Thread by @ScottHech

REPORT: "10 states haven't included incarcerated people in any stage of their vaccine allotment plans." This is disgrace. It's also a public health failure.
prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/12/0…

The states that do not include incarcerated people in any phase of their vaccine allotment plans are: Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, *Kansas, *Michigan, *Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, and *Wisconsin. Four of these states (with *) are run by Democratic governors.

Report Recommendation 1: "Incarcerated people and corrections staff should be prioritized for vaccination against COVID-19. States and the Federal Bureau of Prisons should not consider vaccination of staff as sufficient to stop the spread of COVID-19 in correctional facilities."

Recommendation 2: "Governors & state health officials should resist inevitable pressure to deprioritize incarcerated people. When Colorado Gov. Jared Polis was questioned: “There’s no way it’s going to go to prisoners before it goes to the people who haven’t committed any crime.”

Recommendation 2 cont...: "This type of posturing violates the state’s duty to protect the health of people in its care, as well as to slow the spread of the virus in the places where it is poised to spread the fastest."

Recommendation 3: "Prisons & jails should decarcerate. Since March, public health & medical officials have warned the only way to protect incarcerated people (& limit the inevitable spread into the community) is by drastically decreasing prison & jail populations."

Thank you to @PrisonPolicy as always for your extraordinary insights and important data-driven policy advocacy. prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/12/0…