Welcome to Down Yonder – our weekly roundup of good reads we’ve found around the web.

Our goal is to showcase more perspectives on national and global issues through a rural lens. Expect Down Yonder on Saturdays. Enjoy!

ProPublica: Inside the U.S.’s Largest Maximum-Security Prison, Covid-19 Raged. Outside, Officials Called Their Fight a Success.

Inmates at Angola prison in Louisiana told ProPublica of widespread illness, dysfunctional care and deadly neglect as the coronavirus outbreak hit.

Grist: What Greater Good? Covid Is Unmasking America’s Collective Action Problem.

Over the pandemic-filled last four months, one thing’s become clear: Face masks can slow the spread of coronavirus and help to flatten the curve. The only issue? Mask-wearing is starting to look like a giant collective action problem — and many Americans are refusing to cooperate.

High Country News: Cordova’s longest road, just 36 miles, provides a lifeline for rural Alaskans

Photos explore life on the Copper River Highway.

The Hechinger Report: When Kids Go Back to School, Who’s Going to Drive the Bus?

Bus drivers, like other school support staff, are often older and can’t do their jobs remotely. School administrators are struggling to figure out how to reopen while keeping these staff safe.

Cronkite News: For Now, No Border Wall Will Split Cocopah Reservation Along the Colorado River

Border wall now stretches along just more than 200 miles of U.S.-Mexico borderland. But there’s a tiny swath of tribal land along the lower Colorado River where that’s not the case.