Martha Beatty

Martha L. Beatty, a longtime resident of Mascotte, Florida, passed away on July 24th, 2020. Martha was 75 years old. 

Martha was refused compassionate release from Lowell Correctional Institution despite her age and underlying chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which activists emphasized made her especially vulnerable to coronavirus. As they feared, Martha contracted COVID-19 while incarcerated and passed away from the virus and a blood clot that developed in her lungs. “[Martha] was a lovable old woman and she’s dead because of COVID,” said Debra Bennett-Austin, an advocate for the rights of incarcerated people who became a longtime friend of Martha’s after spending over five years with her at Lowell. In an interview with the Miami Herald, Debra declared that “with every new death, it’s apparent that [the State of Florida is] failing…They are just issuing death sentences.” 

The National Council for Incarcerated & Formerly Incarcerated Women & Girls has criticized Lowell, the nation’s largest women’s prison, for its failure to properly isolate and care for people who have contracted COVID-19 within the facility. Since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 1,000 people incarcerated there have contracted COVID-19. According to the Orlando Sentinel, the prison has been the subject of numerous Department of Justice investigations, and activists have long spoken out against rampant sexual abuse and corruption at Lowell. Now, with the added dangers of the pandemic, the Appeal reports that there are virtually no nurses on hand to help with medical emergencies, and incarcerated women and girls “are not being temp checked at all, [even as] there are several girls that have been showing symptoms.” Martha deserved release, and her death was unjust and preventable.

We join Martha’s friends and all activists in their calls for decarceration and justice for incarcerated women and girls during the COVID-19 pandemic. May Martha rest in peace and may her memory inspire the rightful release of incarcerated women and girls to their families and to the rest of their lives.

This memorial was written by MOL team member Laura Haight with information from reporting by Samantha J. Gross of the Miami Herald and the Tampa Bay Times, Alexandra DeLuca of the Appeal, and the Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board.