‘I Am An Anarchist’: Remembering Anarchist Prisoner Brian McCarvill, who Died of COVID-19 in Prison on his 68th Birthday

A biography and obituary of Brian McCarvill, an anarchist prisoner in Oregon who was killed by a Covid-19 outbreak. This story was first published by Perilous Chronicle. The Oregon Department of Corrections (ODOC) does not publicly release the names of people who died from complications caused by COVID-19 while inside one of their prisons….

‘I Am An Anarchist’: Remembering Anarchist Prisoner Brian McCarvill, who Died of COVID-19 in Prison on his 68th Birthday — Derry Anarchist Black Cross

They say this is because of the desire for transparency while respecting the privacy of the deceased. They reiterate this policy every time another prisoner dies.

Break the Chains, a publication of the Anarchist Black Cross, which featured Brian McCarvill’s writings in the Summer 2003 edition (Source: The Freedom Archives).

According to ODOC’S official COVID-19 tracker, 26 of the thousands of people that have been infected while incarcerated in an Oregon prison have died of complications from the virus. Their spreadsheet does not say when or in which facility people have died. Those facts have to be found through newspaper reports, press releases, and social media. Most of their names are unknown. But not all of them.

On Nov. 1, a daily newspaper in Ontario, OR, obtained the names of nine people who had died with the virus while incarcerated at Snake River Correctional Institution (SRCI) in Malheur County. SRCI is the largest prison in the state and the site of the state’s worst outbreak. 

To date, they are the only publicly named victims of the COVID-19 pandemic inside Oregon’s prison system.

One of the names published by the Argus Observer was Brian C. McCarvill, who died on Sept. 27, 2020–his 68th birthday. A single line notice of his death–a name, a date, and the word “pending”–does not give justice to McCarvill’s history of resistance from inside the system…..

[…] CONTINUE READING HERE

‘I Am An Anarchist’: Remembering Anarchist Prisoner Brian McCarvill, who Died of COVID-19 in Prison on his 68th Birthday — Derry Anarchist Black Cross