The Marshall Project continues to track cases of COVID-19 and it's impact across US prisons. They note that a recent change by the Federal Bureau of Prisons to remove cases and deaths from its reports has reduced their ability to accurately track new cases or deaths in federal prisons. Read more: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/05/01/a-state-by-state-look-at-coronavirus-in-prisons [...]
The New York Times reports that dozens of individuals in prison have died who were approved for parole or not convicted. The deaths raise troubling questions about the way the country’s justice system responded to a pandemic that infected incarcerated people at more than three times the national rate. Defense attorneys, judges and some prosecutors have [...]
The Brennan Center for Justice highlights how the COVID pandemic has impacted jails – and that according to analysis by The Marshall Project and the Associated Press, more than 100,000 people have been released from state and federal prisons which is an 8% decrease in the national prison population since the pandemic started. The [...]
Vaccines have slowly made their way into the prison system but not until more than a third of the people in jails and prisons became infected. In some cases, these facilities were the worst superspreaders — with infections spreading between prisoners and staff. Read more: https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2021/the-astonishing-toll-of-covid-19-in-jails-and-prisons/
The company that currently provides health care and pharmacy services for Michigan's 27 prisons says a competitor that's poised to take over the contract will "slash" staffing and bring "dramatic cuts to mental health services." Read more: https://sports.yahoo.com/michigan-prison-healthcare-slashed-under-040000287.html
Colorado, Connecticut, Vermont and Michigan had the highest testing rates among the 32 states studied for COVID-19 testing among inmate populations, according to a study released by the National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice. Read more: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/04/01/michigan-prisons-covid-19-testing-inmate-deaths/4834926001/
WILX reports that many Michigan corrections officers are not getting vaccinated. Some of this may be because so many prisoners and prison staff have already been infected that many do not see a need to get vaccinated. Read more: https://www.wilx.com/2021/03/29/corrections-officers-not-getting-vaccinated-as-prison-case-numbers-rising/
The New York Times reports that COVID-19 infections are nearly triple among US prisoners than the rest of the US population. Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/04/10/world/covid-vaccine-coronavirus-cases
America's prisons, jails and detention centers have been among the nation's most dangerous places when it comes to COVID-19. Over the last year, an average of 1,400 new infections and seven deaths were reported every day from these facilities. Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/04/10/us/covid-prison-outbreak.html
The Marshall Project has put together a state by state comparison showing COVID-19 rates inside prisons. View more: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/05/01/a-state-by-state-look-at-coronavirus-in-prisons
