Covid 19 Pandemic has not only disrupted the correction systems in the United States, but it has also revealed the problems of mass incarceration and racial disparities affecting the criminal justice system. With the country having the highest rate of mass incarceration in the world (Abraham et al., 2020), jails and prisons are at risk of experiencing the highest rates of COVID 19 spread and deaths. The risk of spreading is not only to the inmates but also to those who work under the criminal justice system and the communities where the correctional facilities are located. With the prison population characterized by a high aging population (Skarupski et al., 2018) and a high prevalence of underlying health conditions, the correctional facilities have become more vulnerable to the pandemic.
The federal Bureau of Prisons has been implementing the BOP COVID 19 Action plan that provides for guidelines on early release and home confinement of inmates at high risk. Some correctional have embraced decarceration through compassionate release of inmates who are vulnerable to the virus, those who are yet to be convicted, and those who are not a threat to public safety (Abraham et al., 2020). The whites are likely to be favored by release policies compared to the blacks (Hager, 2020). Some states have issued public orders prohibiting the admission of new inmates in state prison and suspension of personal check-ins for inmates under community supervision.
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The Department of Justice has been using court orders to release vulnerable inmates through parole, clemency, commutation, and compassionate release to decongest federal prisons. The DOJ is also responsible for providing accurate information on cases of COVID 19 inmate infections and fatalities.
References
Abraham, L. A., Brown, T. C., & Thomas, S. A. (2020). How COVID-19’s Disruption of the U.S. Correctional System Provides an Opportunity for Decarceration. American Journal of Criminal Justice , 45 (4), 780–792. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-020-09537-1
Hager, E. (2020). How bill Barr’s COVID-19 prisoner release plan could favor white people. The Marshall Project. Retrieved from https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/03/28/how-bill-barr-s-covid-19- prisoner-release-plan-could-favor-white-people.
Skarupski, K. A., Gross, A., Schrack, J. A., Deal, J. A., & Eber, G. B. (2018). The health of America's aging prison population. Epidemiologic Review, 40 , 157–165.
