About 20 percent of all inmates in state and federal prisons in the US have contracted COVID-19 or earlier, according to a survey by The Associated Press and the Marshall Project.
More than 275,000 inmates serving sentences nationwide for various crimes have contracted the virus since early 2020, the study found, and more than 17,000 have died as a result of the virus and lack of access to basic medical care.
Federal officials at the U.S. Bureau of Prisons did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill on the findings of the investigation. Several recently incarcerated Americans told journalists in the course of the investigation that they witnessed inmates in medical need in common areas of prison facilities.
A former chief medical officer on Riker’s Island in New York also told reporters he had seen facilities where people with COVID-19 symptoms regularly went without being tested or receiving medical care.
“I still come across prisons and prisons where people who get sick are not only not tested, but also without care. So they get a lot sicker than they need to, ”said Homer Venters, a senior fellow at Community Oriented Correctional Health Services.
In some states, the rate is reported to be much higher than 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 prison staff have battled infections as well. Nationally, the death rate from the virus is 45 percent higher in penal institutions, according to the study.
While distribution of two COVID-19 vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna has begun in the US, only a handful of states are prioritizing captive populations for the first doses. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis
Jared Schutz Polis COVID-19: Where are the prisoners? Pennsylvania Governor Tests Negative After Coronavirus Diagnosis Pennsylvania Government Tom Wolf Tests Positive for COVID-19 MORE (D) Reportedly rejected the idea after state officials initially announced that inmates would be among those who would be given priority in receiving a vaccine.
“That won’t happen,” he told reporters, according to the Coloradoan. “There is no way that prisoners get it for members of a vulnerable population … There is no way that it goes to prisoners before it goes to people who have not committed any crime. That is obvious.”