The Impact of COVID-19 in US Prisons

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On April 20, 2021, Commonwealth Honors College co-sponsored “The Pandemic behind Bars: COVID in the US Prison System.” Moderated by University of Massachusetts journalism professor Razvan Sibii, the event welcomed five panelists from across the United States to reflect upon the immense, disproportionate effects that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on prison institutions across the United States.

Before the panel discussion kicked off, event organizer Claire Healy ’21, a member of the UMass Prison Abolition Collective, reflected upon the guilty verdict of the Derek Chauvin trial and its potential to create reform.

“It is a decision that has been building up for a year and will continue to build with other decisions and implications,” Healy said. “The trial, in which we’ve seen the systemic racism of the US criminal justice system and entirety of police brutality tried, analyzed, and defended, has been painful and difficult, historical, traumatic, and deeply personal for so many people here and around the world.”

Professor Sibii then allowed each guest to introduce themselves and their work within the field. Panel members ranged from academics who study mass incarceration, to social activists and journalists, some of whom were formerly incarcerated.

Main themes of discussion focused on a lack of information given by prisons and the importance of advocacy from those on the outside. The recently freed panelists found common ground in a sense of survivor's guilt toward those still undergoing the unequal treatment of the incarceration system, especially during the pandemic.

Among the panelists was Eugene Youngblood, a member of the Black Prisoners’ Caucus and coordinator for The Freedom Project, who was recently commuted after serving nearly thirty years. Youngblood experienced COVID-19 in prison firsthand, contracting the disease along with over 300 others in his housing unit while still serving his sentence, just a month after he was granted clemency,

As a result, prisoners were put into “medical isolation.” The emotional toll of his experience nearly matched the physical battle his body went through.

“We’re sick and we were just placed in isolation,” Youngblood said. “I didn’t get any fresh air, wasn’t able to move around, the light was on twenty-four hours a day, so I couldn’t sleep. All these things exacerbated COVID. It got so bad, I had to go to the hospital and get oxygen treatment.”

Kathryn M. Nowotny, co-founder of the COVID Prison Project and an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Miami, brought a data-based, epidemiological approach to the discussion. Her work at the COVID Prison Project tracks and monitors coronavirus data in correctional facilities across the country.

According to Nowotny, at least 390,000 people in US prisons have been infected with COVID-19, representing 30 percent of the prison population. Of this number, at least 2,500 have died from COVID-19. Both numbers are likely an undercount due to inaccuracies within the system and a backlog of data reporting.

“All prison systems report data in very different ways; there’s no centralization or oversight in what they’re reporting,” Nowotny said. “In most states, the COVID-19 case rate in prisons dwarfs the case rate in the community.”

Page Dukes is a communications associate at the Southern Center for Human Rights and a core organizer for the online memorial service Mourning Our Losses, which memorializes those who have died of COVID-19 in prison. Dukes was previously incarcerated for ten years.

“We set up to name the people who are dying [of COVID-19 in prisons] to not be remembered as numbers on a dashboard,” Dukes said of Mourning Our Losses’ mission. “But as people with family members, loved ones, lives, and a right to exist just as much as anyone else.”

Panelists also emphasized the lack of vaccine information given to those incarcerated. This lack puts importance on the advocacy of outside organizations to represent and help those inside.

“Information is important, it is critical,” said Ernst Fenelon Jr., an author, public speaker, and program coordinator with the Prison Education Project, who was formerly incarcerated for over fourteen years. “Having informed choices, you’ll find the majority [of prisoners will take the vaccine]. And those that don’t, you can address them in a way that is effective and will respect their agency.”

During the pandemic, Fenelon Jr. helped community-based organizations donate PPE to prisons in the absence of state-provided help.

“It’s so important that [all the panelists] are here,” Fenelon Jr. said. “All of us are part of this experience and conversation to advocate for those who cannot advocate for themselves.”

Jesse Vasquez, who works at a community food distribution center, served as the editor-in-chief of San Quentin News while incarcerated for nineteen years. Vasquez, who was commuted, recently received a grant that gave housing to seventy formerly incarcerated individuals, which is often hard to find for those exiting the system.

“For me, it’s one of those things where I owe it to the guys who are inside to try and help their families,” Vasquez said. “Try to feed them, try to house them, try to contribute as much as I can to them.”

Panelists agreed that if anything positive came out of dealing with the pandemic, it's that society is more likely to recognize people’s humanity and question wrongdoings, such as systemic and institutional racism.

“If there’s any silver lining to the COVID pandemic, it’s the fact that society now has to look at this ugliness and say, ‘How do we address it?,'” Vasquez said. “How do we address systemic racism? How do we address institutional racism? How do we become a more humane society from a cultural perspective? You can change the institutions but racism isn’t going to go away.”

To view the full presentation, a recording is available on the Prison Abolition Collective's YouTube page.