Journal Article

The Contribution of Prisons and Jails to US Racial Disparities During COVID-19

Bailey, Zinzi, Nowotny, Kathryn M., Brinkley-Rubinstein, Lauren

2021

Overview

The United States has the unenviable distinction of having the highest rate of incarceration and the most people under correctional control-more than 6.7 million people. Although we often refer to this as \"mass\" incarceration, the criminal legal system's discriminatory impacts are disproportionately concentrated in Black and Latino communities: one in three Black men and one in six Latino men born in 2001 can expecttogo to jail or prison at some point in their lifetime. At this magnitude, mass incarceration is a key structural driver of not only individual and population health but also racial health disparities across numerous health outcomes.Although the role of incarceration in driving many racial health inequities has been long recognized, during the COVID19 pandemic this attention was amplified because correctional facilities comprise the largest number of single-site cluster outbreaks. Given that Black, Latino, and Native American people are overrepresented in correctional settings, from a population health perspective, these groups will most certainly be most affected by COVID-19 outbreaks in prisons and jails. According to COVID Prison Project data, as of October 2020 more than 10% of the US prison population has been infected with SARS-CoV-2 and more than 1200 people in prison have died from the COVID-19.There are now documented racial disparities in COVID-19 case, testing, and mortality rates in the general population. In particular, there are large disparities in COVID-19-related deaths, with Black people having the highest mortality rate across age groups.2 Yet, the role of incarceration in contributing to disparities is still being explored. Preliminary research from Cook County, Illinois shows that jail churn-the cycling of people in and out of jails-is associated with 15.9% of all COVID-19 cases in Chicago, making it a stronger predictor than other factors known to be associated with COVID-19 spread.3 Although race was not directly assessed in the study, the authors noted, \"In Chicago, although Black residents make up only 30% of the population, they represent 75% of the Cook County Jail population and 72% of the city's COVID-19-related deaths.\"3(p1417) Greater data transparency with demographic disaggregation on the part of prisons and jails is necessary to understand inequities in prisons and jails as well as the role of correctional institutions in broader community-level disparities.

• Publisher: American Public Health Association
• Subject: Age differences / Age groups / American Indians / Black people / Coronaviruses / Correctional institutions / Correspondence / COVID-19 / COVID-19 - epidemiology / COVID-19 diagnostic tests / COVID-19 vaccines / Crime / Cultural differences / Data transparency / Deaths / Departments / Disaggregation / Discharge planning / Disease transmission / Epidemiology / Ethnicity / Ethnicity - statistics & numerical data / Fatalities / Health / Health disparities / Health status / Health Status Disparities / Healthcare Disparities - statistics & numerical data / Hispanic Americans / Humans / Imprisonment / Inequality / Jails / Jails - organization & administration / Latin American cultural groups / Legal system / Mass incarceration / Men / Minority & ethnic groups / Mortality / Mortality rates / Opinions, Ideas, & Practice / Other Race/Ethnicity / Outbreaks / Pandemics / Population / Prisoners / Prisoners - statistics & numerical data / Prisons / Prisons - organization & administration / Public health / Race / Race factors / Racial differences / Racial inequality / Racism / Residents / SARS-CoV-2 / Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 / Transparency / United States / Vaccines / Viral diseases / White people