‘Much worse than a cruise ship’: Prisoners’ lives at risk from COVID-19

WASHINGTON — More than 2 million people are incarcerated in the United States. That’s more people than there are living in major U.S. cities like Phoenix and Philadelphia.

They’re particularly vulnerable to health risks posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. They live in close-quarters. Many are elderly or pregnant. Many also have pre-existing medical conditions that put them at higher risk for serious complications from the respiratory disease.

Prison reform advocates are pushing for swift actions to protect inmates and employees. They want officials to take urgent steps, like releasing elderly and otherwise vulnerable prisoners, ensuring that sanitation supplies are available and eliminating medical co-pays for prisoners.

“We locked these folks up and it’s our job not to let anything bad happen to them,” said Emily Galvin-Almanza, executive director of Partners for Justice.

Some actions to safeguard inmates and prison employees have been taken by federal, state and local officials, but advocates are warning the moves aren’t sufficient. And they fear that officials won’t act swiftly enough to save lives.

“It’s difficult to have an issue like this gain public traction when everybody is affected by this pandemic,” said Ed Chung, vice president of criminal justice reform at the Center for American Progress. “That’s the enduring challenge of criminal justice reform issues like this, to get the public not to look at people who are incarcerated as those who should be dealt with last.”

Galvin-Almanza and David Mills, a senior lecturer at Stanford Law School, penned an op-ed in Business Insider warning that as many as 100,000 people who pass through U.S. jails and prisons could die from COVID-19.

Incarcerated people “face a much higher risk of exposure to COVID-19 than they would on the outside — and behind bars, infection is more likely to be a death sentence,” they wrote.

‘This is life or death’ 

Members of Congress are pushing the Trump administration to do more to limit the pandemic’s spread in prisons.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), chairman of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), chairwoman of a Judiciary subcommittee, sent Attorney General William Barr a letter on March 30 asking the Justice Department to “use every tool at your disposal to release as many prisoners as possible, to protect them from COVID-19.”

A bipartisan group of senators also asked Barr and the head of the federal Bureau of Prisons to consider using their authority to quickly transfer non-violent offenders facing significant medical risks to home confinement.

Barr issued a memo in late March urging the Bureau of Prisons to reduce the populations by sending some prisoners home, but said many prisoners would be safer in federal facilities, Politico reported.

“It was very tempting to get excited” when Barr issued that memo, said Galvin-Almanza. But the process laid out by the Justice Department for releasing inmates would “render any benefit completely impossible,” she added. It lays out burdensome requirements for prisoners, she said, and requires a 14-day quarantine period before anyone can be transferred to home confinement.

“We need an expedited process in a pandemic,” Galvin-Almanza said. “This is life or death.”

The Bureau of Prisons announced that, beginning April 1, inmates in every federal prison would be quarantined in their assigned cells or quarters to combat the spread of the virus and that facilities would allow “limited group gathering.”

The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment about how many prisoners had been transferred to home confinement since the order was issued.

By April 2, four inmates had died from COVID-19 at a U.S. prison in Oakdale, La., as the disease spread through the facility. Reuters reported that 18 inmates and 17 staff members had contracted the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Dozens more people had shown symptoms and were in isolation.

Across the country, the Bureau of Prisons reported on April 3 that there were 75 positive cases of COVID-19 cases among inmates and 39 cases among staff.

Kate Chatfield, senior advisor for legislation and policy at the Justice Collaborative, stressed that prisons are not contained, and outbreaks will inevitably spread to local communities.

“It’s much worse than a cruise ship” in that way, she said. People are in tighter quarters and employees are cycling in and out, she said. “Just because people are locked up doesn’t mean that it’s going to be contained in that facility.”

State responses

Federal prisons account for only a small amount of the population incarcerated in the United States.

A March report from the Prison Policy Initiative shows that the vast majority of U.S. prisoners — about 1.3 million people — are held in state prisons. Another 631,000 are in local jails; federal prisons and jails hold 226,000 people.

Still, the federal government’s actions during the pandemic could significantly influence state and local policies, advocates say.

“Any big, visible system has the opportunity to show leadership in terms of dramatic moves,” said Galvin-Almanza.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 continues to spread among inmates and employees at prisons and jails around the country.

For example, a Detroit transportation officer with the Michigan Department of Corrections died from COVID-19, the station WZZM reported, and at least 25 MDOC employees had tested positive for the virus.

In Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine has announced the release of 38 prisoners. On Monday, he said 10 inmates at state prisons have tested positive, as have 27 members of staff. Three federal prisoners at the Elkton facility in Ohio have died, he said, while another seven have tested positive.

Georgia’s Lee State Prison has been hard hit by the virus with one inmate death and a total of 12 inmates and staff testing positive, according to the Georgia Recorder. Overall, at least 23 people have tested positive for COVID-19 at Georgia Department of Corrections facilities.

In North Carolina, the first COVID-19 case at a federal prison was reported March 27 and involved a staff member. Less than a week later, 10 inmates tested positive for the virus at the same facility, NC Policy Watch reported.

The Prison Policy initiative is tracking examples of state and local agencies taking steps to slow the spread of COVID-19.

In Hillsborough County, Fla., for example, the sheriff announced that 164 “low level, nonviolent” offenders would be released from county jails.

Hundreds of inmates were released from jail in Allegheny County, Pa., due to concerns about the virus.

Prison reform advocates are hopeful that the crisis will lead to broad changes.

“We’re seeing the fault lines in our system and the flaws,” said Chatfield of the Justice Collaborative. She said those flaws go beyond the risks posed to prison populations and pointed to the vulnerability of homeless people and the broader needs for adequate health care.

“My hope and my fear are completely entangled right now,” said Galvin-Almanza. “My hope would be this would be the moment we as a society realize that we need a better system.”

Her fear, she added, is that in order for that to happen, “the worst predictions about death in custody will have to come true.”