Speaker 1: It's Monday. I'm Oscar Emiras from the Daily Dive podcast
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles, and this is your daily coronavirus update.
Speaker 1: Coronavirus has been tearing through jails and prisons across the country.
Speaker 1: A recent analysis by Reuters has found that there has
Speaker 1: been an undercounting of COVID nineteen cases in the system,
Speaker 1: and it's some state prisons are seeing infection rates of
Speaker 1: up to six While there is a worry that inmates
Speaker 1: could be getting ill in such close quarters, the other
Speaker 1: concern is all of the corrections officers and workers that
Speaker 1: could also be infected and then spread the virus throughout
Speaker 1: their communities. Research shows that the majority of those infected
Speaker 1: have been asymptomatic. Linda So, reporter for Reuters, joins us
Speaker 1: for how coronavirus is spreading in jails and prison Thanks
Speaker 1: for joining us, Linda, I wanted to talk about coronavirus
Speaker 1: and what's going on in US jails and prisons. We've
Speaker 1: been hearing a lot about it. A lot of times.
Speaker 1: These people are forgotten in a lot of this. Some
Speaker 1: people don't care because they might be criminals, etcetera, etcetera.
Speaker 1: But up until now, what we had been hearing is
Speaker 1: that prisons and jails are fertile ground for coronavirus to spread.
Speaker 1: There was even a string of headlines where there was
Speaker 1: a lot of inmates being released because of COVID nineteen worries.
Speaker 1: But their ed routers, you guys took a deep look
Speaker 1: into a lot of different aspects of the jail in
Speaker 1: prison system and are just finding out that there is
Speaker 1: a lot more people that are getting infected in there
Speaker 1: than official numbers would really state. So Linda tell us
Speaker 1: a little bit about the research you guys did and
Speaker 1: some of the findings. So, the CDC had conducted a
Speaker 1: survey where they reached out to all the health departments
Speaker 1: nationwide to get numbers on the number of inspected inmates
Speaker 1: throughout all the correctional facilities in the US, and they
Speaker 1: had thirty seven of those agencies respond and reported just
Speaker 1: under five thousand inmate cases. What we did at Gorders
Speaker 1: is we conducted a far smaller survey and found well
Speaker 1: over three times that number, about seventeen thousand, three hundred cases.
Speaker 1: So it was illuminating in the way that a lot
Speaker 1: of these places, because many jails in the US don't
Speaker 1: make their numbers public, they're not known. So what we
Speaker 1: found in this far smaller survey is there are a
Speaker 1: lot of cases that are going unreported, very similar in
Speaker 1: the way we've been following numbers for the general population,
Speaker 1: you know, outside of these prisons and jails. A lot
Speaker 1: of it has to do with testing and testing as
Speaker 1: many people as possible, and a lot of jails weren't
Speaker 1: really doing that. First off, tests were hard to come
Speaker 1: by for the jail population, but secondly, they would be
Speaker 1: testing people that only had symptoms when a lot of
Speaker 1: people are pushing for everybody in these systems to be tested.
Speaker 1: So as part of this survey, we looked into that
Speaker 1: and what we found was many jails continue to only
Speaker 1: test their inmates if they are showing symptoms. A lot
Speaker 1: of we documented ten state prison systems that have wide
Speaker 1: and testing, and they are conducting a form of mass
Speaker 1: testing where they're testing all their inmates even if they
Speaker 1: aren't showing symptoms. And so for those facilities that are
Speaker 1: mass testing, there were infection rates at about sixty So
Speaker 1: it just goes to show that because many of these
Speaker 1: jails aren't testing all of their inmates, they're only testing
Speaker 1: if you're showing certain symptoms. There's a drastic undercount. Have
Speaker 1: you got any response from the CDC as far as
Speaker 1: to the discrepancy and these numbers. So the CDC is
Speaker 1: part of their report, did acknowledge that only thirty seven
Speaker 1: of those agencies that they surveyed responded, So it was
Speaker 1: based on those numbers. Let's talk a little bit more
Speaker 1: about what's going on at these facilities. The US has
Speaker 1: more people behind bars in any other nation. I think
Speaker 1: as of two thousand eighteen, the numbers were two point
Speaker 1: two million, And there's a difference between jails and prisons
Speaker 1: and how the possible spread of coronavirus could work out there.
Speaker 1: Tell us a little bit about that. So when you
Speaker 1: think about the spread of coronavirus within these facilities, it
Speaker 1: doesn't just affect the inmates. First of all, jails are
Speaker 1: generally paces where inmates go for a short period of
Speaker 1: time there is either awaiting arrest or their shirts serving
Speaker 1: short sentences, So there's a constant turn of inmates going
Speaker 1: in and out, and so they become pathways of spreading
Speaker 1: this virus. If they're released from the jail and go
Speaker 1: back into the community, they become pathways to spread it
Speaker 1: in the community, and it's not just the inmates who
Speaker 1: are of concern here. What we also found is that
Speaker 1: there are thousands of workers, correctional officers who are working
Speaker 1: in these facilities, medical staff who day in and day out,
Speaker 1: they report to work, go to jail. At the end
Speaker 1: of the day, they leave, and they can carry it
Speaker 1: back to the community. So this isn't only a concern
Speaker 1: for the inmates in the jail, but it is for
Speaker 1: the greater population because of the risk that these people
Speaker 1: who are moving in and out of these facilities can
Speaker 1: become vestors or pathways, so to speak. We mentioned testing
Speaker 1: a little bit. How has testing been going for the
Speaker 1: correctional workers. We highlighted one jail in our story, Wayne
Speaker 1: County Jail in Detroit, Michigan, and the chief of jails
Speaker 1: there had expressed to us that when this pandemic first
Speaker 1: began in March, the facility had a hard time. It
Speaker 1: was very challenging to get their hands on tests and
Speaker 1: so for their correctional officers, they weren't able to provide
Speaker 1: widespread testing. If you recalled, in the early phases of
Speaker 1: this pandemic, it was a struggle for anyone to get tests.
Speaker 1: You had to show specific symptoms, and if you weren't
Speaker 1: showing those specific symptoms, you were denied testing. And that
Speaker 1: was the case that Wayne County, which ended up a
Speaker 1: day lost to medical workers and a commander and a deputy.
Speaker 1: And so the chief of jails there told us that
Speaker 1: part of the challenge was because they couldn't provide testing
Speaker 1: for their death members, it was very hard to get
Speaker 1: a handle on the spread of the virus. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: that's such a critical part because, as you mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: those are the people that are going home at the
Speaker 1: end of the day and could be getting it out
Speaker 1: into the community, you know, when they're working all day
Speaker 1: in such close quarters with everybody then they go home,
Speaker 1: then those are the people that are spreading it around. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: that widespread testing for the workers is critical. And then
Speaker 1: another aspect of this whole thing with the jail and
Speaker 1: prison system. Obviously I mentioned the headlines and so many
Speaker 1: inmates being released from the systems to help reduce the
Speaker 1: overcrowding there because there was a lot of times where
Speaker 1: people were still in you know, three people to us sell, etcetera.
Speaker 1: Things like that. So tell us a little bit about that,
Speaker 1: about the release of all these inmates. So there were
Speaker 1: calls to release inmates, those who perhaps are older and
Speaker 1: more vulnerable, and those with underlying conditions. But what we
Speaker 1: found in reporting our story is that these correctional facilities,
Speaker 1: not all of them had standard procedures for releasing inmates. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, we highlight Well County Jail in Colorado in
Speaker 1: our stories where there were several inmates, one who ended
Speaker 1: up dying. He had COVID nineteens. He left the jail
Speaker 1: and he died. However, from what we found, there was
Speaker 1: no standard procedure in ensuring that when he was released,
Speaker 1: he was not given any medical care. He came into
Speaker 1: contact with other people. So that's another risk when you
Speaker 1: think about these inmates who are leaving these facilities, they
Speaker 1: too could become a vector or a pathway of spreading
Speaker 1: it because not all jails have a standard procedure to
Speaker 1: medically screen these inmates as they're leaving. I know there
Speaker 1: was a lot of fur about it. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of victims rights groups that were also really mad that
Speaker 1: some of these inmates were being released and people weren't
Speaker 1: getting notified, So I know that was another big angle
Speaker 1: to all of this. There have been some victims rights
Speaker 1: groups who have expressed their concerns that not all crime
Speaker 1: victims were being notified when these inmates were being let out.
Speaker 1: Question about some other findings that possibly could have come out.
Speaker 1: Were you finding that some of these inmates were either
Speaker 1: displaying asymptomatically or were they getting very sick and ill
Speaker 1: and requiring hospitalizations? Did any of that come out in
Speaker 1: your research? We did focus on ten state prison systems
Speaker 1: who are conducting mass testing, and interestingly, we found that
Speaker 1: a high percentage of these inmates were asymptomatic. So in
Speaker 1: Michigan States, their correctional facility decided to mass test at
Speaker 1: many of their facilities because they really thought, we couldn't
Speaker 1: get a handle on this disease if we don't know
Speaker 1: who has it, So they began the mass testing, which
Speaker 1: revealed a high rate of asymptomatic inmates. And the concern was,
Speaker 1: for many of these correctional facilities, it's hard to contain
Speaker 1: the spread if you really don't know who has it,
Speaker 1: So that really was a big factor in their decision
Speaker 1: to go ahead with mass testing in many of their facilities.
Speaker 1: And as a result of all of this, there's more
Speaker 1: than one lawsuits nationwide, and a lot of them are
Speaker 1: class action lawsuits. You know, they're still asking for more
Speaker 1: mass releases of inmates or other measures to reduce overcrowding
Speaker 1: and the infection risks in these jails. Those lawsuits continue,
Speaker 1: the fight continues, and again there's a lot of push
Speaker 1: and pull. Some of those victims rights groups like we
Speaker 1: mentioned before, are fighting against it because they believe that
Speaker 1: there's a risk if you release these inmates, but a
Speaker 1: lot of other organizations like the a c. L You,
Speaker 1: they're really fighting for the release because many of these
Speaker 1: inmates are medically vulnerable, or again the older population who
Speaker 1: are more at risks. And what kind of reaction have
Speaker 1: you gotten so far to this special report that you
Speaker 1: guys did. Just from reading, I can see that the
Speaker 1: prison officials obviously feel like they could be at wits end.
Speaker 1: Maybe you know, they don't know exactly what's happening. They're
Speaker 1: trying to get a handle on the testing, and they're
Speaker 1: fearful for themselves and for their workers and even the inmates.
Speaker 1: But what other kind of reactions have you gotten to this.
Speaker 1: One of the important things that have come out from
Speaker 1: this is the fact that the outbreak in these jails
Speaker 1: doesn't just affect the people who are held behind bars.
Speaker 1: But again it's those inmates who may be leaving the jails,
Speaker 1: and the medical workers and the correctional officers who are
Speaker 1: leaving every day who can carry it back out to
Speaker 1: this community. I suggest everybody go out and read the
Speaker 1: report by Linda and they're at Reuter's. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of pretty stark numbers with regards to what's going on
Speaker 1: in the jail and prison population. Linda, so reporter at Reuter's,
Speaker 1: thank you very much for joining us. Thank you. I'm
Speaker 1: Oscar Ramirez and this has been your daily coronavirus update.
Speaker 1: Don't forget that. For today's big news stories, you can
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