By Katal Center
When the virus hit last year, it was clear that it would be particularly dangerous for people locked up in prisons and jails. As the pandemic spread, COVID infected and killed incarcerated people at far higher rates than the general population The impact of COVID-19 in prisons and jails has been particularly bad. As the Lamont Administration remained seemingly indifferent to the impact of COVID-19 on incarcerated people in Connecticut, we launched our #FreeThemNowCT Campaign to demand a comprehensive and transparent plan be developed for people detained in state correctional facilities.
But the situation is likely far worse. Yesterday, the New York Times reported that the number of COVID-19 deaths in correctional facilities across the country are far higher than reported. The Times found dozens of cases where people who were either incarcerated at the time of their death, or who were recently released from incarceration were not included in the correctional facility’s COVID-19 reporting data. Because many incarcerated people passed away in a hospital rather than in the facility where they were detained, the facility was not required to report their death. A similar situation unfolded in New York earlier this year with nursing home deaths, where thousands of deaths due to COVID-19 were underreported for similar reasons. As the Times grimly reported, “the additional cases raise the prospect that the known toll on incarcerated people falls far short of providing the full picture.”
This is consistent with what our members with incarcerated loved ones have been saying over, over, and over again. Correctional facilities, like nursing homes, are incubators for the virus. The Times report only further emphasizes the necessity of a transparent and comprehensive pandemic plan for all Connecticut prisons and jails– today for COVID, tomorrow for the next virus.
To date, that plan does not exist in Connecticut, and Governor Lamont has even gone so far as to repeatedly cancel meetings with people with incarcerated loved ones to discuss a plan. It is clear that as COVID-19 remains an active public health crisis, and to plan ahead for the next inevitable public health crisis, that a plan is needed now.
Join us and take action here to demand that Governor Lamont develop a comprehensive and transparent plan for state correctional facilities to protect our incarcerated loved ones from COVID-19!
