HPDC’s Surreply

The Plaintiffs’ Surreply comes at a time when the historical connection between prisons, police, and slavery have been laid bare by the complete and total abandonment of incarcerated people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Coronavirus infections are five times higher in prisons than the infections of the general population. And yet, policy makers and institutional investors seek to evade responsibility for such atrocity. As just one example, seven prisoners have died in the coronavirus outbreak at San Quentin State Prison. Thousands of other prisoners will likely suffer the same fate. 

International uprisings for Black Lives have caught the world’s attention and forced it to grapple with the systemic ways in which anti-Blackness continues to oppress in the United States. Yet, Defendant Harvard wants to be the exception. The Plaintiffs’ case is born from a sincere and thorough dedication to anti-racism and the freedom of all peoples. As such the Plaintiffs’ case outlines the genealogical relationship between antebellum slavery and present-day incarceration via the Thirteenth amendment.