Vaccination rates in many American prisons, jails, and detention facilities are well below those in the rest of the country, raising concerns among public health officials that these settings will continue to be fertile ground for regular, fast-spreading coronavirus outbreaks for a long time.
More than 61 percent of people aged 18 and up in the United States have received at least one dose of vaccine so far. However, only about 40% of federal prisoners and half of those in the most powerful state prison systems have done so. In immigration detention facilities, the percentage is just 20%.
With the overall rate of vaccines in the United States slowing — down to around 1.87 million doses a day on average, according to federal statistics — the Biden administration has been speeding up efforts to sway the sceptics and meet people in underserved and disadvantaged populations, as well as those with access concerns. According to a New York Times database, prison prisoners were more than three times as likely as other Americans to become infected with the virus during the pandemic. According to the data, the virus has killed more inmates than the general public, with at least 2,700 deaths in detention.
Although no racial breakdown for coronavirus cases in prisons is available, health officials believe African-Americans are overrepresented because they make up a much larger share of inmates (33%) than the general population (13%), and the pandemic has disproportionately affected Black Americans in general.
According to a New York Times study of state-reported race and ethnicity data, black and Hispanic citizens in the United States have earned a disproportionately lower share of vaccinations to date, while progress has been made.
Another type of high-risk setting, nursing homes, has seen a significant reduction in the virus’s spread thanks to high vaccination rates. In contrast to nursing home patients, however, prisoners were not a high priority for early vaccination. All adults were qualified by April 19 in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Despite this, prison rejection rates have been high. Many prisoners claim they distrust the vaccine as well as the prison officials who try to convince them to get immunized. Aside from that, several errors have hindered prison vaccination campaigns.
In several states, prison authorities have attempted to entice prisoners to get vaccinated by providing extra food, with varying degrees of success. Free phone calls and priority clearance for family visits, according to Jonathan Brooks, who is incarcerated at Wake Correctional Center in North Carolina, are disrespectful.
“It’s something we have to get anyway — phone calls and visits from our loved ones — but to prescribe something like that to get us to take the vaccine, I feel like it’s a real slap in the face,” he said. Mr. Brooks said that he had no intention of receiving the vaccine. Vaccination has also been met with skepticism by prison guards. Colorado has started giving $500 incentives to correctional officers who get vaccinated.
