Public health experts demanded widespread prison releases to halt the virus spread among prisoners. Later in October, the National Academies of Science, Medicine, and Engineering published a report asking the states to release prisoners with underlying medical conditions nearing the end of their sentences or prisoners who aren’t a risk to the public. However, after 10,000 federal prisoners applied for a compassionate release, only 156 applications were accepted.
Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein, a professor of social medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill said “The interchange between communities and prisons and jails has always been there, but in the context of COVID-19 it’s never been more clear. We have to stop thinking about them as a place apart.”
Politicians and policymakers might soon be facing a dilemma due to the infections among the prisoners, and things can get more complicated because of prisoners’ vaccination.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis told reporters in December: “There’s no way it’s going to go to prisoners … before it goes to the people who haven’t committed any crime,”
