Prisons and jails frequently suffer from overcrowding. Even in the best of times they are, by definition, facilities where people are placed in close contact with each other on a near-constant basis. Correctional administrators have limited control over how long people spend incarcerated, but they can use what authority they possess to release people outright or direct people to less restrictive forms of confinement.
They can also ease conditions of confinement and increase access to health products. Some correctional authorities have already begun this work. Between March and June, more than , people were released from state and federal prisons. As the coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage the country, and particularly its incarcerated populations, government actors have turned their attention to vaccine distribution as the solution to this health crisis. Though some states have explicitly included incarcerated individuals in their vaccination plans, many have not yet provided information as to how and when those behind bars will be granted access to this protection.
Brennan Center Recommendation : Elderly and sick people and those incarcerated for parole violations should be released or recommended for release under compassionate release provisions or another authority. Barring that, prison officials should use their discretion to transfer people to community corrections options. On November 18, Marin County Superior Court Judge Geoffrey Howard ruled that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation inflicted cruel and unusual punishment on people incarcerated at the San Quentin State Prison during a Covid outbreak last summer that left more than 2, people infected.
The ruling states that the CDCR acted with deliberate indifference and violated the constitutional rights of nearly people. On November 27, a federal appeals court blocked an order requiring all prison workers to be vaccinated against Covid by January The appellate court has postponed the deadline until March, when the next hearing will occur.
Brennan Center Recommendation : Correctional authorities should make telephone and video calls free for the duration of the crisis and, where necessary, work with private vendors to achieve this goal. Brennan Center Recommendation : Correctional authorities should further waive commissary fees for soap, toilet paper, and other hygienic essentials for the duration of the crisis.
