Graduate 
student 
Jeffrey 

Grim’s last moments with his 
grandparents 
consisted 
of 

Zoom calls and waiting outside 
their room in the hospital. 
Despite following public health 
guidelines, 
both 
of 
Grim’s 

grandparents, Jacob and Doris 
Bender, contracted COVID-19 
this summer. 

“The hardest part was not 

being able to do anything,” Grim 
said.

Doris and Jacob, who worked 

in the Army, married in 1958 
after meeting in Hawaii . They 
moved to Jacob’s hometown, 
Sharpsburg, Md., where Doris 
worked in a hair salon and 
Jacob 
worked 
for 
Jamison 

Door 
Company. 
Doris 
also 

became a small-time celebrity 
for crocheting more than 2,000 
hats for newborns. The residents 
from Sharpsburg remembered 
the couple as always willing to 
lend a hand.

This summer, both of Grim’s 

grandparents died two days 
apart from each other, separated 
by two rooms. 

Grim 
is 
one 
of 
many 

Americans 
experiencing 
loss 

from the coronavirus pandemic. 
More 
than 
230,000 
people 

have died from COVID-19, with 
researchers projecting another 
180,000 deaths by Jan. 1. 

While 
both 
of 
Grim’s 

grandparents were in their 80s, 
they had differing preexisting 
conditions: 
asthma 
and 

prior heart damage for his 
grandmother 
and 
recovery 

from prostate cancer for his 
grandfather. Grim said both 
of his grandparents had to be 
hospitalized as their conditions 
worsened. 

Patients 
who 
contract 

COVID-19 
have 
extremely 

limited physical contact with 
close family, where the only 

form of contact allowed is calling 
through a mobile device. Grim 
recounts using Zoom to have 
15-minute interactions with his 
grandparents, even if they were 
sedated. 

This form of contact included 

a 
sobering 
interaction 
in 

which Grim had to say his 
final goodbyes to both of his 
grandparents.

On college campuses, images 

of college students partying 
without wearing a mask or social 
distancing have been prevalent. 
LSA 
sophomore 
Junhyoung 

Kwon said he thinks people aren’t 
taking the pandemic seriously 
due to lack of understanding of 
COVID-19 and the consequences 
of contracting the virus. 

“If you hear about other 

people getting affected, that 
doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll 
be able to … sympathize with 
it unless it actually happens to 
you,” Kwon said.

Centers for Disease Control 

and Prevention guidelines to 
combat the virus include wearing 
a mask and social distancing at 
least six feet apart, but these 
recommendations 
have 
been 

ignored by some individuals.

Grim said he feels outraged 

when he sees people without 
masks or not adhering to the 
CDC 
guidelines 
to 
combat 

COVID-19.

“If 
there’s 
someone 
not 

wearing a mask, I think it’s just 
so selfish, because it’s people like 
that that probably spread it to my 
grandparents,” Grim said. “And 
so, for people to think, ‘I’m not 
going to be hurt by it,’ that’s not 
necessarily true … you could pass 
it on to other people, especially 
people 
who 
are 
working, 

especially older people, and it’s 
just really selfish.”

People 
who 
show 
no 

symptoms may not feel the 
detrimental effects of COVID-19 
but can still spread it to others. 
People who are asymptomatic 
may not know if they have been 

infected, and wearing a mask 
regardless of showing symptoms 
can prevent others from getting 
infected. 

LSA sophomore Sally Hwang 

said she knows several people 
who have tested positive for the 
virus.

“It is so heartbreaking and 

sad that there’s nothing you can 
really do besides wait it out,” 
Hwang said.

Despite 
the 
increasing 

number of students on campus 
testing positive for COVID-19, 
Hwang expresses her frustration 
when some students continue to 
downplay the threat of the virus. 

“I hear people outside of 

this apartment partying every 
single night next door and in 
the building next to us,” Hwang 
said. “It’s really disappointing, 
because it honestly seems like 
there’s not a lot of people taking 
it seriously on campus, and I 
really just feel like that brings 
the reputation of the school 
down.”

Grim, who is in his sixth year 

as a doctoral candidate, notes 
how his school life has been 
impacted after the deaths of his 
grandparents.

“Besides 
impacting 
my 

family’s 
life 
and 
my 
life 

significantly, it’s made it really 
hard to do school work. It makes 
it really hard to work on my 
dissertation,” Grim said.

Grim said he hopes his story 

will motivate others to take the 
consequences of the pandemic 
seriously.

“I really hope that from me 

and my family sharing our story 
about losing two really important 
people, that maybe it might 
personalize things for others so 
that they take better care, if not 
for themselves but for others,” 
Grim said. “I would do anything 
(to have) my grandmother back.”

Daily Staff Reporter Cynthia 

Huang 
can 
be 
reached 
at 

huangcyn@umich.edu. 

As protesters took to the 

streets across the nation to fight 
police brutality and systemic 
racism in the name of Black 
Lives Matter this year, calls for 
the abolishment of not only the 
police but the larger criminal 
justice 
system 
have 
gained 

momentum. 
The 
Michigan 

Daily spoke with currently and 
formerly 
incarcerated 
people 

about their experiences in prison 
and what the future of criminal 
justice should look like.

Parallels between slavery 

and the modern prison system

Dion “Bantu” Dawson, who 

is 
currently 
incarcerated 
in 

Macomb Correctional Facility 
in Michigan, has been in prison 
for 18 years with a sentence 
of natural life without the 
possibility of parole. He is the 
president of the Macomb Prison 
branch of the NAACP. Dawson 
said prisons are “designed to 
contain and control the Black 
body.”

Further, 
Dawson 
drew 

parallels between slavery and 
the prison system today, calling it 
a “modern-day slave plantation.”

“There is almost an identical 

system in place as it relates to 
property relations between the 
prisoner and the prisoner state 
just as it was the slave and the 
slave master,” Dawson said.

Dawson said there is an 

inherent 
violence 
in 
both 

systems, 
with 
violence 
so 

common that it has become 
normalized. In his time at 
Macomb and previously at Ionia 
Correctional Facility, Dawson 
said he’s seen fellow inmates 
beaten, suffocated and chained 
to their beds.

“Both systems naturalize the 

violence that they impose on 
their subjects,” Dawson said. 
“Prison staff, for example, find it 
almost impossible not to subject 
us to violence in the form of 
threats. They have to always 
instill this fear in us.”

Dawson also found similarities 

between the aggression he’s 
experienced in prison and police 
brutality today. 

“Just like Black men and 

women today are being subjected 
to police brutality, we are very 
much subjected to brutality 
as well by the correctional 
officers,” Dawson said. 

He also noted prison staff 

feel a strong allegiance to their 
fellow staff, which can lead 
to increased intimidation and 
violence against prisoners –– a 
phenomenon also seen during 
recent BLM protests and the 
trials of police officers.

The illusion of autonomy in 

prison

Lacino 
Hamilton, 
who 

was released from prison in 
September after being wrongly 
convicted 
of 
murdering 
his 

foster mother, said he had very 
little autonomy to make his own 
choices. He was incarcerated for 
26 years. 

“It 
was 
dehumanizing 

in the sense that it (prison) 
micromanages down to a point 
where 
there’s 
no 
necessity 

for thought,” Hamilton said. 
“Everything is pre-programmed, 
all decisions are stripped away.” 

Another inmate at Macomb, 

Gregory 
Tyrone 
Alexander, 

who has been incarcerated for 
23 years with a life sentence 
without 
parole, 
echoed 

Hamilton’s thoughts and said 
autonomy in prison is an illusion. 

“There’s 
a 
way 
to 
make 

those who are being controlled 
believe that we are somewhat in 
control, and so we go about our 
daily existence thinking that 
the choices we make are solely 
ours, but all along there is an 
invisible hand who dictates our 
movement, even our thought 
process,” Alexander said. 

Alexander said even his family 

on the outside has experienced 
small doses of the control the 
criminal justice system exerts 
— for example, when they call 
for information or when they try 
to send him material items for 
support. 

“There always seemed to be 

a block, an obstacle, that had 
to be traversed,” Alexander 
said. “What they think to be 
a simple gesture of support or 
love was always blocked or put 
some type of resistance on, so 
as I said before, there’s a sense 
of control which is somewhat 
subtly applied to those who are 
constantly within the system. 
But for them (family on the 
outside), since they don’t witness 
it on a daily basis, when they 
do experience it, it’s almost 
shocking.”

The current movement for 

abolition

While 
there 
may 
be 

similarities between the carceral 
state and slavery, Hamilton said 
it is not a productive comparison 
and does not help modern day 
social justice movements gain 
momentum. 

The prison system is violent 

not because of the physical 
violence 
people 
experience 

inside, but because it violently 
isolates 
inmates 
from 
their 

communities, 
according 
to 

Hamilton. 

“Prison is inherently violent 

because it is a separation of a 

person from their family, their 
community,” 
Hamilton 
said. 

“That’s 
violent. 
Everything 

about it in that sense, so 
everybody in prison experiences 
violence.”

Alexander 
addressed 
the 

racism he experienced growing 
up in Battle Creek. At first, he 
said he didn’t recognize the 
systemic racism he faced, but 
his perspective changed once he 
was incarcerated. 

“When 
(racism) 
is 
subtly 

applied, I think psychologically 
we have a tendency to dismiss 
it and almost are able to argue 
that it is non-existent, and that 
was my stance for a long time,” 
Alexander said. “However, when 
I started to be involved in the 
criminal justice system, which 
started before being imprisoned, 
I was able to then understand 
how race played a major role in 
the trajectory of not only myself 
but those who look like me and 
so, experience life differently 
than what others experience.”

Calls to abolish the police 

and the prison system gained 
traction over the summer, as 
opposed to previous notions of 
reforming the carceral state. 

Dawson referred to reform as 

“window-dressing” and said it 
would not solve the problems. 
Abolition is the only solution, he 
said.

“(Abolition) isn’t just about 

tearing structures down, but 
also talking about building new 
structures up,” Dawson said. “So 
in that way, I think abolition is 
about imagining a new world, a 
more equitable world that isn’t 
just about caging people.”

Hamilton 
also 
expressed 

support 
of 
the 
abolition 

movement –– he said prisons 
were designed to be “inherently 
racist” and to make a profit, and 
they are achieving that goal.

“I think a lot of times when we 

say a system is broke, it means 
it’s not benefiting someone,” 
Hamilton said. “It’s broke, it’s not 
working. I think that (the prison 
system) only exists because 
it benefits someone … I think 

it is doing exactly what it was 
designed to do, regardless of the 
harm it does to communities.”

Alexander said, because of the 

stigma around being currently 
or formerly incarcerated, most 
people do not take the time to 
really listen to what inmates 
have to say, but he encouraged 
people to take it upon themselves 
to do their own research and 
find the “answers that are often 
not given freely.”

“Incarcerated 
women 
and 

men should not be identified 
by probably one of the worst 
mistakes they’ve ever made, 
which is sometimes just a bad 
decision, which we are often 
identified by,” Alexander said. 
“We 
are 
labeled 
generally, 

instead of individually, because 
we are grouped as convicted 
felons, and we are the group 
of society that no one wants to 
understand.”

Daily News Editor Emma Stein 

can be reached at enstein@umich.
edu.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
 4 — Wednesday, November 18, 2020 

Incarcerated people talk 
future of criminal justice

DESIGN BY CAITLIN MARTENS

In light o f nationwide protests, abolition movement gains momentum

Students discuss losses 
from ongoing pandemic

Lost lives prompt calls for social distancing, mask-wearing

After the Trump administration 

proposed a new rule to increase 
restrictions 
on 
international 

student visas, Michigan Attorney 
General Dana Nessel co-signed a 
letter with 21 other state attorneys 
general opposing the policy. 

In a Friday press release, Nessel 

condemned the proposed rule and 
said the suggested timeline was 
unrealistic. 

“For decades we have allowed 

international students to remain 
in the U.S. until their studies are 
completed, and this proposed rule 
shows a blatant disregard for the 
positive impacts these students 
have on our economy and our 
cultural diversity,” Nessel said in 
a statement. “The reality for many 
students is that obtaining a college 
degree may not happen within four 
years, so to propose a rule which 
could limit that achievement and 
stifle the value of a culturally 
enriched experience within our 
universities is damaging to the 
U.S.’s reputation as a world leader.” 

This follows multiple other 

possible policy changes for these 
visas from earlier this year. In 
July, the Trump administration 
tried to limit visas by requiring 
new international students to 
take in-person classes to stay 
in the country, despite the fact 
that most universities, including 
the University of Michigan, had 
moved classes online because of 
the COVID-19 pandemic. After 
multiple lawsuits, the policy was 
rescinded. 

If 
enacted, 
the 
proposed 

rule would significantly limit 
international student visas, most 
dramatically for students from 59 
countries. Four of these countries 
— Iran, North Korea, Sudan and 
Syria — are included based on 
claims from the Department of 
Homeland Security that their 
governments are state sponsors of 
terrorism. The others are included 

largely due to visa overstay rates 
of more than 10% from last year’s 
DHS report, with 36 of these 
countries being in Sub-Saharan 
Africa. 

It would also limit the time for 

which student visas are active, 
making them apply for only two- 
or four-year fixed terms, both for 
under and post-grad programs. 
As with U.S.-born students, many 
international students take longer 
than 2-to-4 years to complete their 
education. 

According to the letter from the 

Attorney General’s Office, 53.2% of 
all international students, of which 
there are more than 700,000 in 
total, were enrolled in bachelor’s 
or Ph.D. programs in 2018 with a 
minimum duration of four years. 

Under the current policy, known 

as “duration of status,” students 
can generally stay in the U.S. for 
as long as necessary to complete 
their 
educational 
program, 

assuming they remain enrolled 
at an accredited institution and 
are meeting general progress 
requirements toward a degree.

If the new policy is enacted, 

students will only be allowed 
exceptions 
to 
the 
rule 
for 

compelling 
academic 
reasons, 

documented medical illnesses or 
circumstances beyond students’ 
control. 

Engineering junior Tony Pan, 

an international student from 
mainland China, said the four-
year time limit was too short, as 
international students may face 
additional challenges in finishing 
their degree as quickly as U.S.-
based students, especially if they 
are not fluent in English. 

He said he has thought about 

pursuing a Ph.D. in robotics in 
the U.S. but does not know if 
that would be possible under 
this timeline, saying it would be 
impossible to complete meaningful 
research in that time frame. He 
added that international students 
also come from different cultural 
backgrounds.

“Many (international students) 

may not even have the exposure 
like a lot of American students had 
when they were in high school,” 
Pan said. “Maybe they wanted 
to explore (different subjects) for 
the first year … Also, I really want 
to mention: it takes a long time to 
adapt to any environment with 
culture shock.”

University 
President 
Mark 

Schlissel, in a letter submitted to 
DHS and co-signed by Provost 
Susan 
Collins, 
opposed 
the 

proposed rule and asked for its 
withdrawal. 

Schlissel echoed claims that 

the 
timeline 
was 
unrealistic 

and said it should be up to the 
University to examine student 
progress. He wrote the proposed 
regulation represents a severe 
misunderstanding of how higher 
education in the U.S. works.

“All 
of 
our 
students, 

regardless of their country of 
citizenship, should have the same 
opportunities,” Schlissel wrote.

The University’s International 

Center submitted a similar letter 
on behalf of the University. 

The 
22 
attorneys 
general 

provided numerous reasons to 
abandon the proposed rule in 
their letter, arguing it could cause 
a sharp decline in international 
student 
enrollment, 
as 
only 

41% of students at U.S. colleges 
and universities complete their 
bachelor’s degree within four 
years. 

In his letter, Schlissel explained 

the importance of international 
students’ contributions to the U.S. 

“Although the United States 

long has been the top destination 
for 
international 
students, 

scholars and faculty, there has 
been a nationwide decline in their 
numbers over the past few years, 
and this proposed regulation 
would undoubtedly result in a 
further decline,” Schlissel wrote. 

AG Nessel co-signs letter 
opposing visa restrictions

Document condemns proposal to limit international students in U.S.

EMMA RUBERG
Daily Staff Reporter

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

EMMA STEIN
Daily News Editor

CYNTHIA HUANG

Daily Staff Reporter