US Prisons Still COVID-19 Hot Zones: An Update On Control Efforts

Today, we follow up on the continuing crisis in America’s prisons caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. The Marshall Project, an award-winning non-profit reporting effort that examines problems in the criminal justice system, has found in its coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic that more than 40,000 prisoners have tested positive for the coronavirus. More than 8,400 correctional staff have been infected. More than 500 people have died in prison facilities across the country. Tom Meagher (pronounced "mare") is the managing editor of Digital and Data Journalism with the Marshall Project. He joins Tom via Skype from his home in New Jersey. Of course, prisons, like nursing homes, meat packing plants and other highly congregate facilities have been COVID-19 hot zones from the beginning of the outbreak. Joining Tom next to discuss the daunting public health challenges of controlling COVID-19 in a prison facility is Dr. Carolyn Sufrin. She’s a board-certified OB/GYN with the Center for Medical Humanities and Social Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She’s also with the Department of Health, Behavior and Society at the Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She studies health care and reproductive health issues in correctional settings.Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.