Thread by @DrEricDing

At least 2700 inmates have died from #COVID19. None deserved it. A month after Bruce Norris had a life sentence commuted, he died of COVID while waiting release. In TX, a new mom w/ only 2-year term, died shortly after giving birth while on a ventilator.🧵
nytimes.com/interactive/20…

2) “The virus shot through many institutions, leaving inmates desperate for ways to avoid getting sick. At Pickaway Correctional in Ohio, which housed about 1,900 inmates, they tried to turn bed sheets into tents to separate themselves; four in five inmates were infected anyway.”

3) “At an immigration detention center in Farmville, Va., nearly every detainee — 339 in all — was infected. And at the Fresno County Jail in California, where most inmates are held on charges for which they have not yet been convicted, more than 3,800 were sickened.”

4) “Alan Hurwitz, 79, had lung and throat cancers. He was denied compassionate release several times. When he was finally freed, he fell ill on the flight home. A medical examiner determined that he died of the coronavirus.”

5) “These deaths, and many of the more than 525,000 infections so far among the incarcerated, could have been prevented, public health and criminal justice experts say.

6) “Prisons & jails are sometimes so crowded that 3 inmates sleep in cells designed for 1. Prisons have not adequately quarantined sick inmates, and have often not required testing for correctional officers. Inmates have also been given low priority to receive vaccinations”.

7) “Corrections institutions have continuously failed to take even the most basic life-saving measures to protect incarcerated people from Covid-19,” said Maria Morris, a senior staff attorney for the A.C.L.U.’s National Prison Project.

8) For over a year, a dedicated team of @nytimes journalists poured their heart and soul into chasing down ever case of #COVID19 in state and federal prisons.

What they found was shocking—Prison COVID rates were 3.5x higher than US population!

https://twitter.com/monicadavey1/status/1380928078289977347

9) Thus, please read this article. None of these prisoners were on death row. They did not deserve to die. But thousands got effectively a death sentences. Our correctional system, responsible for this neglect, has failed them & failed us as a society!! nytimes.com/interactive/20…

10) Let’s please recognize the reporters who tirelessly worked on this piece: Timothy Williams, @derek_m_norman @izzycolon27, @BCDerr, @rebach97, @AHingaKlein, @danyasawi, @chloerreynolds, @libbyseline, @rachsherm, @mcturcotte ...

11) And also @LazaroGamio, @jlagesse95, @yparshina, @jugalpatelNYT, @grammata, @aroyalbox, @arossback, @simonelandon, @TroyEricG, @ClintonCargill, @archietse, @nytgraphics, and their editor @monicadavey1

12) “In addition to inmates, more than 138,000 prison and jail correctional officers were sickened, and 261 died, according to the Times data.”

They didn’t deserve it either. nytimes.com/interactive/20…

13) “One TX prison failed to supply sufficient soap, left sinks in disrepair and banned hand sanitizer.

In other states, prisons continued transferring inmates, often failing to test them. Others did not enforce rules requiring guards to wear masks.” nytimes.com/interactive/20…

14) Dear Texas Prison system, I’m sorry Mr Desel, but merely giving soap and doing more surface cleaning in overcrowded prison does not really stop the virus—and as an epidemiologist, IMHO, didn’t save “many lives”. #COVIDisAirborne