Spread of coronavirus accelerates in U.S. jails and prisons

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Spread of coronavirus accelerates in U.S. jails and prisons
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'In the end, we are just inmates, second-class citizens. We are like livestock.' Sean Hernandez, an inmate at Rikers Island, describes jail conditions during the coronavirus outbreak

FILE PHOTO: Signage is seen outside of Rikers Island, a prison facility, where multiple cases of the coronavirus disease have been confirmed in Queens, New York City, U.S., March 22, 2020. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

Across the United States, jails and prisons are reporting an accelerating spread of the new disease, and they are taking a varied approach to protecting the inmates in their charge. Thousands of inmates are being released from detention, in some cases with little or no medical screening to determine if they may be infected by the coronavirus and at risk of spreading it into the community, Reuters found.

Some groups are pushing back. Victims’ rights group Marsy’s Law, named after the murdered sister of billionaire Henry Nicholas, has criticized the releases, saying victims of crimes should be notified before the people who committed them are let out — a process that could delay releases of some inmates by weeks or months. However, officials supervising releases in New York, Los Angeles, Houston and other major cities say they are releasing only low-level, non-violent offenders.

An inmate released on Monday from Rikers Island said sick and healthy people often mingled freely inside the jail. After a prisoner and a guard in his area of the jail were diagnosed with COVID-19, the inmate said he started spending more time in his two-man cell. But he still had to line up with other inmates at the medicine window to get his daily dose of methadone, a drug-addiction treatment.

Some jails are releasing inmates who may be ill. In Marietta, Georgia, Aubrey Hardyway, 21, developed a cough, headache, sore throat and a 103-degree fever while held at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center on theft charges. “I just couldn’t take it, I was feeling terrible,” he said. Los Angeles County has released at least 1,700 inmates who had sentences with less than 30 days left. In California’s Santa Clara County, authorities cut the inmate population by at least 400 by releasing some people, delaying sentences and other steps. Harris County, Texas, which includes Houston, has cut its jail population by at least 500.

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