Some experts say prisoners should be next in line to get COVID vaccines. Here’s why
Deciding who sits on top of the vaccine priority totem pole is complicated.
Experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have assigned health care workers and nursing home residents the highest priority for getting vaccinated because they are the most exposed and most vulnerable, respectively.
The first doses of vaccines were administered this week in the U.S., but who’s next in line?
The CDC suggested essential workers such as law enforcement and firefighters get vaccinated next when supplies and timing are right. However, not all experts agree the lineup includes some of the most at-risk individuals: prisoners.
Data collected and analyzed by the COVID Prison Project found that on average, the rate of coronavirus infections in prison populations is almost four times that of infections in the general population.
“[It’s] very important for prison populations to receive immunizations because their risk of contracting the disease is so high because of their living situation,” Dr. Susan Bailey, president of the American Medical Association, said Monday during a Poynter webinar on COVID-19 vaccines.
“We just don’t know yet where [they’re] going to fall on the priority list,” Bailey added.
Federal health officials say states are in charge of deciding who will get the vaccine and when. Any recommendations suggested by the CDC or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for vaccine distribution “are just that,” Bailey said. “They are recommendations. They are not binding.”
So far, 12 states and territories have included prisoners in their Phase 1 vaccine distribution plans, according to the COVID Prison Project; 24 states included them in their Phase 2 plans and 11 states didn’t say how incarcerated individuals would be prioritized, as of Dec. 15.
Meanwhile, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Missouri have no publicly available plan on vaccine distribution, the Project found.
Experts say prisoners shouldn’t be left to fend for themselves
Crowded living conditions, limited personal protective equipment and significant movement in and out of prisons and jails puts incarcerated individuals and correctional officers at high risk for contracting COVID-19.
This is why some health experts and groups say federal recommendations on vaccine priority should include them as early as possible.
“Many of the largest reported clusters of COVID-19 infections are in correctional facilities, and the disparities between correctional and community COVID-19 rates are increasing,” The National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice said in a December report.
“To maintain public health as well as public safety, frontline staff and incarcerated individuals should be among those who are given priority access to vaccines, personal protective equipment and other public health resources as they become available,” the report continued.
Since the pandemic began, more than 270,000 prisoners and more than 59,000 correctional employees have been infected with the coronavirus, according to the COVID Prison Project — more than 1,600 and 80 of which have died, respectively.
The Commission joins the American Medical Association in recommending that incarcerated people be given vaccine priority after health care workers and nursing home residents.
“Being incarcerated or detained should not be synonymous with being left totally vulnerable to COVID-19. These steps are vital to protect people and stop the spread of the virus,” AMA board member Dr. Ilse Levin said in a Nov. 17 statement.
Yet, not all leaders with the power to make this happen agree prisoners should receive priority over others.
“That won’t happen,” Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis told reporters Dec. 1, according to The Colorado Sun.
“There’s no way that prisoners are going to get it before members of a vulnerable population. … There’s no way it’s going to go to prisoners before it goes to people who haven’t committed any crime. That’s obvious.”
Studies, statistics show prisons face rapid COVID-19 spread
Ethics aside, studies and coronavirus case data paint a grim picture of how the pandemic is affecting prisons and jails across the county.
In 45 of 50 states, the rate of COVID-19 infections among prisoners “still exceeds the rate of COVID infections among the general population,” the COVID Prison Project said Dec. 10.
Prison infection rates in Hawaii and Michigan are more than 10 times that of their general populations, with case rates increasing “drastically” in Alaska, Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Utah and Washington, according to the group.
“The highest case rate in the state prison systems remains in South Dakota with 2,292 of its incarcerated population (604.11 per 1,000) having tested positive for COVID” as of Dec. 10,” the group added.
The Marshall Project and The New York Times found that in a given week, more than 200,000 people are booked into jails across the country, while about the same number walk out every week.
“Prisons have high churn rates, with lots of people coming in and out,” Dr. Seena Fazel, a professor of forensic psychiatry at the University of Oxford in the U.K, said in an article published in The Lancet. “People go to court, go back to their prison, and often people get moved to another prison once they have been sentenced.”
“From my perspective, and the information we have, we need to consider where prisoners fit in terms of their risk in relation to other high-risk groups,” Fazel added. “On the face of it, prisoners would be high-risk for a few reasons.”
This story was originally published December 15, 2020 at 3:46 PM with the headline "Some experts say prisoners should be next in line to get COVID vaccines. Here’s why."
