
In the past week, news agencies and advocacy organizations have discussed the role of prisons and jails in spreading the novel coronavirus. Some are longstanding advocates for just solutions to the incarceration crisis; others, especially news agencies, are just now `discovering’ that prisons, jails and immigration detention centers form an archipelago of infectious morbidity and mortality. Headlines from the past three days include: To Arrest the Spread of Coronavirus, Arrest Fewer People. Visits halted in federal prisons, immigration centers over virus. How Coronavirus Could Affect U.S. Jails and Prisons. Prisons And Jails Worry About Becoming Coronavirus ‘Incubators’. Our Courts and Jails Are Putting Lives at Risk. To contain coronavirus, release people in prison. In Virginia, the Legal Aid Justice Center noted, “Adults and youth held in Virginia’s prisons, jails, and detention centers are particularly vulnerable to the spread of disease and deserve to be protected with adequate sanitation and medical care or, if possible, be released.” England and Wales developed “emergency plans to avoid disruption” in their prisons. Also in England, immigrant advocates called on the government to release hundreds of immigration detention center detainees, noting, “There is a very real risk of an uncontrolled outbreak of Covid-19 in immigration detention”. In France, prisoners, supporters, staff, and advocates are concerned and see no way out of coronavirus running rampant through the prison system.
While this attention is welcome, the question that lingers, and haunts, the current carceral controversy is, “Why now?” Public health researchers have long documented prisons’ role in the spread of infectious disease. From a public health perspective, prisons so dangerous because they’re overcrowded and their systems of care provision, such as they are, have intentionally gone from bad to worse. A half century of mass incarceration married to a global programme of austerity has left us with prisons waiting to pump out HIV and AIDS, TB, Ebola, SARS, opioid addiction, and now Covid-19.
Earlier this year, a special issue of The Lancet began as follows, “About 11 million people are currently being held in custody across the globe and more than 30 million individuals pass through prisons each year, often for short but disruptive periods of time .… The health profile of the detained population is complex, often with co-occurring physical and mental health disorders, and a backdrop of social disadvantage. Detention can also expose people to new and increased health risks, yet the profiles of the population behind bars and their health needs have often been neglected.”
Last year, The Lancet editorial board noted, “The sheer scale of imprisonment in the USA and its unequal burden on people from minority and poor backgrounds raises concerns about its impact on the health and wellbeing of the national population …. Being in prison worsens several health outcomes and might even drive the spread of disease.” Elsewhere, medical researchers noted, “There is a growing epidemic of inadequate health care in U.S. prisons. Shrinking prison budgets, a prison population that is the highest in the world, and for-profit health care contracts all contribute to this epidemic.”
Inadequate health care in prisons across the globe is the growing pandemic that preceded the current pandemic. Where are the women in this pandemic scenario? Women are the fastest growing prison population. What does that “growth” look like? “As adults, women who are incarcerated have enduring reproductive health issues such as unintended pregnancies, adverse birth outcomes, cervical dysplasia and malignancy, and sexually transmitted infections. Women who are pregnant or parenting a newborn during their incarceration are at high risk for poor outcomes, and just like individuals in the community they need prenatal care, supports with labor, postpartum bonding, and breast-feeding support. Women who have returned to the community or are under community supervision face similar health issues as women who are incarcerated and may lack access to care.”
Repeatedly, public health researchers have described the situation in prisons and jails as a crisis. For women – and especially women of color and poor women – that crisis stretches across their lifespan in two ways. First, the health consequences of even short stays in detention endure a lifetime. Second, detention itself lasts a lifetime: “Over 1.2 million women in the United States were on probation, parole, or incarcerated in jail or prison facilities at the end of 2015, the most recent year for which data are available.”
The decades of mass incarceration, in which women have consistently been the fastest growing prison population, are built on systemic neglect. While the current pandemic is in no sense an opportunity, it is a moment in which we can turn that neglect on itself and pay attention, not only to this particular instant but to the decades that prepared the ground, toxically, for it. Immigrant detention, jail, prison are always bad for health. The only route to a healthy world is decarceration.
(Image Credit: Prison Policy Initiative)
‘They Want Us to Shut Up, Get Well or Die’ – Inside Britain’s Prisons During Coronavirus https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/n7ja3x/prisons-coronavirus-response-britain
Amid coronavirus pandemic, federal inmates get mixed signals about home-confinement releases https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/amid-coronavirus-pandemic-federal-inmates-get-mixed-signals-about-home-confinement-releases/2020/04/24/0bbc5458-84de-11ea-a3eb-e9fc93160703_story.html
Locked in Crisis: Packed by strict sentencing laws, prisons brace for COVID-19 https://www.thecentersquare.com/alabama/locked-in-crisis-packed-by-strict-sentencing-laws-prisons-brace-for-covid-19/article_980eaf30-84ae-11ea-91e8-d797121dfc8d.html
Virginia must stop exploiting people in prison https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/local-opinions/virginia-must-stop-exploiting-people-in-prison/2020/04/23/e6516ff8-790e-11ea-b6ff-597f170df8f8_story.html
Protesters: Release prison inmates with less than year remaining on sentence https://www.wthr.com/article/protesters-release-prison-inmates-less-year-remaining-sentence
Voices from Rikers: Behind Bars as Coronavirus Spreads https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/off-topic-on-politics/2020/04/25/off-topic-on-politics-rikers-island-coronavirus-the-spread-in-jails?
Isolated and scared: The plight of juveniles locked up during the coronavirus pandemic https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/04/27/coronavirus-juveniles-risk-covid-19-spreads-facilities/3000637001/
An inmate at the Deerfield Correctional Center has died after testing positive for COVIDâ19, raising the coronavirus death toll in Virginia state correctional facilities to two. https://www.wric.com/video/deerfield-inmate-dies-after-testing-positive-with-covid-19-raising-virginia-prison-death-toll-to-two/5427646/
‘A Ticking Time Bomb’: Advocates Warn COVID-19 Is Spreading Rapidly Behind Bars https://www.npr.org/2020/04/28/846678912/a-ticking-time-bomb-advocates-warn-covid-19-is-spreading-rapidly-behind-bars
Desperate Louisiana Prisoners Say Wardens, Staff Not Following Coronavirus Rules https://jjie.org/2020/04/27/desperate-louisiana-prisoners-say-wardens-staff-not-following-coronavirus-rules/
As the Coronavirus Spreads, Prisoners Are Rising Up For Their Health https://theappeal.org/prisoners-protest-coronavirus-health/
Riots and fear as coronavirus hits US juvenile centers https://www.phillytrib.com/news/health/coronavirus/riots-and-fear-as-coronavirus-hits-us-juvenile-centers/article_b0063ac3-3390-56cc-bc2d-b5711f4274f8.html
COVID-19 has exposed the interlocking risks of mass incarceration https://thehill.com/opinion/criminal-justice/495547-covid-19-has-exposed-the-interlocking-risks-of-mass-incarceration
Decarceration in the Face of a Pandemic https://www.cato.org/blog/decarceration-face-pandemic
Coronavirus Has Made These Black Women’s Fight Against Cash Bail Even More Serious https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/04/9761389/coronavirus-jail-cash-bail-black-women-inmates
How coronavirus is spreading through UK prisons https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/2020/05/how-coronavirus-spreading-through-uk-prisons
The Pandemic Is Wreaking Havoc in America’s Prisons and Jails https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/political-scene/the-pandemic-is-wreaking-havoc-in-americas-prisons-and-jails
Why Liberal Californians Don’t Want to Go Back to Normal https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/04/us/coronavirus-california-liberals.html
Ohio inmates turn to judges to plead for release from coronavirus hotspots https://www.marionstar.com/story/news/local/2020/05/03/ohio-inmates-fearing-coronavirus-turn-judges-plead-release/3035718001/
Louisiana’s Longest-Serving Incarcerated Woman Returned To Prison After Being Hospitalized For COVID-19 https://theappeal.org/louisianas-longest-serving-incarcerated-woman-returned-to-prison-after-being-hospitalized-for-covid-19/
U.S. Prison Population Remained Stable as Pandemic Grew https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/us/prison-populations-covid.html
Will the Coronavirus Make Us Rethink Mass Incarceration? https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/05/25/will-the-coronavirus-make-us-rethink-mass-incarceration
As the toll of COVID-19 mounts behind bars, many cases go uncounted https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/health-coronavirus-usa-jails
COVID-19, Prisons and ‘Cut-and-Paste Justice’ https://thecrimereport.org/2020/05/18/covid-19-and-beyond-cut-and-paste-justice-no-longer-applies/
Safety of the women prison inmates matters | Tehelka http://tehelka.com/safety-of-the-women-prison-inmates-matters/
Making up 28% inside, First Nations inmates are still at threat from COVID-19 https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/making-28-inside-first-nations-inmates-are-still-threat-covid-19
What Happens to Incarcerated Pregnant Women During a Pandemic? https://www.insidesources.com/what-happens-to-incarcerated-pregnant-women-during-a-pandemic/
Pregnant inmates languish in US prisons despite promises of release https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/22/us-prisons-pregnant-inmates-coronavirus-pandemic-release
Parole Reform Might Have Freed Maryland’s Longest-Serving Incarcerated Woman. Instead, She Was Hospitalized With COVID-19. https://theappeal.org/parole-reform-might-have-freed-marylands-longest-serving-incarcerated-woman-instead-she-was-hospitalized-with-covid-19/
Letting prisoners use cellphones makes sense – now more than ever | Jarvis Jay Masters https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/22/coronavirus-prisons-covid-pandemic-cellphones
Critics contend prison system in state callous https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2020/may/26/critics-contend-prison-system-callous-2/
Bill Barr Promised to Release Prisoners Threatened by Coronavirus — Even as the Feds Secretly Made It Harder for Them to Get Out https://www.propublica.org/article/bill-barr-promised-to-release-prisoners-threatened-by-coronavirus-even-as-the-feds-secretly-made-it-harder-for-them-to-get-out
Cut the Carceral System Now https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/06/06/cut-the-carceral-system-now/
Inmates report dangerous practices inside Texas prisons
https://www.lubbockonline.com/news/20200617/inmates-report-dangerous-practices-inside-texas-prisons
Connell prison COVID cases triple since June 1. Plans for more testing unclear https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/article243601582.html
Covid-19 outbreaks at jails and prisons should make us rethink incarceration https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/06/25/covid-19-outbreaks-jails-prisons-should-make-us-rethink-incarceration/