According to US News and World Report May 6, 2020.
Nearly 5,000 Inmates and Detainees Infected With COVID-19
A tally of lab-confirmed cases at U.S. corrections and detention facilities also shows more than 100 COVID-19 deaths among staffers and those behind bars.
THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE have been infected with the coronavirus in prisons, jails and detention centers in the U.S., and at least 103 people confined or working at these facilities have died, a new report says.
Roughly 2.1 million adults are being held in about 5,000 correctional and detention centers across the U.S., and their default conditions – which can include crowded dorms, shared bathrooms, limited medical resources and a continually changing population – make it difficult to prevent the coronavirus from spreading, according to the report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As of April 21, 4,893 people detained or incarcerated had been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, in 420 prisons and similar facilities across 32 state and territorial health department jurisdictions, the report says. Ten percent of those inmates – 491 people – were hospitalized, and 88 died. There also were 2,778 staff members diagnosed with COVID-19 in these centers; 79 were hospitalized and 15 died.
“Prompt identification of COVID-19 cases and consistent application of prevention measures are critical to protecting incarcerated and detained persons, correctional and detention facility staff members, and the communities to which they return,” the report says.
Five jurisdictions reported no COVID-19 cases in correctional or detention centers, but because not all areas provided data, the findings are almost certainly an undercount and “not representative of the entire United States,” the report notes. Researchers did not identify case counts by state or territory or list the places that did not provide data to the CDC.
Data compiled by The Marshall Project, a criminal justice-focused nonprofit news service shows more than 14,500 people in prison have tested positive for COVID-19, while more than 200 have died.
Alexander Truluck focuses his practice as a criminal defense attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, Largo, Dunedin and the Tampa Bay area.
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