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Battled with a wave of coronavirus infections and deaths, local US prisons and state penitentiary systems have resorted to a drastic strategy to keep the virus at bay: completely arrest and transfer their inmates elsewhere.
From California to Missouri to Pennsylvania, state and local officials say so many guards have fallen ill with the virus and are unable to work that brutally closing some prisons is the only way to keep the community safe. and that of prisoners.
Experts say the fallout is easy to predict: Prisons and prisons that remain open are likely to become even more overcrowded, unsanitary and disease-infested, and transfers are likely to help the virus proliferate inside and out. outside the walls.
“The movement of people is dangerous,” said Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein, a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine who has tracked coronavirus cases in correctional facilities. “We have very good examples of overcrowding, meaning more infection and more risk of epidemics. We have ample evidence that even the transfer of people from one institution to another is very dangerous.
There have been more than 480,000 confirmed coronavirus infections and at least 2,100 deaths among inmates and guards in prisons, prisons and detention centers across the country, according to a New York Times database.
Among those grim statistics are the roughly 100,000 correctional officers who have tested positive and 170 who have died.
At the onset of the pandemic, some states attempted to avoid virus outbreaks by releasing some offenders earlier and detaining fewer people awaiting trial in order to reduce their populations, but these efforts have often met with resistance from officials. politicians and the public.
More recently, as arrests in many areas have increased, prison populations have returned to pre-pandemic levels, according to data collected by the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit research and policy group. based in New York.
This fact, combined with widespread infections among prison officers, staff shortages dating back several years, and strains on prison medical facilities, has pushed states as the pandemic progresses towards more concentration and overcrowding. , rather than less, in part because of the closure of stressed establishments.
In late November and early December, for example, North Carolina prison officials shut down the Randolph Correctional Center in Asheboro along with three minimum security institutions and have not ruled out further closures.
“It feels like we’re holding this with bubble gum and wrapping tape,” State Commissioner of Prisons Todd Ishee said in a recent interview. “Really, we’re all in the same boat. It is a challenge for our community. It is a challenge for prison systems in the north, south, east and west. “
Wisconsin closed a cell block at its Waupun prison and began transferring its 220 inmates to other prisons, despite warnings that similar prison transfers elsewhere have caused deadly epidemics, including at the Jail in San Quentin State in California.
Infections and deaths in the prison system have more than doubled since the start of November, according to a New York Times analysis of state data.
More than a third of Waupun’s guards have been infected since the start of the pandemic, according to state data.
In Missouri, Howard and Pike counties have closed their jails. In a concise Facebook post, the Howard County Sheriff’s Office wrote, “The jail is temporarily closed due to understaffing due to illness. All inmates are currently housed in Cooper County. “
Matt Oller, the Audrain County Sheriff, said he accepted around 20 Pike County inmates and would not have agreed to do so if he had not been convinced he could ensure some social distance and adequate cleaning in his prison.
“It’s a place where there are a lot of people in one place at the same time,” he said. “Any infectious disease is a problem in the prison environment.”
Elsewhere, authorities have so far rejected prison closures, but have taken drastic measures to try to keep pace with a virus that has raced through prisons at lightning speed.
Ohio and New Hampshire have each called on the National Guard to bolster lean correctional staff. Michigan has transferred hundreds of inmates to its prison system as staff numbers plummeted, although infection rates in the prison system have doubled in the past month, according to Times data.
Teachers and nurses, who were once a scarce resource, are increasingly being used by the federal prison system to fill staffing gaps caused by both illness and a wave of departures, union officials say. early retirement among ex-combatants, according to union officials.
Analysts say the root of the problem lies in mass incarceration, especially in rural areas, where most closures occur.
While advocacy groups have urged states to reduce incarceration levels and close prisons for years – with limited success – some believe the continuing wave of closures brought on by the coronavirus could trigger more permanent change.
“One of the really obvious things that needs to happen is that fewer people need to be locked in, and now is the time to make some of these changes,” said Jacob Kang-Brown, a senior research associate at Vera. “The burden of Covid-19 has already been too heavy in prisons and prisons and the continuous transfers of people between institutions are spreading and causing new outbreaks. It is really worrying.
Correctional officers also point out that low wages, unsafe conditions and a lack of institutional support are drawbacks to attracting qualified candidates – and ultimately bringing the workforce up to adequate levels.
In some states, correctional officers earn less than $ 12.50 an hour – not much more than fast-food restaurant workers – and many do not have general protection or benefits.
North Carolina, which as of Dec.31 had more than 8,000 infections and 36 deaths of inmates and guards in its prison system, is under state court order to test staff members every two weeks and ensure that detainees are not transferred until they have been tested. Many transfers have taken place because facilities are closed.
The state prison system has been one of the hardest hit by the disease in recent months. It is also one of many states that have granted relatively little early release since the pandemic began in March.
Ardis Watkins, executive director of the North Carolina State Employees Association, the union that represents state prison officers, said the virus had overwhelmed the prison guard community – not only resulting in the illness and death, but also a hunch.
The prison closures and subsequent inmate transfers, she said, were like “pouring gasoline on a fire.”
“They are terrified. They realize that when they go to work, they may not come home at the end of the day, ”Ms. Watkins said. “The nature of the job is that ‘anything can happen, including getting killed’. But what they’re not used to is knowing that going to work can mean their family can get an illness from which they could die.
Ms. Watkins said the risks taken by correctional officers are not understood by the public.
“People don’t see the prison system. They don’t think about it, ”she said. “In this pandemic, the work done which is so dangerous is not valued,” she added. “So this frustration grows. They feel, as usual, to be forgotten and left behind.
Mr. Ishee, who oversees North Carolina prisons, acknowledged that the risks to the guards were considerable.
“The men and women who work in prisons all over our country have a very dangerous and difficult job to start with,” he said. “This virus is now a direct threat to their health and that of their families.”
Virginia Little, whose son, Marvin Little, was transferred between North Carolina prisons – including one whose minimum security facility the state has temporarily closed due to a staff shortage – said the prison system did not appear to have taken sufficient security precautions during transfers. .
“He’s scared and I’m scared for him,” Ms. Little said of her 50-year-old son, who is at Johnston Correctional Institution in Smithfield. “At one point, when they were transferred, they had to close the facility where it is now, and they were all sent to the South Troy Correctional Center. So I guess after they fumigated everything they needed to do they were sent back to Johnston.
Robert Thomas Jr., whose 59-year-old father is incarcerated at Neuse Correctional Center in Goldsboro, North Carolina, said he believed the prison system had been negligent in its transfer policies.
Her father, Robert Thomas Sr., was infected with the coronavirus this spring as prisons were closed and hundreds of inmates were taken on buses to different facilities.
“They transferred detainees all this time,” he said. “I know a lot of inmates, they are transferred – and a few days after they arrive they enter the hospital with coronavirus. They had it before they even entered.
Her father, a diabetic ex-sailor with high blood pressure and heart disease, survived the virus. But after his recovery, said Mr Thomas Sr., he was transferred two more times. He is now at Neuse prison, where nearly 500 inmates have fallen ill and three have died from the virus.
“Death is permanent,” Mr. Thomas Sr. said. “And I was not ready to go.”
Izzy Colon, Ann hinga klein, Libby seline, Maura Turcotte and Timothy williams contribution to reports.
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