COVID-19
Prison and jail responses to the pandemic
- Few states made significant efforts to reduce prison populations (Created: 2021)
- Across the country, prisons have seen higher COVID-19 infection and mortality rates than their surrounding states (Created: 2021)
- Many prison systems prioritized vaccinations for incarcerated people, but others still lag behind (Created: 2021)
- Most states fail to provide the bare minimum behind bars (Created: 2021)
- State prison systems continue to fail during COVID-19 (Created: 2021)
- After rapidly dropping their populations at the very start of the pandemic, jails have allowed their populations to creep back up (Created: 2021)
- State prison populations haven't dropped nearly enough during the pandemic, any many are actually growing in 2021 (Created: 2021)
- The average number of people released from state prisons each month has been falling since 2019, despite the urgent need to decarcerate during the pandemic (Created: 2021)
- Less than half of prison staff are vaccinated in most states (Created: 2021)
- Jail populations dropped by 25% early in the pandemic (Created: 2021)
- Parole boards held fewer hearings and failed to say "yes" more often, ultimately approving fewer people for parole during the pandemic (Created: 2021)
- The prison population drops during the pandemic appear to be the result of fewer admissions, not increasing releases (Created: 2021)
- More people were released from prison in 2019 than during the pandemic (Created: 2021)
- Mass incarceration added to COVID-19 caseloads in the summer of 2020 in nonmetro counties with the most incarcerated people per square mile (Created: 2020)
- Community spread of COVID-19 across county lines: County caseloads grew faster in "BEA economic areas" with more incarceration (Created: 2020)
- Jail populations are returning to pre-pandemic levels, despite rising COVID-19 case rates across the country (Created: 2020)
- While some state prison populations continue to decline, efforts to reduce prison populations have slowed and even reversed in some states (Created: 2020)
