With Over 275,000 Infections and 1,700 Deaths, COVID-19 Has Devastated the U.S. Prison and Jail Population

Mario Smith first broke out in cold sweats on Nov. 21. He thought it was just exhaustion from working maintenance shifts at the Gus Harrison Correctional Facility in Adrian, Mi., where he’s been incarcerated since 2018. But then guards came to his cell on Nov. 23, he says, and told him to report to another area of the prison. Smith knew then that he must have tested positive for COVID-19. “I feared for my life,” Smith tells TIME. The 37-year-old has asthma, high blood pressure and obesity, putting him at increased risk for severe illness and complications from the virus. Sentenced to life in prison when he was 17, Smith recently had his sentence reduced to 30 years minimum, but remembers worrying that he might die in prison after all. Smith is one of at least 1,400 inmates at Gus Harrison Correctional Facility—and over 20,000 incarcerated Americans throughout the state of Michigan—who have tested positive for COVID-19 since the pandemic began. As of Dec. 28, 108 inmates have died from the virus throughout the state, six of whom were incarcerated in the Gus Harrison Correctional Facility. In a statement sent to TIME, the Michigan Department of Corrections says that the facility has “taken a number of measures to protect against COVID, as well as slow the spread.” These measures include testing prisoners and staff members every week and suspending in-person visitation in March. “We clean every facility with disinfectant and bleac...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news