Worsening conditions are likely to lead to more reoffending
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskFrom March of 2020, however, even the raccoons seemed mild compared with what prisoners had to cope with. When covid-19 arrived, they were confined to their cells. For the first two weeks they could not shower or make phone calls. They could not use the commissary, because it was run by prisoners who were no longer allowed to move around, and had to eat sandwiches brought to their cells.
According to data from the Department of Justice, in 2018 the number of deaths in state prisons hit the highest level since recording started in 2001. Though illness accounted for the vast majority, homicides and suicides also set records. Preliminary data for 2020 show deaths in state and federal prisons increased by 46% over 2019—unsurprisingly, given how fast covid spread inside.
In September an anonymous guard at Lee Arrendale State prison, a women’s facility in Georgia, told state representatives that “on a good day” there might be as few as six or seven officers to guard 1,200 inmates. Hannah Riley, of the Southern Centre for Human Rights, an advocacy group, reckons 70% of positions in the state are unfilled. Georgia is now under investigation from federal authorities, such is the extent of violence inside.