Michigan prisons, which emerged as a hot spot in the coronavirus case, have an infection rate that exceeds the prison systems of New York City and Chicago, both of which have received national attention as sources of large-scale infection.

According to a Detroit Free Press analysis of the Department of Corrections data, 10% of prisoners and 21% of staff at the Penal Correctional Center near Jackson test positive for COVID-19.

The percentage of imprisoned people affected by the new coronavirus in Penal surpassed the 7% prevalence rate in Cook County Jail in Chicago. New York Times Last week, it said it was the largest known source of infection in the United States.

The penal rate is higher than Rikers Island and other New York City prisons, with an outbreak rate of 8%, Legal aid association. Similar to Chicago, the prison system in New York City has more cases of COVID-19 and more than double the population of the penal.

Among the prison systems that are actively reporting infections, the Stateville Correctional Center in Illinois has a higher infection rate than Penal at 11%.

Dr. Josiah Ricci, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at Brown University and director of the Center for Prisoners’ Health, said that the high rates of infection and positivity in the penal were only “the tip of the iceberg” for confirmed cases. Said to indicate. Human rights at Miriam Hospital in Rhode Island.

“If we find that 10% of the people in our facility are infected, [testing] A little over 10% causes more infections than you notice. So it is a problem for those in captivity. Staff problem. It’s a family issue for the staff. And among those who have been infected and have to be transferred to a local hospital, that is a problem for the local health care system. “

More: As the coronavirus spreads to Michigan prisons, fear of brewing among families and police officers

More: Why coronaviruses are prevalent in Michigan prisons

At the start of the outbreak in Penal, 1,641 prisoners were housed in a minimum security prison about 75 miles west of Detroit. A positive test of four prisoners housed in a single cell in a unit called Block 10 revealed that coronavirus arrived at the facility on March 25. It has now been confirmed that 162 prisoners in all containment units are infected with the virus. According to the corrections department spokesman Chris Gautz. Of the 63 personalized staff with confirmed COVID-19, more than half are police officers.

The infection rate of residents around Jackson County is 0.1%.

“It’s true that the penal was the hardest hit,” Gautz said. “The staff are doing everything they can to limit the spread there, but trying to slow down proliferation in such a collective setting is very difficult. I see it in a nursing home. You are seeing it in prison, and you are seeing it in some of our prisons. “

The ministry tested 707 inmates after it was confirmed that a man on the facility on the Upper Peninsula was the first prisoner case for MDOC’s COVID-19. As of Tuesday, the results have returned to plus 454 prisoners.

Rich said there could be “thousands” of undetected cases throughout Michigan’s prison system.

About half of the state’s 29 prisons have at least one confirmed case of COVID-19 prisoners, with an overall infection rate of 1.2% for approximately 38,000 prisoners. 10% of the 454 prisoners who contracted for COVID-19 were sent to local hospitals. Eleven prisoners died Tuesday night.

As of Tuesday night, there are 175 staff cases, or 1.4% of employees. Two MDOC employees died.

Positive to negative test

According to the report, about 2.3 million people were detained in prisons, prisons, juvenile detention centers and other institutions throughout the country, more than half of which were held in state prisons. Prison Policy Initiative, Criminal justice think tank.

In anticipation of the arrival of the coronavirus, supporters and health professionals across the country began sounding alerts a few months ago. They say prisons and prisons are like “Petri dishes” and COVID-19 can be widespread among the elderly, especially those who are vulnerable to illness.

“It is a duty for all states to be aware that a pandemic should not put a sentence in prison,” said Wunderbeltram, a spokeswoman for the Prison Policy Initiative.

In Michigan, prisoners, their families and correction officers Reported to Free Press Over the last few weeks, they are afraid of how quickly COVID-19 spreads behind the bar.

“I’m having a panic attack,” said Juanita Reynolds, 45, from Tuscola County, who is worried about her husband’s chances of getting a coronavirus before taking her out of Penal in August. “I have a problem of anxiety. It gets worse.”

Gautz and Byron Osbourne, chairman of the Michigan Corrections Union, pointed out the establishment of a housing in Penal as one of the factors that could cause the virus to spread rapidly. The three-barn barn building houses more than half of the facility’s prisoners in an open bay setting. A cube of eight with partial walls and no doors. The remaining population is housed in a single cell with an open bar.

“Since the crisis began, we knew that if the bay entered an open facility, it would be very difficult to contain,” Osborn said. “It would probably have spread there much faster before the department could handle it.”

Reynolds said he is tracking daily updates of the department regarding infections of prisoners and employees. Online posting. She said she had an advantage due to the increased number of cases.

“There are still no days with more negative tests than positive ones,” Gauts said of the past few weeks. “Okay, I’ll start seeing it come back, but I don’t want to do that because I haven’t done enough testing.”

Only in captivity, if all prisoners showed one symptom of COVID-19, they said that all prisoners technically met the test criteria. He said the ministry had around 750 test kits on hand for prisoners.

Symptomatic staff, on the other hand, should seek community testing. Osborne said he had secured slots for some police officers to carry out a quick test in Detroit, which was difficult.

Scared prisoner, policeman

The boundaries between prisons and the communities in which they are located are porous due to the large number of officers and other employees who come and go in multiple turns each day. Experts say the idea that correctional facilities are separate from the community is false.

Osborne said the agency’s four facilities in Jackson and two in the south (Lakeland corrections at Coldwater and Guth Harrison corrections at Adrian) employ more than 1,300 officers and civilian support staff. . Many of these employees travel from communities across the southern part of the state, including Metro Detroit, Lansing, and Kalamazoo.

Although Penal has the highest infection rate among prisoners, prisons in the southeastern and central southern parts of the state are also heavily damaged.

• At the Detroit Reentry Center, 6% of prisoners confirmed the case, and one prisoner died after a COVID-19 contract. One staff member died and 5% confirmed the case. The city-wide community infection rate is 1%.
• 5% of prisoners and staff at Macomb County Correctional Facility are infected. The local infection rate of postal code 48048 where the facility is located is 0.4%.
• In Branch County, 5% of prisoners at the Lakeland Correctional Facility confirm cases and 7% of staff confirm. In Branch County, 0.1% of the population is infected, with 30 confirmed cases.
• At the Huron Valley Women’s Correctional Center in Washtenau County, 3% of prisoners and staff confirmed cases, and two prisoners died. To Postal Code 48197, Where the facility is located-0.3% of locals have confirmed cases of COVID-19.

To fight a pandemic, “we must think of prisons and prisons as reservoirs that can lead to recurrent epidemics if the epidemics are not properly addressed anywhere in these institutions,” says Rich University Brown and others. Two infectious disease specialists essay Published this month in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Among other steps, this article recommends the release of prisoners who are less likely to get angry again, as well as the elderly and sick, a measure defenders seek in Michigan.

Gautz said the ministry is working to expedite parole. The “Judgment Truth” law does not allow prisons to consider releasing a prisoner before he is subjected to a minimum sentence.

Governors of the states, including New Jersey, Washington, and Pennsylvania, intervene and sign an executive order to begin releasing or permitting medical facilities for vulnerable prisoners to halt the spread of COVID-19. Did. Governor Gretchen Whitmer has so far not ordered early release of prisoners in Michigan.

Michigan ACLU waives technical requirements for parole, including temporary completion of grace periods and disciplinary exemptions to enhance parole qualifications and completion of prison classes during public health emergencies By doing so, Whitmer said it could quickly reduce the prison population. Increased use of commuting and parole for the elderly or frail prisoners.

“Only if we are now able to save lives but act now to protect the most vulnerable to serious illness and death from COVID-19,” said Dan Korobkin ACLU, Michigan Legal Director, in a statement. It was

Efforts in other states have focused on releasing non-violent convicted prisoners. It excludes people like De Angelo Thomas who have been in prison for assault for 16 years with the intent of murder and have been falsely convicted in Wayne County. His first release date is three years away.

“Why don’t you release a man who is down as long as I’m down?” Thomas, 42, from Detroit, said he wanted to return to his wife and three daughters. . “We don’t intend to go back to jail, especially when you plan and return.”

Thomas knew of three of the penal prisoners who died at COVID-19.

“I wake up every morning and praise God. I wake up without a fever,” he said.

Former Chief Medical Officer of New York City Prison, Dr. Homer Ventors, said that the most often overlooked component of prisons and how prisons slow the spread of COVID-19 is proper training in PPE. .

He presented an example of an orthodontist who was given a mask. No one dictated when and how to use it, so they can be seen wearing a neck mask within a day or so. Alternatively, prisoners cleaning the facility may be required to clean the cell of a symptomatic prisoner without advice on personal precautions.

“The front line staff in infection control are the people who are government and detained, but most of the plans I’ve seen across the country have failed to really appreciate it,” said a nonprofit, community-oriented correction. Ventors, president of medical services, said. “Now there are so many very scared people being detained, and very scary correction staff, so no one is spending time actually engaging with them as part of the infection control team.”

Contact Angie Jackson: [email protected]313-222-1850. Follow her on Twitter. Azuki. Please contact Kristi Tanner at [email protected] or 313-222-8877.

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