![]() More than 180 people across the state have died. cases total, making the state an epicenter of the pandemic across America. This number constitutes nearly a half of U.S. EST March 24, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. New York has over 23,000 confirmed cases as of 12 p.m. “Obviously, this does not create enough distance to keep yourself healthy or safe if someone you are locked in a cell block with is infected.” (In some jails and prisons, social distancing has reportedly been implemented in yards and mess halls, but not throughout all spaces.) “At Rikers Island, the beds are two and a half feet from each other and people are being told to sleep head to foot,” Eliza Orlins, a New York City-based public defender, adds. You cannot physically distance yourself from other people,” Dr. “The halls are small… many are escorted in shackles. Jonathan Giftos, a former medical director at Rikers, says the proximity of people in the prison system means it’s impossible to implement social distancing. And as COVID-19 continues to spread across the U.S., experts and activists believe that the jail and prison population - both inmates and employees - are at particularly high risk due to their very nature: the close quarters that inmates live in, the dirty communal spaces combined with a lack of reliable access to soap and water and the frequency with which transitional people (workers, visitors) interact with a static group (incarcerated people).ĭr. In New York state, the number of incarcerated people totals 92,000 across the United States, that total exceeds 2 million. But no enhanced protocols for inmates to seek medical advice have been implemented, she continues, beyond the standard request an inmate can make to a corrections officer, saying they do not feel well and would like to see a doctor. Inmates are also scared, and don’t want to be near anyone who has a cough or other flu symptoms. Many workers are afraid that they could pass the virus on to their family members when they go home without knowing, the corrections officer continues. (TIME is choosing not to identify the officer, who cited concerns for their safety and job security.) Supervisors have not offered staffers much guidance on how to deal with an outbreak, she tells TIME neither inmates nor correction officers have been provided with masks or cleaning materials like hand sanitizer or bleach. In her 19 years working on Rikers Island in New York City, one corrections officer tells TIME she has never seen anything like the chaos and uncertainty that the novel coronavirus is causing in the jail system. ![]()
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