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04.20.2021
LATEST FROM THE BLOG

DATA PROJECTS SUBMIT JOINT TESTIMONY TO CONGRESS ON THE BUREAU OF PRISONS’ MISMANAGEMENT OF THE PANDEMIC IN FEDERAL PRISONS

 
We, together with the COVID Prison Project, and the COVID, Corrections, and Oversight Project at the University of Texas at Austin, submitted joint testimony to Congress outlining failures by the Federal Bureau of Prisons to manage and report on COVID-19 in its facilities.

DATA REPORTING & QUALITY SCORECARD, ROUND 2

 
We've reassessed transparency and quality scores and grades for 53 state and federal agencies. In the first round of assessments, 75% of correctional agencies received an F. In this round, 81% of agencies did.
 

“AN AFTERTHOUGHT”: A FEW OF THE WAYS THAT THE PRISON LAW OFFICE HAS RENEWED LONGSTANDING BATTLES FOR PRISONER RIGHTS AND SAFETY DURING THE PANDEMIC
 


VACCINE HESITANCY BEHIND BARS: SOME CAUSES AND CONCERNS

 
A new MMWR study finds that distrust of correctional institutions and lack of information are leading causes for COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among incarcerated people. Correctional agencies must take crucial steps to inspire confidence in the vaccine and encourage uptake of this life-saving inoculation.
 

SARS-COV-2 VARIANTS GO TO PRISON: WHAT NOW?

 
In recent months, the presence of SARS-CoV-2 variants has been reported in three prison systems. The variants are more contagious and can accelerate viral spread.
RECENT TRENDS IN COVID-19 DATA


On April 15th, the COVID-19 infection rate in ICE detention centers was more than 20x higher than in the US population overall. Cases were especially high in facilities in TX, MS, and LA. To prevent deaths, ICE must offer vaccinations and release people as soon as possible.
 


Until enough people receive vaccinations to achieve true herd immunity, COVID-19 can still spread in prisons. St. Cloud Correctional Facility is experiencing an outbreak despite a vaccination rate of 45%. 91 people had active COVID-19 cases in early April, and that number has since risen to 161. Agencies must make vaccines available to all incarcerated people ASAP.
 


On March 8, 2021, we counted the 400,000th reported case of COVID-19 behind bars.

The true number of incarcerated people who have been infected is likely much higher than agencies report, but because of undertesting, undercounting, and underreporting, we don't know just how high it is. 

 
ANNOUNCEMENTS

YOU CAN ANALYZE OUR RAW DATA

 
Do you want to download our raw data to perform your own analyses? On GitHub, you can access our raw data as well as our R package "behindbarstools," which includes a variety of functions to help pull, clean, wrangle, and visualize our data.

ICE DETENTION PAGE NOW AVAILABLE ON OUR WEBSITE

 
Our new ICE Detention page displays the numbers and rates of active and cumulative cases and deaths among the more than 130,000 people who have been held in ICE custody during the pandemic. 

SEEKING INFORMATION RELATED TO COVID-19 IN JUVENILE DETENTION FACILITIES 


If you know of any organizing efforts related to bail funds for youth currently in detention or have information related to mask use and policies in juvenile detention facilities, please reach out to Naila Segule, one of our youth data leads, who is gathering data on these issues.
 
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Copyright © 2021 UCLA Law COVID-19 Behind Bars Data Project, All rights reserved.

Contact us at:
COVIDBehindBars@law.ucla.edu


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