Category: Online Volume 2 (2020) COVID-19 Symposium

Madalyn K. Wasilczuk** Full Article. I.    COVID-19 in Youth Jails and Prisons A. The Spread of COVID-19 in Youth Facilities B. Responses to COVID-19 in the Juvenile Legal System C. Race and Disability Disparities in Youth Facilities During COVID-19 II.  COVID-19 as a Disaster III. Assessing the Pandemic Response In Youth Jails & Prisons A. Confined Children’s Vulnerability to the COVID Disaster B. Applying Lessons from Disaster to Children’s Conditions of Confinement Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare many of the cruel and inhumane conditions that persist in U.S. jails and prisons.[1] Headlines have highlighted the lack of access to adequate cleaning supplies and personal hygiene materials, restrictions on hand sanitizer, under-resourced medical facilities, and the costliness of phone calls and video visits for people in custody.[2] Jails,…

Susan A. McMahon** Full Article.  People are dying. We urge immediate action by the Court.[1] I.     Introduction II.  Competence Restoration Purgatory III. Impact of COVID-19 A. Pandemic as Crisis B. Pandemic as Solution IV. Next Steps and Dangers A. Deinstitutionalization Redux B. Retrenchment V.  Conclusion   I. Introduction Before the pandemic, a defendant found incompetent to stand trial was often stranded in jail for weeks or months as she waited for an inpatient bed to open at a psychiatric facility.[2] While there, she usually received no treatment, her mental health deteriorated, and she was astonishingly likely to be abused and neglected.[3] She almost certainly came out of jail in a worse state than she was when she went in. The pandemic has made this desperate situation even worse.…

Heather Tanana** Full Article. I.    Introduction II.  A Look at the Past To Understand the Present A. Federal Policies and the Perpetuation of Historical Trauma B. A Brief History of Mental Health and Health Services in Tribal Communities III. The Impact of COVID-19 on Tribal Communities and Response To Facilitate Mental Health Services A. COVID-19 B. Adapting To Address the Mental Health Needs of Tribes Through Telehealth Services IV. Conclusion I. Introduction The United States’ response to the coronavirus pandemic has been widely criticized.[1] The federal government failed to provide leadership and to fully appreciate the seriousness of the virus until it had reached all corners of the country. For many Americans, the lack of federal leadership may not have had a direct impact on their access to health…

Paricio del Castillo,** A. Cano Linares*** Full Article.  I.    Introduction II.  Health and Human Rights of Women A. Human Right to Health: International Protection Overview The Right to Health of Women The Increasing Attention to Mental Health Breastfeeding as a Human Rights Issue B. The Impact of COVID-19 on the Health of Women and Girls IV. The Way to Respectful Maternity Care (RMC) A. Effects of Covid-19 on Maternal Care and Its Repercussions on Mental Health The Outbreak of COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Repercussions on Maternal Care Caesarean Delivery and Induced Labor Mother-Baby Separation Discouraging Breastfeeding Perinatal Mortality B. Maternal Mental Health During COVID-19 V.  Conclusion I. Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has had, and will continue to have, a profound impact on the human rights of everyone across the…

Aila Hoss** Full Article. I.    Introduction II.  Federal Indian Law and Health Outcomes III. Federal Indian Law and COVID-19 IV. The Structural Violence of Federal Indian Law in COVID-19 Response I. Introduction Like countless other health conditions,[1] the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in inequalities.[2] People of color are experiencing not only higher rates of COVID-19 infections[3] but also worse outcomes from the infection.[4] American Indians and Alaska Natives are experiencing COVID-19 infections at higher rates than other groups across several states including Arizona,[5] New Mexico,[6]and Wisconsin.[7] The Navajo Nation, in particular, has been adversely impacted by COVID-19. As of the 2010 census, Navajo citizenship is around 300,000 people[8] although more recent numbers cite citizenship population at over 350,000.[9] The Tribe has had over 10,780 cases with 571 deaths as…

By Stacey A. Tovino** Full Article. I.    Introduction II.  The Changing Telehealth Regulatory Landscape A. Payment Parity B. Originating Sites C. Communication Systems D. In-Person Medical Evaluations E. Telehealth Services and Telehealth Providers F. In-State Licensure G. Privacy and Security III.  Conclusion I. Introduction A number of federal and state determinations, proclamations, statutes, regulations, executive orders, and notices of enforcement discretion (hereinafter authorities) have supported the rapid and unprecedented de-regulation of telehealth and telemedicine in the United States during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.[1] On January 31, 2020, for example, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex M. Azar II (Secretary Azar) used the authority vested in him under Section 319 of the Public Health Service Act[2] to formally determine that a public health emergency (PHE) existed in…

Nicole B. Godfrey**   & Laura L. Rovner*** Full Article.  Introduction I.    Solitary Confinement and its Harms II.  The Harms of the COVID-19 Pandemic to Incarcerated People III. Solitary and the COVID-19 Pandemic A. The Muddled Eighth Amendment Doctrine B. Deference to Prison Officials C. Resistance to Release Conclusion Introduction As of November 12, 2020, at least 182,593 people incarcerated in American prisons, jails, and detention centers have tested positive for COVID-19; 1,412 incarcerated people have died.[1] As the disease spread rapidly across the country (and world) in March 2020, public and prison health experts warned that jails and prisons could become incubators of the highly infectious disease.[2] Recognizing the risk posed to the nation’s incarcerated population, public health officials issued interim guidance meant to assist prison officials seeking to…

Barbara Pfeffer Billauer** Full Article.  I. Introduction II. A Policy of Disposable Oldsters and the effects of Isolation A. Elder-Oriented CoVid Policies B. The Culture of the Disposable Elderly III. Stress and Quarantine–a Cause and a Marker for Disease A. A Policy Fostering Adverse Mental Health B. Non-CoVid Deaths IV. Flawed Data Driving Policy and Artificially Inflating Deaths A. NYS Nursing Home Study and the Impact of Confounders V. Conclusion: The Law of Unintended Consequences and a Call for Therapeutic Justice I. Introduction Before CoVid felled the planet, the number of new cases of dementia every year tallied at ten million, or one new case every three seconds.[1] Alzeheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia—which is fatal—affected 10% of Americans over sixty-five,[2] some 4.7 million people.[3] In recent years…

By Adrián E. Alvarez** Full Article.  I.    Introduction II.  ORR’s Use of Admissions of Prior Gang Affiliation in Therapy Sessions III. The Best Interests of the Child and Access to Mental Health Services A. Best Interests of the Child Standard B. Unaccompanied Minors Right to Mental Health C. Using Therapy Notes To “Step Up” Minors Violates the TVPRA IV. Disability Law Can Provide Added Protections Within the Best Interests Framework I. Introduction For over a century, state courts and other child welfare agencies in the United States have been applying the “best interests of the child standard” to all decision-making concerning children.[1] The standard is also enshrined within the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)—a treaty that every nation in the world has ratified except the…

Samuel J. Levine** Full article.  I.    Introduction—The COVID-19 Crisis II.  Tragic Realities III. Conclusion—Cautious Hope I. Introduction—The COVID-19 Crisis The COVID-19 pandemic has cast the United States, along with the rest of the world, into a time of crisis and uncertainty unlike any other in recent memory. Months into the pandemic, there is scant agreement among scientists, government officials, and large segments of the public, both domestic and abroad, as to determining the causes and workings of the virus, designing appropriate and effective responses to the outbreak, and constructing accurate assessments of the future—or even of the present.[1] Indeed, the availability of concrete information about the virus and its effects is grossly inadequate and often replaced by anecdotal or impressionistic depictions, not infrequently accompanied by rumor and speculation. Perhaps…