Due to the state of California’s failure to obey court orders, a judge placed prison medical care under receivership in 2005. In 2002, a US federal court found that the medical care provided by California state prisons was so deficient that it violated the Eighth Amendment of the US constitution, which outlaws “cruel and unusual punishment”. While national data on healthcare services provided in prisons is limited, individual reports from states suggest that access to healthcare within US prisons remains lacking. The quality of healthcare provided in prisons may have an impact on illness-related prison deaths in general, including the treatment of COVID-19. The number of incarcerated people aged 55 or older in state prisons increased from 5.1% of the state prison population in 2004 to 12.8% in 2016. That year, the system-wide crowding level of all federal prisons in the US was 23%, meaning federal prisons as an aggregate were 23% overcrowded.įinally, the share of elderly people in prisons has also risen over time, rendering the prison population more vulnerable to a disease such as COVID-19. Overcrowding was an issue in federal prisons going back to 2015, when the Office of the Inspector General cited it as a safety and security issue for inmates and staff. This means that the majority of California state prisons house more people than they were designed to accommodate. For example, 24 of California’s 35 state prisons exceeded 100% capacity in August 2020. The spread of infectious diseases in prisons was likely affected by overcrowding. The stress caused by the conditions of incarceration (inaccessibility of healthcare, reliance on solitary confinement, and overcrowding, among other things) are likely to contribute to a higher rate of mortality for incarcerated people without a global pandemic. Why are prison populations vulnerable to COVID-19? The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections informed the BJS that it didn’t have the number of COVID-19 related deaths as determined by a medical examiner or coroner.įinally, no data was collected from privately operated prisons under federal contract. The Georgia Department of Corrections told the BJS it couldn’t access a count of COVID-19 deaths as determined by a medical examiner or coroner. Second, Georgia and Pennsylvania didn’t count COVID-19 deaths in the same way as other states that provided data for the supplement. As of 2020, Missouri’s state and federal prison population was 23,062, higher than the state median prison population nationwide of 15,674. The deaths reported may be an underestimation for several reasons.įirst, Missouri’s Department of Corrections didn’t provide the requested data for the supplement. The department used the data to create the Coronavirus Pandemic Supplement to the National Prisoner Statistics program.ĭata in the supplement included deaths where COVID-19 was “suspected or confirmed as the cause or a significant contributing factor”. In April 2021, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) requested data on COVID-19 deaths from the correctional department of each state, as well as the Federal Bureau of Prisons. How accurate are figures on COVID-19 prison deaths?
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