So last month I wrote about how Covid has spread at federal residential reentry centers (RRCs), which have been largely overlooked in the pandemic despite being uniquely poised to be vectors. The story was lost amid protest news but is worth revisiting. 1/ theintercept.com/2020/05/28/cor…
Since I first covered this issue in April theintercept.com/2020/04/15/fed… I’ve heard from RRC residents all over the country who tell similar stories of ineptitude and neglect. Some who've repeatedly complained or spoken publicly have faced retaliatory action. 2/ theintercept.com/2020/04/25/cor…
Today I published this story, about one of the hardest hit federal halfway house in the country, the Grossman Center in Leavenworth, Kansas, run by GEO Group, and part of a larger regional outbreak. 3/ theintercept.com/2020/06/17/hal…
The virus came in via a meatpacking plant where residents held jobs. By all accounts the facility only made things worse. Meanwhile, as staff scrambled to contain the virus, GEO’s corporate execs were boasting about their pandemic response to investors. 4/ theintercept.com/2020/06/17/hal…
There are many limitations to this reporting. As I’ve tracked Covid cases on the BOP site, stats have inexplicably wavered from place to place. Plus, they don’t include RRC staff, or residents in custody of other federal agencies, leaving huge gaps. 5/ bop.gov/coronavirus/
Still, even the glimpse provided by BOP stats is alarming. Since my last piece published in late May, the number of affected RRCs has gone from 42 to 48. Deaths have gone from 2 to 6. Three were residents at GEO Group facilities. 6/ theintercept.com/2020/06/17/hal…
Anyone paying attention to prisons knows that this pandemic is far from over. We should shine more light on Covid in halfway houses, which poses a danger not only to people living & working inside, but to surrounding communities -- and which we really know very little about. 7/7
Hello. I'm adding to this thread to share my latest story, about a deadly Covid outbreak at a GEO Group halfway house in Houston, TX. It had bothered me for months that we didn't know the names of anyone who died at federal halfway houses. Well, now we do. theintercept.com/2020/07/03/hal…
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