Wayne State University issued the following announcement on May 14.
Image: Inmates work in the laundry room at Las Colinas Women’s Detention Facility in Santee, California, on April 22, 2020. Sandy Huffaker/AFP via Getty Images
Stephanie Hartwell, Wayne State University; Ijeoma Nnodim-Opara, Wayne State University, and Sheryl Kubiak, Wayne State University
The notion that COVID-19 is an equal opportunity killer has crumbled. The health and economic fallout from the crisis has disproportionately hit lower-income areas and communities of color. Nowhere is this discrepancy more evident than in prisons, jails and homeless shelters – made up disproportionately of poorer, black and Latino men and women.
Here, COVID-19 cases have mushroomed due to dormitory-style living conditions and the inability of people, often with underlying health issues, to practice social distancing. As the virus rages on, comprehensive COVID-19 testing for these populations remains elusive.
As experts on jails, health disparities and how to help former prisoners reintegrate into society, we believe that missteps in how we transition incarcerated individuals back to the community would only put this vulnerable populace at greater risk of getting and transmitting COVID-19.
Health officials agree that incarcerated individuals and correctional staff are at high risk of contagion due to crowded settings. But while both prisons and jails have curtailed visitations, they have fared differently amid the pandemic.
In prisons, where diversion and early release are often elusive, inmates with COVID-19 are quarantined in solitary confinement. However, this measure, more commonly used as punishment, may spur individuals with symptoms to skirt testing and avoid these conditions.
Though prisons have also become hot spots for COVID-19, they should be better placed than jails to limit exposure to outside diseases. That’s because they are efficient at confining their populace, and the flow of individuals in and out of prisons is tightly monitored. Prisons have larger medical units, more comprehensive assessment and release planning protocols including parole supports for individuals returning to their communities.
Jails are not designed for long-term stays. And they have flexibility with releasing individuals due to special circumstances like overcrowding. Thus, they have been a focus of calls for decreased admissions and the release of nonviolent inmates to keep incarcerated numbers low amid COVID-19.
Original source can be found here.
Source: Wayne State University
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