(Newser)
– One in five U.S. state and federal prisoners has tested positive for coronavirus, a rate more than four times higher than the general population. In some states, more than half of the prisoners have been infected, according to data collected by the PA and the Marshall Project. As the pandemic reaches its 10th month — and when the first Americans receive the COVID-19 vaccine — at least 275,000 prisoners have been infected, more than 1,700 have died and the spread of the virus behind bars shows no no sign of slowing down. This week, new cases in prisons reached their highest level since testing began in the spring, far exceeding the peaks before April and August. “That number is a lot lower,” said Homer Venters, a former medical officer at Rikers Island Prison in New York City. He has conducted more than a dozen COVID-19 prison inspections ordered by a nationwide court. “I still find prisons and jails where, when people get sick, not only do they not get tested, but they don’t get care. So they get a lot sicker than necessary,” he said.
Now, the launch of vaccines poses difficult decisions for politicians and policymakers. As the virus spreads behind bars, prisoners cannot distance themselves socially and depend on the state for their safety. Donte Westmoreland, 26, was recently released from Lansing Correctional Center in Kansas, where he caught the virus while on a marijuana charge. Some 5,100 prisoners have been infected in Kansas prisons, the third-highest rate in the country, behind South Dakota and Arkansas. “It was like he was sentenced to death,” Westmoreland said. He lived with more than 100 men infected with the virus in an open bedroom, where he regularly woke up to find sick men on the floor, unable to get up, he said. “People are dying in the face of this virus because of this virus,” he said. “It’s the scariest sight.” Westmoreland sweated her, trembling on her stretcher until, six weeks later, she recovered. “If we are going to end this pandemic (reduce infection rates, reduce mortality rates, reduce ICU employment rates), we need to address infection rates in correctional facilities.” , said Emily Wang, a professor at the Yale School of Medicine. (New Jersey released 2,200 inmates in one day).