Bill Berkowitz: Ineptitude, Indifference, and Unresponsiveness Causes Coronavirus Clusters in Prison and Jails

July 1st 2020

 
american flag in penitentiary (CC0 Public Domain)

american flag in penitentiary (CC0 Public Domain)

By Bill Berkowitz 

With the COVID-19 death count in the U.S. now over 125,000, prisons and jails have become the five largest known clusters of the virus in the United States; attacking prisons and jails with an unrelenting force. While early on, meatpacking plants and nursing homes were registering a sizable number of cases (the latter resulting in tens of thousands of deaths), prison authorities that had time to prepare for the predictable onslaught, basically sat on their hands. The high rate of cases is not only due to the ham-fisted responses by officials, but also due to: 

  • overcrowding -- with the sharing of common spaces, social distancing is impossible; 

  • medieval-like medical care; and 

  • the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE). 

According to a June 26 report in the San Francisco Chronicle, the exploding outbreak now occurring at San Quentin State Prison in California, was apparently “touched off by a botched transfer of 121 men on May 30 from the virus-swamped California Institution for Men in Chino,” which had been the state prison with the largest number of infected inmates. The Chronicle pointed out that San Quentin now has more than 500 cases, the most among prisoners in any state facility. 

According to a mid-June report in The New York Times, “Cases of the coronavirus in prisons and jails across the United States have soared in recent weeks, … [with] [t]he number of prison inmates known to be infected … doubl[ing] during the past month to more than 68,000. Prison deaths tied to the coronavirus have also risen, by 73 percent since mid-May.” As of June 22, 570 people and over 50 correctional staff had died in correctional facilities. 

Some states reduced their prison population and that appears to be a mitigating factor in slowing the spread. However, most states took very little action to save incarcerated people and facility staff from COVID-19. 

As of late June, the five largest coronavirus clusters are in Marion Correctional Institution, Marion Ohio, Pickaway Correctional Institution, Scioto Township, Ohio, Trousdale Turner Correctional Center, Hartsville, Tennessee, North County jail, Castaic , California, and Harris County jail, Houston, Texas.  According to The New York Times’ Timothy Williams, Libby Seline and Rebecca Griesbach,

“A muddled, uneven response by corrections officials to testing and care for inmates and workers is complicating the spread of the coronavirus. In interviews, prison and jail officials acknowledged that their approach has largely been based on trial and error, and that an effective, consistent response for U.S. correctional facilities remains elusive.”

A late June press release announcing a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Prison Policy Initiative entitled “Failing Grades: States’ Responses to COVID-19 in Jails & Prisons,” () maintained that “despite having ample time and information to take the steps necessary to heed the warnings of experts and save the lives of those incarcerated in their prisons and jails, state governments across the country refused to adequately address the threat that the COVID-19 pandemic poses in jails and prisons. The new report explains how each state ignored the pleas of incarcerated people and the warnings of medical experts. Nine of the 10 largest clusters of COVID-19 in the nation are in prisons and jails.”

The report “evaluates states' responses to the spread of COVID-19 in prisons and jails using the following criteria: 

  • Did/does the state department of corrections provide testing and personal protective equipment (PPE) to correctional staff and the incarcerated population?

  • Did/does the state reduce county jail populations and state prison populations in response to the spread of the pandemic?

  • Did the governor issue an executive order — or the department of corrections issue a directive — accelerating the release from state prisons of medically vulnerable individuals and/or those near the end of their sentence?

  • Did/does the state publish regularly updated, publicly available data on COVID-19 in the state prison system?

The report assigned letter grades to each state. Nine states were given D- grades; twelve states received F’s; and, twenty-eights states received an F+ (information from Illinois was not available.)  

“Governors across the nation have failed to take adequate steps to protect people in prisons and jails from the COVID-19 pandemic. From the outset of the pandemic, public health experts sounded the alarm that without swift and drastic actions, prisons and jails across the country would see severe outbreaks of COVID-19,” said Udi Ofer, director of the ACLU’s Justice Division. “Today, prisons and jails are ground zero for the COVID-19 pandemic, inflicting particular devastation on Black and Brown people, yet prisons and jails continue to be largely ignored in the government’s response to the pandemic. This report not only highlights that callous disregard but provides actionable steps for those same governments to take immediate steps to save the lives of people in jails and prisons.” 

Commentary, COVID-19Mark KarlinPrison, CoronavirusComment