About 20 percent of all U.S. state and federal inmates have contracted or previously contracted COVID-19, according to a survey by The Associated Press and the Marshall Project.
More than 275,000 inmates serving sentences for various crimes across the country have contracted the virus since early 2020, according to research, and more than 17,000 have died as a result of the virus and lack of access to health care. basic.
Federal officials from the U.S. Prisons Office did not immediately return a request for comments from The Hill on the findings of the investigation. Some recently jailed Americans told reporters throughout the investigation that they witnessed inmates in medical condition in the common areas of prisons.
A former medical officer on Riker’s Island in New York City also told reporters he had seen facilities where people with symptoms of COVID-19 went regularly without being tested or receiving medical assistance.
“I still find prisons and prisons where, when people get sick, not only are they not tested, but they do not receive care. So they get a lot sicker than necessary, ”said Homer Venters, a senior member of community-oriented correctional health services.
According to reports, in some states the rate is well above 1 in 5 infected. In Arkansas and Kansas, more than half of all state and federal inmates have been infected with COVID-19 and many members of the prison have also fought infections. According to the research, the mortality rate from the virus is 45% higher than the correctional facilities nationwide.
Although the distribution of two vaccines against COVID-19, produced by Pfizer and Moderna, has begun in the U.S., only a handful of states prioritize jailed populations for the first doses. Governor of Colorado Jared Polis
Jared Schutz PolisCOVID-19: Where are the prisoners? Pennsylvania Governor Gives Negative Results After Coronavirus Diagnosis Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf Gives Positive to COVID-19 MORE (D) The idea was dismissed after state officials initially announced that inmates would be the ones prioritized to receive a vaccine.
“This is not going to happen,” he told reporters, according to Coloradoan. “There is no way that prisoners can get it before members of a vulnerable population … There is no way that it can be addressed to prisoners before it passes to people who have not committed any crime. This is obvious.”