On February 16th, the Adachi Project launched DEFENDER-Vol.00, a digital art+media platform that includes the documentary short called “One Eleven Taylor (During a Pandemic) — an intense 11-minute view of life inside the halfway house at 111 Taylor Street in San Francisco, which is operated by the private prison corporation GEO Group. The films shows the experiences of residents – who have been placed at the reentry center after being paroled – and the fear and conditions as the virus began to spread through the center in the Spring of 2020.
In January 2021, a current resident of 111 Taylor – Keith “Malik” Washington, the Editor of the SF Bay View National Black Newspaper – exposed a new outbreak of COVID in the center and spoke to journalist Tim Redmond of 48 Hills. Mr. Washington has since filed at lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Prisons and GEO Group for the retaliation he has suffered since talking to the press about COVID at the center.
On February 18, 2021, Public Defender Mano Raju spoke on KPFA’s Flashpoints, hosted by Dennis Bernstein. Other guests included Tim Redmond and Richard Tan, Mr. Washington’s attorney.
