We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.
MEANWHILE, BACK IN THE COVID WARD…
Last week was the worst for BOP COVID since the pandemic started, so bad in fact that the agency didn’t even bother to issue numbers on Friday. When the numbers were finally posted yesterday, they were impressive (and not in a good way).
Case numbers grew 110% in a week, up from 4,377 on January 11 to a whopping 9,194 yesterday. This number eclipsed the previous record of 7,690 on December 28, 2020. Yesterday’s number was 239% of the 21-day rolling average.
Staff numbers hit 1,150, a 24% increase from the week before. One more inmate died, and COVID gripped all 128 institutions.
Forbes reported that “On December 10, 2021, there were 265 active COVID-19 infections among federal prisoners across the country… now, just a month later, that figure is at 3,761 cases and climbing. If the past is any indication of how the BOP is reporting these numbers, it is grossly underestimated.”
A BOP employee union representative at FCI Englewood told a Denver TV station complained that inmates don’t always follow COVID rules. “When you have people in our community in there for not following the rules, many of them don’t wear it, and that creates a burden in itself. You may catch inmates not wearing their masks all the time.”
Some suggest it’s not necessarily the inmates’ fault. Writing at Medscape.com, an infectious disease expert complained about the low vaccination rate among BOP personnel: “Prison guards across the country have also been more reluctant than many others to receive the COVID vaccine, although they were prioritized to be vaccinated… The risk of acquiring COVID is sixfold higher in prison than in communities… While there were supply shortages early in the pandemic, there is no reason now that prisoners should not be cared for by fully vaccinated and masked staff and with provided better masks and ventilation. Imprisonment shouldn’t be a death sentence.”
Currently, only 69.5% of BOP employees have been vaccinated, compared to 74.6% of inmates (despite the fact that BOP employees are under a federal mandate to get vaxxed). So who are the scofflaws here?
Forbes complained that BOP facilities have been slow-walking CARES Act releases, saying, “Wherever there is a BOP facility, there is a person who is not being transferred to home confinement who is eligible per the BOP’s own policy. This is likely to continue without some intervention by the Executive or Legislative branch of government. The BOP is an organization that needs new leadership, is poorly managing the pandemic in its institutions, is behind in implementation of the First Step Act, has a terrible relationship with the union, experiencing staffing shortages, is short on qualified medical staff, has poor morale, has many staff calling in sick and multiple cases of staff corruption.”
Forbes, As COVID Cases Spike, Federal Bureau Of Prisons Is Not Releasing Eligible Inmates (January 11, 2022)
KCNC-TV, Denver, Federal Correctional Institution Englewood Employees Concerned About COVID Risk (January 13, 2022)
Medscape.com, Some Prisoners Face Risk for COVID From the Community (January 16, 2022)
– Thomas L. Root