Virtual Symposium on Covid-19 and Vulnerable Populations

The coronavirus pandemic has powerfully and tragically harmed vulnerable peoples across the United States, from Native Americans in rural communities, to detainees in immigration detention centers and people incarcerated in confined spaces, to individuals with mental and physical disabilities. The Academy for Justice at Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, in conjunction with the Arizona State Law Journal Online, hosted a Virtual Symposium on COVID-19 and Vulnerable Populations to examine and challenge the pre-existing, health-harming legal and policy obstacles that are exacerbating the danger of the COVID-19 national health crisis to vulnerable populations.

On December 14, 2020, authors discussed their ideas and essays in roundtable discussions followed by Q&A sessions open to the public, and a keynote presentation. The following topics were discussed:

Criminal Justice: The criminal justice essays challenge the loss of rehabilitative programming for juveniles in custody, examine detention and access to care during COVID through a disability law framework, provide a series of arguments against solitary confinement, and propose community treatment for competency restoration.

Health Law: The health law essays describe the deregulation of telehealth and telemedicine during COVID-19, the impact of the pandemic on elderly patients with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, expose the dearth of support and services to individuals with developmental disabilities, and use a disability law framework to ensure medication for people with substance use disorder.

Indigenous Peoples and Inequity: The essays on Indigenous people and Native Americans discuss mental health treatment in tribal communities, and the overarching harm of federal Indian law in the face of this pandemic.

The wide range of essays included in this symposium were published and posted to the Arizona State Law Journal Online.

Panel 1: Treatment and Care During COVID-19: Disability, Mental Health, and Substance Use Disorder

Opening Remarks by Academy for Justice Deputy Director Valena Beety followed by Panel 1: Treatment and Care During COVID-19: Disability, Mental Health, and Substance Use Disorder.

This panel included Stacey A. Tovino, author of COVID-19, Telehealth, and Substance Use Disorders; Barbara Pfeffer Billauer, author of Mental Health and the Aged in the Era of COVID-19; Samuel J. Levine, author of COVID-19 and Individuals with Developmental Disabilities: Tragic Realities and Cautious Hope; and Kelly K. Dineen & Elizabeth Pendo, co-authors of Substance Use Disorder, Discrimination, and The CARES Act: Using Disability Law to Strengthen New Protections. The panel was moderated by Associate Professor Jennifer Oliva, Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law, Seton Hall University School of Law.

Panel 2: The Vulnerability of Native Americans and Pregnant Women During COVID-19

This panel included Aila Hoss, author of COVID-19 and Tribes: The Structural Violence of Federal Indian Law; Heather Tanana, author of Learning from the Past and the Pandemic to Address Mental Health in Tribal Communities; R. Paricio del Castillo & Angeles Cano Linares, co-authors of Mental Health and Vulnerable Populations in the Era of COVID-19: Containment Measures Effects on Pregnancy and Childbirth and moderator Kate Rosier, Assistant Dean and Director of the Indian Law Program, Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law.

COVID-19 and Vulnerable Populations: Keynote Address by Professor of Law Ruqaiijah Yearby

A Keynote Address by Professor of Law Ruqaiijah Yearby, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Healing Justice and Equity at St. Louis University during the Virtual Symposium on COVID-19 and Vulnerable Populations co-hosted by the Academy for Justice at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, and the Arizona State Law Journal. Professor Yearby spoke about the effects of COVID -19 on essential workers in the meat an poultry industry specifically involving systemic racism.

Panel 3: Detention During COVID-19: Immigration, Institutionalization, Prisons and Jails

This panel included Nicole B. Godfrey and Laura L. Rovner, co-authors of COVID-19 in American Prisons: Solitary Confinement is Not the Solution; Adrián E. Alvarez, author of Immigration Detention and Mental Healthcare During COVID-19; Madalyn K. Wasilczuk, author of Not for the Purpose of Punishment: Trauma & Children in Custody in the Age of COVID-19; and Susan A. McMahon, Pandemic as Opportunity for Competence Restoration Decarceration. This panel was moderator by Professor Valena Beety, Deputy Director of the Academy for Justice, Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law.