A State-by-State Look at Coronavirus in Prisons
August 19, 2020
The Marshall Project is collecting data on COVID-19 infections in state and federal prisons. See how the virus has affected correctional facilities where you live. The trends are not encouraging. The number of total cases has been rising since the end of June. At the end of June there were less than 3000 weekly cases recorded throughout throughout the United States. By the middle of August there were 8,745 cases recorded weekly. Please write your Governor and Attorney General Barr telling them that they should release more inmates who are over 60, who have underlying medical conditions, or are within a year of release. Urge them to be more consistent (wearing masks, sanitation) in preventive measures.
Since March, The Marshall Project has been tracking how many people are being sickened and killed by COVID-19 in prisons and how widely it has spread across the country and within each state. Here, we will regularly update these figures counting the number of people infected and killed nationwide and in each prison system until the crisis abates.
This reporting was undertaken in partnership with The Associated Press.
By Aug. 11, at least 95,398 people in prison had tested positive for the illness, a 10 percent increase from the week before.
New cases among prisoners reached an all-time high this week after slowing down in June. The growth in recent weeks was driven by big jumps in prisoners testing positive in Florida, Texas, California and the federal Bureau of Prisons as well as outbreaks in Idaho, Iowa, Oregon and South Carolina.
Cases first peaked in late April, when states such as Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas began mass testing of prisoners. Those initiatives suggested that coronavirus had been circulating among people without symptoms in much greater numbers than previously known.
There have been at least 95,398 cases of coronavirus reported among prisoners.
62,102 prisoners have recovered.
Virginia is in 10th in the nation in the number of cases of Covid per 10,000 prisoners in the state prison system. It has reported 2406 cases and 841 cases per 10,000 prisoners.
Maryland is 24th in the nation in the number of cases of Covid per 10,000 prisoners in the state prison system. It has reported 664 cases and 347 cases per 10,000 prisoners.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons in second in the nation (Texas is number one) in the number of cases of Covid per 10,000 prisoners. It has reported 11, 524 cases and 745 cases per 10,000 prisoners.
Click here to read the whole article and the breakdown by states.