'This Is Mass Murder': Covid-19 Deaths in US Prisons Have Risen by 73% the Past Month
Published on
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
by Common Dreams
The number of known cases in the facilities has doubled since mid-May to over 68,000.
by Jessica Corbett, staff writer
After months of warnings that the coronavirus pandemic has turned U.S. detention facilities into "ticking time bombs" and a "nightmare waiting to happen," the New York Times reported Tuesday that deaths related to Covid-19 in prisons across the country have soared by 73% since mid-May.
"The number of prison inmates known to be infected has doubled during the past month to more than 68,000" while the national daily infection rate "has remained relatively flat," according to data the Times has collected since the virus reached the U.S. "By now, the five largest known clusters of the virus in the United States are not at nursing homes or meatpacking plants, but inside correction institutions."
Fred Roehler, a 77-year-old inmate at a California prison with chronic inflammatory lung disease and other respiratory issues, told the newspaper that Covid-19 is "like a sword hanging over my head... Any officer can bring it in."
The Times reported that "a muddled, uneven response by corrections officials to testing and care for inmates and workers is complicating the spread of the coronavirus," and the risk of the situation getting worse "appears imminent," given that law enforcement has responded to a nationwide uprising against police brutality and systemic racism by locking up protesters in cramped holding pens at local jails.
More:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/16/mass-murder-covid-19-deaths-us-prisons-have-risen-73-past-month
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