Robert Barton is a D.C. resident serving a sentence of 30 years to life, currently at the U.S. penitentiary in Coleman, Florida, which is in lockdown. He submitted an op-ed to Politico by regular mail via More Than Our Crimes, (an organization he co-founded) and they published it.
His article explains the damage done to incarcerated persons from lockdowns and exposes the long-term overuse of lockdowns by the federal Bureau of Prisons. “The Bureau has been relying on lockdowns to “handle” everything from disputes between a couple of residents to its chronic staff shortages since at least 2018.”