Coronavirus disproportionately harms U.S. prison population

People incarcerated in U.S. prisons tested positive for COVID-19 at a rate 5.5 times higher than the general public, according to a new paper co-authored by theUCLA COVID-19 Behind Bars Data Project and researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.In theirreport, which was published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the researchers also found that the death rate of U.S. prisoners was 39 per 100,000 people, higher than the U.S. population rate of 29 deaths per 100,000. After adjusting for age and sex differences between the two groups, the death rate would be three times higher for prisoners compared to the general U.S. population.“After months of collecting and analyzing data, the reality is clear: COVID-19 infects and kills residents of prisons in the United States at far greater rates than previously realized, and to have our results published in JAMA underscores the importance of these findings,” said UCLA School of L aw Professor Sharon Dolovich, who directs the COVID-19 Behind Bars Data Project and led UCLA’s contributions to the study.In arriving at their findings, the researchers analyzed data on COVID-19 infections and deaths that the UCLA project collected every day between March 31 and June 6. Sources of information included corrections department websites and supplementary media reports, encompassing all states, the District of Columbia and federal prisons.The publication ’s co-authors also include 2012 UCLA Law gra...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news