January 5 According to statistics from the New York Times, as of the 4th local time, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. prison system has exceeded 500,000.
After analyzing the analysis of about 2,600 prisons, detention centers and immigration detention centers in the United States, the New York Times pointed out that the number of confirmed cases in the past two months has increased by nearly 84% in the past two months that the prison system has been hit hard by the epidemic.
The total number of inmates and caretakers infected with COVID-19 has exceeded 500,000. At present, 88 related facilities report more than 1,000 confirmed cases.
At present, California, Washington and other places have begun to vaccinate old and infirm prisoners. Still, inmates and their families say that as confirmed cases continue to rise, detainees are more afraid than ever to die from COVID-19.
“The family of five inmates called me on New Year’s Day and they were really worried,” said Brooks, a Florida prison administrator, noting that the inmates were worried they would die as a result of the pandemic.
Shannon Nimodi, a prisoner at the Remburton Correctional Facility in North Carolina, said there was widespread fears that a large number of prisoners would be infected with the virus.
So far, more than 220 inmates in the prison have tested positive for the coronavirus, including a man Nimodi knew who died in the summer of 2020.” They were not sentenced to death, they were only sentenced to serve a few months or years here,” Nimodi said.
U.S. media mentioned that some local and state prison systems have had to adopt extreme strategies to completely close prisons and transfer prisoners to other places due to the intensification of the epidemic.
Experts said that prisons that are still open may become more crowded and unsanitary, and that the removal of prisoners may spread the novel coronavirus inside and outside the prison.
