Should imprisoned Americans be vaccinated first?

Just as the state guides the most vulnerable Americans to the forefront of the first round of vaccination, many across the country say the “vulnerable” category needs to include a population that is often overlooked: prisoners. ..

Some groups even say prisoners — About 2.3 million Americans — Must be vaccinated First Of people like healthcare professionals and nursing home staff.

Nationally, prisons are hotbeds of COVID-19 infection, with at least 276,235 imprisoned people positive and at least 1,738 dead since March. Marshall Project Report..

The Marshall Project, a non-profit, non-partisan advocacy group, has been tracking coronaviruses in prisons since March. State test methods and reports are different..

Thousands in Massachusetts The prisoner will be part of the first resident to receive the vaccine.. However, the state is one of the few plans to target prisoners. In texas State plans for vaccines Like many states, it is intended to be rolled out in stages. However, the state’s vaccination program does not mention any steps for prisoners.

With Texas Florida and South Dakota do not contain languages How inmate vaccination initiates or works.

People in prison share many of the same complications as “vulnerable” nationwide, but they are not treated the same.

Why a prisoner?

An estimated 20% of the more than 2 million prison populations are infected. Based on the information so far Prisoners are also four times more likely to get infected You are twice as likely to die of COVID-19 as anyone else.

Florida and Texas are ranked as the states with the highest number of prisoner COVID-19 deaths, 189 and 172, respectively. Neither currently mentions plans to vaccinate prisoners.

The spread of prisons is easily linked to the fact that prisoners cannot keep enough social distance in populated areas. In addition to living in a cell together, the group shares a bathroom. August Report published by Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security List prisoners as a priority, as well as groups living in densely populated facilities.

Lack of proper care and access to resources is also a concern. And many prisoners are already in poor health because they are in prison.

“I’m not saying that prisoners should be treated better than anyone else, but they shouldn’t be treated worse than anyone else who is forced to live in a rally,” the co-author said. Dr. Eric Toner said. Report, Told the New York Times..

Why do you have tothey‘Do you get vaccinated before me?

Many alleged prisoners should not access faster than those who are not in jail or who are “doing nothing wrong.”

However, the idea that everyone in prison is inherently dangerous and violent is not reflected in the statistics.

Prison Policy InitiativeA non-profit / non-partisan research and advocacy group, most people in the US judicial system are accused of misdemeanor and non-criminal offenses rather than serious crimes. However, low-level crimes such as technical probation and parole breaches often lead to imprisonment.

People charged with misdemeanor are charged with 13 million people each year in the judicial system, committing crimes such as sitting on the sidewalk and doing J-walking. According to PPI, more than 25% of the daily prison population is due to low-level crime.

In addition to those imprisoned or imprisoned for low-level crimes, the US “imprisoned” population includes young people detained for minor or accidental crimes.

The PPI states that 6,600 young people behind the bar are there for minor probation violations and more than 1,700 are trapped for normal teen-level crimes such as skipping classes. I am reporting. And nearly one in ten young people detained for criminal or delinquency crimes are eventually placed in adult prisons or prisons.

In addition to these concerns, there is the issue of fairness. Data show that the black and Latin populations are overvalued in the criminal justice system and are likely to be imprisoned for various police policies.

Especially with regard to race, there is no complete metric for sentencing criminals.

“Black and Latin defendants facing drug and weapons accusations were more likely to be convicted, imprisoned and sentenced to longer sentences than whites facing similar accusations. ” Felix OwusuSaid a Fellow of the Harvard Law School’s Criminal Justice Policy Program.

Owesu states that the report further reveals “how institutional racism pervades the entire criminal justice system.”

NAACP While 32% of the US population reports blacks and Latinos, 56% of imprisoned people are blacks and Latins. The Pew Research Center says that black men most likely to be imprisoned 2,272 prisoners per 100,000 black men..

Beyond prisoners

Another reason to promote vaccination of prisoners is that infected prisoners can spread the coronavirus to staff and prison outsiders, even though they are quarantined.

The Marshall Project reported at least 67,883 COVID-19 cases among prison personnel, killing at least 113 people.

In addition, inmate infections can harm people outside the prison walls.

In Chicago, one in seven infections is associated with traffic passing through Cook County Prison. In a survey of the Health Affairs Journal.. Cook County Prison was also the largest known location for COVID-19 epidemics in the country until Ohio prisons topped the list.

For these reasons, Dr. Toner said vaccination of prisoners was the wisest way to prevent further spread.

He told the NYT: “Prisons are incubators for infectious diseases. Trying to stop the source of the epidemic is a basic public health belief.”

For now, US prisoners are often waiting to be explained in countries that look the other way around.

“People imprisoned are also members of our society. Their health and well-being are rarely prioritized, so they are often at high risk during a crisis.” Write Ashish Prashar and De Anna Hoskins For NBC news. “They are left behind in the event of a natural disaster where others are evacuating, and the medicines they need are not always provided in a timely manner.”