Coronavirus

Twitter CEO Donates $10 Million To Help Prisons Battle COVID-19

The money will be used to buy 10 million face masks and other PPE for inmates and prison employees.

Twitter CEO Donates $10 Million To Help Prisons Battle COVID-19
Newsy

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is donating $10 million to REFORM Alliance, a criminal justice advocacy group led by CNN analyst Van Jones, to help U.S. prisons battling the coronavirus pandemic.

The money will be used to buy 10 million face masks and other PPE for inmates, as well as correctional officers, health care workers and other prison employees. 

The donation is coming from Dorsey's Start Small initiative. He put $1 billion of equity from his mobile payment company, Square, into the initiative in April and has since been using it to fund global COVID-19 relief. 

The New York Times has tallied more than 35,800 coronavirus infections and 345 deaths in inmates and staff at federal and state prisons and local jails across the country. 

REFORM Alliance, whose founders include Meek Mill and Jay-Z, was created last year to help reduce the U.S.' incarceration rate "starting with probation and parole" changes.