- Title: The hidden coronavirus toll in U.S. jails and prisons
- Date: 18th May 2020
- Summary: NEW ROCHELLE, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (APRIL 25, 2020) (REUTERS VIA ZOOM ) (SOUNDBITE) (English) LAZARA ALMONTE, MOTHER OF JAMES JORDAN CASTRO, SAYING: "You know, what we're fighting really hard for is that, you know, these inmates don't continue to lose their life in jail. Obviously, you know, they have rights, they've served their time. They're looking at less than a yea
- Embargoed: 1st June 2020 11:43
- Keywords: ACLU COVID-19 PPE Rikers Wayne County Jail coronavirus court death inmate jail justice prison prisoner
- Location: VARIOUS
- City: VARIOUS
- Country: USA
- Topics: Health/Medicine
- Reuters ID: LVA00FCEH9KCN
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: As the coronavirus spreads rapidly behind bars in the United States, Reuters has found that figures compiled by the federal government appear to drastically undercount the number of infections in correctional facilities.
A recent report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention documented just under 5,000 cases of COVID-19 among inmates nationwide.
But Reuters found well over three times that number - about 17,300 cases -- in a far smaller survey of local, state and federal corrections facilities conducted about two weeks later.
"Mass incarceration was a public health crisis before COVID-19. But this pandemic has pushed it past the breaking point and we have no idea how bad it is. We are way undercounting it. In places that we are actually testing it, it is a tragic situation and people are going to die," said Udi Ofer, justice division director at the American Civil Liberties Union.
In fact, in some state prisons that are conducting mass testing of all their inmates, Reuters found some are seeing infection rates up to 65 percent.
When COVID-19 began tearing through Detroit's county jail system in March, authorities had no diagnostic tests to gauge its spread.
But the toll became clear as deaths mounted. First, one of the sheriff's jail commanders died, then a deputy. By mid-April, the jail system's medical director and one of its doctors were also dead.
Jail officials had little sense of who was infected and spreading it.
Wayne County Chief of Jails Robert Dunlap says testing of inmates and staff was just getting started.
"Testing in the facility was just as challenging as it is out in the community for a very long time. You know, across the country, people were being denied an opportunity for tests if they didn't show signs or symptoms," said Dunlap.
Inadequate testing and reporting in jails and prisons have profound implications for health officials and policy makers trying to track the virus' spread.
That's because corrections facilities have emerged as key pathways for COVID-19 transmission.
"The infection is coming in from people who are being brought in at lower numbers, admittedly, and from the guards who go back and forth, day in, day out, and who are bringing their disease from the outside, from their families to their families," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
And as jails and prisons release inmates in an effort to curb infection rates behind bars, that has raised concerns about whether those inmates are being screened for COVID-19 before returning to the community where many can't get medical care.
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