Corrections_Today_September_October_2023_Vol.85_No.5

NIJ Update

The BJS data collection is the first of its kind to provide data on the impact of COVID-19 on local jails in the United States. Though the time frame for the findings is short, the data highlight how COVID-19 led to significant changes in jail popula tions and operations. In the future, jail administrators will be able to glean whether these changes are sus tainable and which practices, if any, can lead to continued declines in jail The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic will be felt for years to come. As with the changes seen in state sentencing practices, however, it is unclear what they will be, in terms of both corrections policy and practice and the experiences of staff and incarcerated individuals. 16 It is safe to say that corrections’ innova tion and collective responses to the crisis have advanced the mission and goals of institutional and com munity corrections agencies in a very trying time. This article presents a limited view based on what we know about the pandemic’s impact thus far. There is a lot left to learn. NIJ and BJS hope to be a resource for research and data as institutional and community corrections agencies continue to make decisions about resources, staffing, and best practices and to uncover how COVID-19 continues to affect them. 17, 18 These agencies will also look for evidence that pandemic driven innovations will prove beneficial to the corrections system as a whole, even after the crisis subsides. populations. Conclusion

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early as March 2020, and the trend continued in subsequent months. De clining admissions to jails, coupled with the expedited release of 208,500 individuals from jails between March and June 2020, resulted in less crowded facilities. By midyear 2020, occupied beds were down to 60% of capacity, compared to 81% at midyear 2019. Jails across the country admin istered 215,360 COVID-19 tests to incarcerated persons during the four month period of March through June 2020, which equated to testing 9% of the 2.4 million individuals admitted to jails during that time. More than 11% of those tests were positive. During this same period, approxi mately 8% of jail staff working in counties with the highest infection rates tested positive for COVID-19.

In comparison, 1% of jail staff in counties with the lowest infection rates tested positive. 14 For jails reporting information on deaths from COVID-19 (841 reporting units), 43 people incarcer ated in 22 jails died between March and June 2020. 15 Thirty-three of those deaths were reported as con firmed deaths from COVID-19 or as cases in which COVID-19 was a significant contributor to the death. The remaining 10 deaths were reported as suspected deaths from the virus. A total of 40 staff from 30 jails also died of COVID-19 between March and June 2020. Thirty-two of those deaths were reported as confirmed deaths from COVID-19. The other eight deaths were reported as suspected deaths from COVID-19.

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Corrections Today September/October 2023 — 19