Understanding the Impact
of the COVID-19 Pandemic on People in Prison
The coronavirus has disproportionately endangered our most vulnerable communities.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, nearly 3,000 incarcerated individuals have died from COVID-19, and hundreds of thousands more have been sick with the virus. Poor conditions in our jails, prisons, immigration detention facilities, and refugee camps have exacerbated the negative impacts of the pandemic. Lack of adequate healthcare has further worsened the impact on populations already especially vulnerable to the virus.
Free and Safe: Coronavirus and the Criminal Justice System
On any given day, there are 1.8 million people locked up in America’s jails and prisons and an additional 3.9 million people are on some form of community supervision such as probation or parole. During the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals impacted by the criminal justice system have been especially vulnerable.
Here you will find stories of how the coronavirus pandemic impacted individuals in the criminal justice system and their loved ones.
Racial Disparities in Incarceration and Coronavirus
At the height of the pandemic, data from states and cities around the United States demonstrated that Black and Latino people got sick and died from the coronavirus at alarming and heavily disproportionate rates.
People of color in the United States are less likely to be insured, more likely to have existing health conditions, more likely to work in jobs that expose them to the virus, and less likely to be tested and treated when ill.
All of these existing disparities are concentrated and compounded in America’s system of mass incarceration.
COVID-19: State-Level Data
The numbers clearly show that COVID-19 in prisons is a public health crisis.
By the Numbers
COVID-19 and the Criminal Justice System
638,000+ confirmed cases of COVID-19
As of January 18, 2023, nearly 640,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in US prisons have been documented.
People in prison are 4 times more likely
People in prison are 4 times more likely to have contracted COVID 19 than the national average. In some states, people in prison have COVID 19 infection rates 8 times more than the national average.
Deaths rose 50%
Deaths in state and federal prisons across America rose nearly 50 percent during the first year of the pandemic, and in six states they more than doubled. The jump in deaths in 2020 was more than twice the increase in the United States overall.
Over 3,000 dead
In prisons, jails, and correctional facilities across the country, there have been over 3,000 known deaths among incarcerated people and correctional officers, as of January 2023.
Issue Center
Your Deep Dive:
Protecting Families During the COVID-19 Pandemic
