COVID-19: Both New York City And Connecticut Prisons Obtain Low Scores For Virus Prevention

As per a criminal justice organization, both Connecticut and New York have earned bad ratings for addressing the COVID-19 epidemic in state jails. The F+ rating for both states was greater than the Prison Policy Initiative mean of states. Most states were F graded by the news organization. The highest score was C in New Jersey.

WSHU published around 30 variables in the Prison Policy Initiative, such as immunization. One WSHU participant, said last year, Connecticut and New York freed less persons on parole than they discharged two years ago. In addition, she stated that New York bars had just a 40 percent immunization rate. Prison overcrowding and understaffing have proven to be inadequate methods for containing the spread of diseases in American correctional facilities.

“Because prisons have never been safe places for people to be during a pandemic, or really ever. Releasing people and letting them go home during the pandemic is the best way of slowing down this virus inside prisons and jails. For instance, Connecticut and New York actually released fewer people on parole in 2020 than they had in 2019,” explained Wanda Bertram is with the Prison Policy Initiativ. She then continued: “All too often, we think about mass incarceration and inhuman treatment as something that only happens in those famous tough-on-crime states, like the gulf states. But in New York, the vaccination rate behind bars is only 40%. So people are in real danger”.

They anticipated entities like schools or hospitals to remove every stop in order to cut down the transmission of the illness, according to Bertram. And they believe jails don’t take into consideration these very significant alternatives that could lower the risks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.