Courthouse News reached out to experts about the dangers of being incarcerated and unvaccinated, and how policies can shift to ease health disparities compounded by the coronavirus.
(CN) — Jail and prison populations are at a particularly grave risk for Covid-19, but incarcerated people are absent from many state vaccine distribution policies, and federal authorities have stayed silent.
While the United States works to roll out coronavirus vaccines, operating with too little supply to meet demand, experts say detention centers carry severe health hazards that compound existing health disparities.
The underlying disease risk is clear: Covid-19 infection rates in prisons are four times as high as those in the general population. In many facilities, it’s impossible to achieve the steps that health officials say are vital to slowing the pandemic’s spread — frequent handwashing, universal mask-wearing and staying 6 feet apart, ideally outdoors.
With a virtually uncontrollable spread, prison conditions also make the coronavirus between two and seven times more deadly than it is in surrounding communities. At least 2,446 prisoners have died of Covid-19, which has killed more than half a million Americans.
But narrow definitions of Covid deaths in prisons mean that the count could be far higher.
Renaldo Hudson, recently released from an Illinois detention after being incarcerated for 37 years, told The Guardian that people in prisons face life-or-death stakes.
“Most states do not have death sentences,” Hudson said. “But being incarcerated can be a death sentence if you die inside. They’re putting people in body bags.”
States Set Vaccine Rules
The heightened danger of being incarcerated and unvaccinated has prompted the American Medical Association among others to call for prioritizing vaccines for prisoners.
“Recognizing that detention center and correctional workers, incarcerated people, and detained immigrants are at high risk for Covid-19,” the AMA wrote in November 2020, the organization’s policy “makes clear that these individuals should be prioritized in receiving access to safe, effective Covid-19 vaccines in the initial phases of distribution.”
Two and a half months into the vaccine rollout, the Bureau of Prisons reported that as of Monday, 10,446 prisoners — out of the 138,213 in BOP-managed facilities — had received a vaccine.
When it comes to federal parameters, however, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not updated the vaccine guidelines it handed states to create their own playbooks. Rather than mandating a priority, the website uses bold letters say “jurisdictions are encouraged to vaccinate staff and incarcerated/detained persons of correctional or detention facilities at the same time because of their shared increased risk of disease.”
Across state policies, inconsistencies abound.
Right now, 24 state plans include incarcerated populations in their first phase of vaccination, while 13 list those groups in phase 2, according to the Covid Prison Project. Five states specifically prioritize people serving time who are also vulnerable to the coronavirus, meaning people who are older than 65 and have two or more chronic conditions.
While some states like Massachusetts have said from the start that prisoners would be among the first to get vaccine access, many more will see advocates seek to change policies through litigation.
Oregon in February became the first state in which a judge demanded that the state vaccinate prisoners. A lawsuit in New York aims to achieve the same outcome.
Wanda Bertram, communications strategist at the Prison Policy Initiative, noted in an interview that issues remain, however, even when official rules put prisoners on the list for vaccination. Sometimes vaccines aren’t actually being delivered, or there are questions about how they’re being implemented.