Vaccination plus Decarceration — Stopping Covid-19 in Jails and Prisons

Abstract

Covid-19 has exposed the inadequacy of the public health infrastructure in the United States and forced us to confront associated biosocial dynamics that are driving the pandemic, including poverty, structural racism, distrust, unequal access to health care, and other social sources. But perhaps no collective preexisting condition has been more acute and preventable than that associated with the U.S. system of mass incarceration. U.S. jails and prisons house nearly 25% of the world’s incarcerated population even though the United States accounts for only 4.2% of the global population. Because there is constant movement in and out of jails and prisons — where more than 620,000 Covid-19 cases have already been documented despite notable deficiencies in testing, transparency, and oversight — these facilities operate as epidemiologic pumps. Not only do carceral conditions lead to rapidly multiplying Covid-19 cases among incarcerated persons and staff, these institutions also operate as high-pressure disease reservoirs that spread the virus into surrounding communities and exacerbate racial disparities in Covid-19 cases and deaths.¹