Katherine LeMasters and Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein raise concerns about the lack of sustained change in prison health transparency after covid-19 and implications for future public health crises
People in the jails and prisons across the United States are often housed in abysmal and unlawful conditions that have dire consequences for health.1 From poorly designed built environments (eg, lack of air conditioning, overcrowded dorms) to stressful and unpredictable living quarters, to a lack of quality and timely healthcare, time spent in incarceration worsens peoples’ health.23 In fact, the American Public Health Association considers the current state of incarceration in the US to be a public health crisis.4 Rates of incarceration are high. Although the US contains less than 5% of the global population, it accounts for 20% of the global incarcerated population.5 Furthermore, incarceration disproportionately affects Black, Native American, and Latino people, contributing to racial heal
As the new SARS-CoV-2 variant, omicron, surges across the country, and as boosters become available, we cannot continue to neglect the wellbeing and safety of.
Updated
Feb 19, 2021
He Got COVID In Prison. The Government Said He Was Recovered. Then He Died.
The death of a federal prisoner in Indiana illustrates the incomplete and often misleading nature of COVID-19 data released by correctional facilities.
Illustration: Rebecca Zisser/HuffPost; Photos: Getty
When Joseph Lee Fultz arrived at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, in January to begin a 27-year sentence, the prison was fighting to contain a COVID-19 outbreak.
Positive cases at the sprawling complex ― which consists of a maximum-security prison where death row prisoners are housed, a medium-security prison and an adjacent camp ― had jumped from fewer than a dozen in early November to more than 400 by the end of December, coinciding with a rash of executions conducted there.
A bill to requiring reporting on COVID in federal prisons is about to be filed. (Creative Commons)
Marijuana Policy
New National Poll Has Three-Fifths Saying Marijuana Legalization is a Good Idea. A new national survey from Emerson College Polling has 61% of respondents saying marijuana legalization is a good idea. The poll asked about various issues new pathways for citizenship, raising the minimum wage, for example but none had as much support as marijuana legalization.
Connecticut Bill Would Require Labor Peace for Marijuana Businesses. A bill now before the Labor and Public Employees Committee, HB 6377, would require that marijuana businesses enter into labor peace agreements with a union before being granted licenses. The bill would require an agreement between a cannabis establishment and a bona fide labor organization that protects the state s interests by, at minimum, prohibiting the labor organization from engaging in picketing, work stoppages or boycotts again