Inmates and Coronavirus
The coronavirus outbreak that originated in Wuhan, China, has killed more than 3,300 people and infected more than 95,000.
More than 230 deaths have been reported outside of mainland China, including 11 in the US.
There is no vaccine for the virus, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s primary recommendations include avoiding close contact with people who are sick, avoiding touching your eyes and nose, and staying home when feeling ill.
While these prevention measures might be easily executed by the general public, that may not the case for people who are incarcerated in dormitory-style housing.
Of the 2.3 million incarcerated Americans, the US Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) holds a total of 175,135 inmates across the country. The remaining population can be found in county jails and state prisons.
“… avoiding close contact with people who are sick, avoiding touching your eyes and nose, and staying home when feeling ill.” is easier for the general public as the general public can retrieve to their homes and order out (thank you internet and delivery services) anything they need.
Incarcerated individuals can not do that. Not only can they not buy whatever they want, they may not even have access to do that.
I’m guessing the US will just quarantine them as they have with cruise ships and let nature take it’s course (stating national safety of course).
BOP tends to be pretty aggressive about quarantine.
I got really sick when I was in. A bunch of us got Hep A from eating bad contaminated food served to us. None of us were getting any medical treatment and I nearly died. My parents had to hire a lawyer to get the warden to do anything.
I stayed in 6 different locations and I can tell you, health care is NOT a priority for the incarcerated population.
The good news:
People who have hepatitis A infection become immune to HAV for the rest of their lives once they recover. They cannot get hepatitis A twice
I was incarcerated in a Michigan prison. One year there was a norovirus outbreak in the prison. 10 units with about 80 men in each. I stayed away from everyone and washed my hands constantly. But the dorm style buildings were impossible. If someone coughed the fans spread the virus everywhere. They tried moving every sick inmate into a single unit, my unit by the way. Inmates don’t like being moved, so many of them hid their illness. Luckily no one died, but I also got sick from it and was miserable for days. No doubt employees took the virus home as well. A very horrible feeling waiting to become the next victim and knowing that there is no way to escape it.
Not to sound Morbid but this virus kinda runs like the T.V.show “The walking dead.” It be totally insane if the producers knew they had predicted outcome of the world we know of.
I was incarcerated during a very serious influenza outbreak in the facility ( Introduced by staff members) while the unaffected staff were given vaccines the inmates received lock down as treatment and moved to the infirmary once a high fever kicked in usually the sick person and then their cellmate since we were in two man cells. My point is inmates will probably be very low on the totem pole when it comes to treatment or prevention of any serious disease.
I feel like the prison system will be hit pretty hard if people become infected there. Open bays and Quads filled with 60 plus people in each one will be like mini Petri dishes. Each area it’s own Microcosm just like the cruise ships out there right now. Medical care in there is the bare minimum. Every once in a while you get a doctor or nurse that really cares about what happens to the inmates but without the support from the officers or the proper supplies to deal with this outbreak, I feel like a lot of people are going to die unnecessarily.
The other issue I was thinking about is since there are tens of thousands of RSOs in Florida alone and what’s going to happen when hundreds of people need hospitalization that are on the registry? I don’t think they can outright refuse to treat you but will they section people off for the irrational fear that someone is going to commit a sex offense while they are in a hospital fighting for their life? It’s crazy but fear alone will make people do crazy things.
I think even if someone is the worst monster on Earth, if they are that sick, having sex or a sex act would be the last thing on their mind.
Just my thoughts. I know even when I was dating, if I got the flu or even a bad cold, I just didn’t want to do anything but sleep and be left alone. being sick tends to turn me into grumpy cat.
Let me see if I understand the BOP protocol.
Take people from jails all over the country, cram them into confined holding cells, fly them to Oklahoma City on conair, mix them together and disburse them to every federal facility. Now THAT sounds like a foolproof virus containment strategy.
We just visited our son on Saturday. I am a little surprised that visitation has not been cancelled. This is not an ideal situation, and provisions for screening people who may have traveled or come in contact with possible infected people is evidently not in place. In the past, they have cancelled visitation because of chicken pox. There is not enough room in the SHU to keep anyone infected away from the general population. No one gets any information about what is going on concerning a contingency plan so we are just praying that nothing happens. Elderly and sick individuals should be released anyway. This is an embarrassment to our country. Low security and camp inmates need to go home!
Donna
As I am sure you know, jails and prisons have become more about money than keeping people safe. Many many years back when there was severe overcrowding, they released a bunch of us, and even I was surprised people with a S/O were included. I did like 30% of my time before being released out to probation.
A few years later they passed a law stating you had to do at least 85% of your sentence if you earned good behavior gain time. I do not think that has changed much since then since there is a push for building more and more prisons.
In addition to the 67 Florida counties all having jails, from the D.O.C website : The Florida Department of Corrections has 143 facilities statewide, including 43 major institutions, 33 work camps, 15 Annexes, 20 work release centers and 6 road prisons/forestry camps. It has more than 23,000 employees, about three-quarters of whom are either certified corrections officers or probation officers.
You do the math. Money, jobs, grants,budgets, incentives etc, etc
Cherokee Jack….
There are over 932K Plus on the SORNA Registry in which the Law Enforcement System Across the USA receive approx $20K per Registrant (thru JAG Monies and other Federal ‘Grants’) which amounts to over $18 Billion in the SYSTEM…So, therefore, to ‘take away their jobs and others’ jobs, is well one hell of a JOB to do’….is it NOT?…it is all about Money…and well the access to Legislative Monies Reside with the Politicians, Judges, Prosecutors(aka, the Anti-Christs), and the Corrupt LEOS that continue to create INVENTIVE BEHAVIORS and TACTICS to trap a Registrant…
Where did you get that $20k stat? Please provide a source for it because it sounds completely made up.
How about the registry and the Corona Virus?
In Person Registration has a chance to change.
If I get sick, I will: buy a car, plan a trip, rent a car, get a passport, plan an oversees trip Get a roommate with a car, establish several temporary residences etc. Etc
I will smile, cough and not turn my head.
Now I have to buy a new keyboard, you made me spit my extra bold coffee all over it. Thanks for the laugh.
On a side note, surprised they do not use us registerants for medical experiments.
Remember Good Ole’ Julie Jones, the former head of the FLADOC…Well, right before she ‘resigned’, she made a back door deal with the CENTENE Corporation to provide healthcare for FLADOC inmates to the tune of approx $245 Million as the then current Healthcare Provider had sent a notice of additional charges of over $100 million (total Healthcare costs were $340 million in total), mainly due to the aging population of Florida’s Prison population…so, without ‘putting out a bid’, she did a back door deal with CENTENE, WITHOUT any other Florida government official approving such a scheme!
The bottom line, the healthcare budget was slashed extensively and the care that is and was supplied is beyond SUB-STANDARD…But I will say, there were/are some Doctors and Dentists that were down right NICE, SUPPORTIVE, HELPFUL, and DID THEIR JOB…but it seemed like most of the female nurses, just hated your guts when they saw your conviction before they saw your health issue…just really mean and nasty female nurses-I mean Nasty!