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10.05.2021
OP-EDS, TESTIMONIES, AND ARTICLES 

Op-Ed: To slow the spread of COVID-19, Illinois must decarcerate (Chicago Tribune)

 
In the Chicago Tribune, Research and Policy Fellow Amanda Klonsky and Senior Data Scientist Erika Tyagi highlight the extent of the pandemic behind bars in Illinois, where the rate of infection among those in prison is nearly triple that of the state's population overall.

"Both data and common sense make clear," they write, "that release people to improve conditions in crowded jails and prisons is vital for protecting incarcerated people -- and also for protecting public health statewide and beyond."

Testimony to Georgia House Democratic Caucus Committee on Crisis in Prisons 


Upon invitation, we provided original testimony to members of the Georgia House of Representatives on the ongoing crisis in Georgia state prisons, including failures of transparency by the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC). We testified that the state has the second-highest case fatality rate, or percent of those with reported infections who die, among all prison systems in the United States.

We also told the legislature that the GDC removed its public data dashboard in July but hadn't reported a new death since mid-March. "We do not know how many people have died of COVID-19 in GDC custody since mid-March of 2021," Hope Johnson told legislators, "but that number is almost certainly higher than zero." 

Study: Hispanic People in Texas Prisons Dying of COVID-19 at Rate Double Their White Peers, Black People Dying at Rate 1.6 Times


This month, our team published a study, pending academic review, finding stark racial disparities among the hundreds of people who have died of COVID-19 in Texas prisons. According to the study, from April 1st, 2020 to March 31st, 2021, Hispanic people in state custody died at a rate 2.0 times greater than that of their White peers, and Black people died at a rate 1.6 times greater than that of their White peers. 

Black and Hispanic people are overrepresented in the state’s prison system: together, these two groups comprise more than 65 percent of the Texas prison population but roughly half of the state’s total population. But the study shows that, even within prisons, Hispanic and Black people were 1.96 and 1.66 times more likely, respectively, to die of COVID-19 than were White people.

Read our press release here.
LATEST FROM THE BLOG

The Life or Death Stakes of Partisan Politics Behind Bars


A recent study reveals that federal judges appointed by Democrats were far more likely to grant compassionate release during the pandemic than those appointed by Republicans. But emergency release should be about public health, not partisan politics

The Vaccine Rollout Is Leaving Behind Incarcerated Children


Record numbers of children are being hospitalized for COVID-19 across the country. But still, children who are incarcerated or held in state custody are being left behind in the vaccine rollout.
RECENT TRENDS IN COVID-19 DATA
The Georgia Department of Corrections has the second highest case fatality rate among all prison systems in the United States.
The pandemic is not over. COVID is surging in Texas prisons.

Decarceration is as necessary as ever.

Vaccination rates among incarcerated people are generally higher than among staff. But in many facilities, they're still not high enough to prevent outbreaks. Decarceration remains a public health imperative.
ANNOUNCEMENTS

We're hiring!


We're looking to add a Data Scientist to our (remote) team of interdisciplinary researchers and to help obtain, process, and analyze COVID data from carceral facilities.

Candidates with lived experience with the criminal legal system are strongly encouraged to apply.


Read more about this position, including how to apply, here.

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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.
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