New data on COVID-19 deaths in U.S. prisons & jails

New data sheds light on coronavirus deaths behind bars in the U.S. The federal government itself is no longer releasing comprehensive data, and a researcher says that if states don’t have the opportunity to learn, the same mistakes could allow viruses to spread rapidly behind bars again.

TRANSCRIPT:

JAMILES LARTEY: People in prisons across the U.S. died at over 3 times the rate of the free population at COVID-19’s peak in 2020.

SHANNON HEFFERNAN: That’s according to a recent study that holds lessons for how officials can prevent future fatalities.

ANNA FLAGG: Most states saw a spike in prison deaths per 10,000 people in custody, according to the data that we analyzed. The amounts varied by state. These are some of the biggest spikes that we saw between 2019 and 2020. The virus hit older people the hardest, and there are probably still some cases that we don’t know about.

JAMILES LARTEY: COVID spreads easily in most prisons and jails because they’re dirty and crowded with inconsistent healthcare.

CHRIS VAZQUEZ: But didn’t incarceration rates fall in 2020?

JAMILES LARTEY: Yeah, but because of a dramatic reduction in prison admissions.

SHANNON HEFFERNAN: And in 2020, states actually released fewer people than they do in a normal year.

CHRIS VAZQUEZ: So older people were just left behind bars?

SHANNON HEFFERNAN: Pretty much. Advocates also say officials in many states didn’t implement enough mitigation efforts…

JAMILES LARTEY: …like testing or locking down facilities.

SHANNON HEFFERNAN: And the federal government still hasn’t said if it will release mortality data from 2020 and beyond.

ANNA FLAGG: So, we can only know what’s found by a patchwork of research groups and journalists, which likely means undercounts.