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  2020-04-19

  Prison in the Time of Coronavirus

  This video, produced by CBS Sunday Morning, illustrates the unique problems created by coronavirus inside America's jails and prisons. The US currently has 2.3 million people incarcerated. Many of them are in jail awaiting trial and remain there only because they cannot pay their bail. They have not yet been convicted of a crime. As they point out in the video it is easy for the public to ignore the correctional facilities across the country, but the spread of the virus has changed this. An outbreak in prison can lead to an outbreak outside the prison. While prisons have internal medical facilities there are no ICU beds, which are often needed to treat severe cases of coronavirus. Instead severely ill prisoners are taken outside of the prison to the local hospital. In non-severe cases some prisoners are placed in solitary confinement as a way to quarantine them. This video, almost eight minutes long, mentions Rikers Island Jail in New York, San Quinton Prison in San Francisco, Marion Correctional Institute in Ohio, a Tampa man released early who is charged with murdering someone the following day, Governor Greg Abbott of Texas, Orange is the New Black (book and TV show), and the podcast Ear Hustle. HST580, ASU