This is how Eva Schell, a public defender in Maryland, described what she hopes is not forgotten about advocating for incarcerated clients during COVID. She encapsulates well what we sought to do when this project was born—we wanted to collect firsthand accounts of this work to show in human terms how COVID impacted incarcerated people and their advocates. 

From the outset, the UCLA Law COVID Behind Bars Data Project has focused primarily on collecting and analyzing quantitative data, but that sort of information cannot tell the whole story. Each confirmed case in our database is a person with a story. At times, data may even distort our understanding of the experiences of people behind bars. For example, a low case count in a prison might suggest that administrators’ interventions have been successful; those locked inside and their advocates, however, might tell us that these figures are the result of extreme lockdowns disconnecting people from their families and friends. Reporters, researchers, litigators, activists, and oversight agencies have looked behind the numbers to understand the complex human impacts of this now years-long pandemic on people behind bars.

In March 2021, we began an oral history project to contribute to these efforts. This project sought to learn from advocates about both their own experiences of litigating and their clients’ experiences of living during harrowing times. We wanted to create an historical record of their efforts and a learning resource for future advocates who might face similar circumstances. The archive is now publicly available here. 

Our Project’s primary concern throughout the pandemic has been those who are incarcerated, and other organizations have done amazing work in collecting their crucial first-person accounts of the pandemic. For example, UC-Irvine’s Prison Pandemic project is a digital archive of stories from people who are incarcerated in California prisons and jails, their family members and loved ones, and the staff who work in these facilities. Mourning Our Losses is a collection of memorials to people who died of COVID while incarcerated or while working in carceral facilities. Exceptional reporting containing accounts from people in prison added further layers. ¹ Our oral history project seeks to supplement these efforts by soliciting additional insights and stories from the people who were advocating for clients inside. 

Our 27 volunteers interviewed people from across the country engaged in varied forms of advocacy. Some did direct client work, trying to get medically vulnerable clients released, while others filed statewide class action lawsuits about access to masks and cleaning supplies. The stories were unique but many had similar themes. Many interviewees spoke about the secondary trauma this work caused and how hard it was seeing their clients suffer; they often felt helpless to intervene, at least in the immediate future. Others discussed how frustrating certain procedures or processes were considering the emergency situation. Brandon Buskey, Director of the ACLU Criminal Justice Reform Project, for example, explained:

Others shared advice to future advocates and talked about the logistical challenges of practicing remotely, especially without access to in-person visits with clients. Phil Mayor offered the following suggestions to people who might have to practice in similar circumstances:

Others discussed how hard COVID has been for families of incarcerated people, who sometimes did not know if their loved ones were sick and could not say goodbye before they died. Jim Davy, interviewed in May of 2021, spoke about one such experience:

Interviews also covered topics like vaccine access, the role of the media in advocacy, and the use of solitary confinement. On our website, you can sort the transcripts to read about specific topics.

Our oral history project would not be possible without the dozens of legal practitioners who allowed us to interview them. We appreciate their time and candor in being interviewed. If you lawyered on behalf of people in custody during the pandemic and are interested in contributing to this project, please reach out to behindbars@law.ucla.edu to set up an interview. 

Our volunteers were trained by Teresa Barnett, the head of the UCLA Library Center for Oral History Research. We thank her and her office for guiding our approach to the project.

Lastly, this project required dozens of volunteers to conduct, transcribe, and edit the interviews. Thank you to the following people, many of who were students at UCLA Law, for making this project possible: 

Muna Ali, Cal Armijo, Andrea Capone, Monique Cardona, Eugine Choo, Adrianne Davies, Marena Dieden, Katelyn Eng, Alix Gonzalez, Lily Johnson, Jon Kaiman, Ankita Katukota, Natalie Kaufman, Ania Korpanty, Hadley Levenson, Alex Mark, Valerie Marquez, Bailey Miller, Anna Norkett, Eireann O’Grady, Ellie Pearce, Marcus Pipitone, Ali Stack, Paige Tobin, Claudine Ushana, Elif Yücel, and Olivia Zacks.