The rapid spread of new variants of the coronavirus, some of which seem to be more contagious than older versions, has experts in the US calling for stricter social distancing and better masking to avoid yet another big surge of new Covid-19 cases and deaths. <\/p>\n
Health advocates and epidemiologists are particularly concerned about what will happen once the new variants find their way into prisons, jails, and immigration detention facilities. <\/p>\n
Across the US, at least one in five incarcerated individuals has already been infected with Covid-19, and a disproportionate number of them have died. One study found that the 2.3 million Americans living behind bars have twice the risk of dying from Covid-19 as a similar person who is not. <\/p>\n
Jaimie Meyer is an associate professor at Yale School of Medicine and a researcher and clinician who specializes in the spread of infectious diseases behind bars. The pandemic \u201chas laid bare [and] exposed the issues around conditions in confinement,\u201d she told Vox, including how difficult or impossible it is to truly safeguard those held behind bars. In its quest to survive, Covid-19 will find \u201call of the holes [in our public health strategy] … all of the weaknesses, and pressure test them\u201d she added. \u201cIf facilities have not done something to keep people safe, a more highly transmissible strain will spread like wildfire.\u201d <\/p>\n
An epidemiological nightmare<\/p>\n
Prisoners are at an increased risk of Covid-19 for a simple reason: how the virus spreads. Scientists now know that the illness is mostly passed from person to person through respiratory droplets and sometimes through the air, which is why being in sustained, close proximity to others is so risky \u2014 and why crowded prisons and jails are especially dangerous. Contagion also frequently happens even before someone has symptoms, making it impossible to know who to isolate without frequent, rapid, near-universal testing. <\/p>\n
\u201cCongregate settings in general, and prisons in particular, are places where physical distancing is impossible,\u201d said Meyer. Moreover, she added, people in prisons are more likely to have certain medical conditions, including obesity and diabetes, that put them at greater risk of infectious diseases. <\/p>\n
The epidemiological realities of Covid-19 have been exacerbated by the failures of elected officials and institutions whose job it is to protect those who are incarcerated. Chris Beyrer, a professor of public health and human rights at Johns Hopkins, has been a vocal critic of Maryland\u2019s approach to managing the crisis. In December, cases of the virus in the state\u2019s prisons more than doubled.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe single most important thing you have to do to deal with Covid in prison is to [reduce] overcrowding,\u201d he told Vox. \u201cWe failed at that.\u201d Although prison and jail populations dropped at the outset of the pandemic \u2014 mostly because fewer people entered the system due to virus concerns, rather than early release pushes \u2014 these populations are now on the rise again. <\/p>\n
The second most important thing is to implement policies that can stem the spread of the disease, including social distancing and giving prisoners and staff masks and other essential supplies. \u201cThat, too, has been slow, inadequate, and insufficient,\u201d Beyrer said. The Maryland Department of Corrections, he told Vox, isn\u2019t providing free, unlimited bars of soap to people locked up in the state, leaving prisoners unable to do something as fundamental as wash their hands. <\/p>\n<\/aside>\n
And the concerns don\u2019t stop there. In facilities across the country, incarcerated people have reported a range of serious safety issues during the pandemic: correctional officers who refuse, or are not required, to wear masks; insufficient or failed efforts to test staff and incarcerated people; and the creation of new outbreaks by transferring Covid-positive prisoners to new facilities. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, vaccination has not even begun in most of the country\u2019s prisons and jails, while those in other congregate settings \u2014 including nursing homes and homeless shelters \u2014 have been among the first in line to receive the shot. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are living through the failure of the basics of Covid prevention,\u201d said Beyrer. <\/p>\n
With all of these systemic shortcomings, many are extremely worried prisons and jails will be even harder hit when more contagious strains breach their walls. Early research has indicated that people infected with the new strain may carry higher viral loads, meaning that engaging in the same conduct \u2014 spending extended periods of time indoors without distancing \u2014 poses an even greater risk of spreading the virus than it did previously. For prisoners, that means that the worst outbreaks may be yet to come. <\/p>\n
\u201cA more infectious virus is only going to infect more people,\u201d Beyrer said. \u201cIf more people are going to get infected, more people are going to die.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cScared as hell\u201d<\/p>\n
With so few resources to protect themselves and, in most places, no vaccine in sight, many prisoners are worried about the future. Jabriel Lewis is incarcerated at Allenwood federal prison in Pennsylvania. \u201cThat new strain got everybody in here scared as hell,\u201d he said. \u201c[I]f it gets into the federal institutions it could possibly mean a death sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Michelle Angelina, a woman locked up in New Jersey\u2019s Edna Mann facility, the threat posed by the new variants isn\u2019t limited to the virus. The steps the prison system has taken to protect prisoners \u2014 shutting down all visitation, ending academic and substance abuse programming, and canceling religious services \u2014 will only be extended even further. \u201cIt\u2019s putting an immense strain on all of us.\u201d <\/p>\n
Her concerns were echoed by Shebri Dillon, a woman incarcerated at Fluvanna Correctional Center at Virginia, who described the difficulty of spending \u201chours upon hours in a concrete cage, without seeing or hugging our children and family.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThis new variant means an extension of all that pains us,\u201d Dillon told Vox. \u201cIt is not a matter of if it will get in, but when.\u201d<\/p>\n