Latest disconcerting COVID data concerning incarcerated people and corrections staff

The CSG Justice Center has this new and disheartening data update under the heading “New COVID-19 Cases in State Prisons Surge in July.”  Here are the highlights (really lowlights) from the brief report:

As states grapple with the coronavirus pandemic, they are adopting different responses and seeing different outcomes. This has led to peaks and valleys in the number of new cases in each state since early April.

Cases inside state prison systems tell a similar story, but more dramatically. COVID-19 cases continue to rise among incarcerated people and corrections staff who live and work in state prisons, and the trajectory largely follows that of the general population. July, in particular, was marked by a sharp increase in new COVID-19 cases, especially among people who work in state correctional facilities.

Here are three takeaways from The Council of State Governments Justice Center’s latest analysis:

1. Various state-level shelter-in-place orders in April and May appeared to contain and curb the outbreak in state prisons for both incarcerated people and corrections staff; however, as these orders were lifted, new COVID-19 cases increased across the board.

2. While four times as many incarcerated people have contracted COVID-19 as compared with corrections staff, cases are growing fastest among corrections staff….

3. Between July 26 and August 9, the total number of reported COVID-19 cases among people incarcerated in state prisons grew by over 17,000.