees. The report asserted that the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act does little to protect these workers.

At the time of publication, Trader Joe’s had not responded to repeated requests for comment from the Weekly.

South Suburban Factory Workers Are Contracting COVID-19 Jorge Mujica, an organizer for the labor rights advocacy group Arise Chicago, told the Weekly about the working conditions at the West Chicago food production company Jel Sert. In late March, employers at Jel Sert’s candy production line were told that at least one of their co-workers had tested positive for COVID-19 and been sent home by the company several days before. It had been days since Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker had issued the stay-at-home order to close all nonessential businesses.

“The workers went out crazy,” Mujica said; they were angry that management had not informed them sooner. “These workers were working there for two weeks where they shouldn’t.” The business claimed that the workers are essential because the candy they produce is food, and argued the workers had to keep working for that reason.

Mujica’s team helped the workers send letters to the factory, asking them to close the factory in compliance with Pritzker’s executive order directing non-essential businesses to close. The company kept running for three days, and then was closed for four days for deep cleaning. Half of the workers did not come back the following

week, and the company then shut down.

“We are getting more and more reports.

Today, we are getting ten more cases of workers reporting that their co-workers have been diagnosed [with COVID-19].”

Mujica said.

A representative of Jel Sert told the Weekly that the company has been fully transparent, and said management relied on employees to inform them when they had tested positive for COVID-19. She added that Jel Sert followed CDC guidelines outlined on a DuPage County Health Department website for ensuring workers’ safety during the production process.

According to the company’s website, when workers enter the workplace, they have to fill out a health survey, and those who do not fulfill the health requirements were placed on a fourteen-day paid quarantine.

Mujica’s team primarily works with workers who are unfamiliar with unions. Many of them are undocumented immigrants who lack knowledge of the protections provided to them under labor law. Moreover, the greater fear about losing their job and being deported left them no choice but to keep working even during the pandemic.

For example, delivery workers have to work overnight. A typical day for a paper delivery person is to get to the warehouse at 2am, package newspapers, and head out on their route at 5am. For three hours, around eighty workers are crowded together in one small place. While social distancing guidelines exist, the warehouse does not have capacity for them to spread out, nor are there hygiene or safety measures, according to Mujica, who claims dirty bathrooms are common at worksites he has organized in the past.

As COVID-19 cases continue to mount, concerns about “essential” workers’ health may catalyze more labor actions. And who gets to take advantage of work-fromhome arrangements is revealing the startling class differences in America.

“People working from home are working at a distance, so they don't have any problems,” Mujica said. “But the thing is, essential workers are reporting more and more [COVID-19 diagnoses].” Yiwen Lu is a politics reporter for the Weekly.

She last covered the Democratic primary in Illinois’ 7th Congressional District.

APRIL 15, 2020 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 23

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