in the first year of the pandemic there were fewer releases and more deaths in custody in US prisons
Deaths increased 46% in prisons from 2019 to 2020, according to new data released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics
We go to the Prison Policy Institute for a study on data released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) of pandemic-related policy choices from 2020 and the impact it had on those incarcerated. Below are excerpts from the report.
Number of incarcerated people shrank by almost 11% (or 676,000 people) from 2019 to 2020.
State and federal prisons released 58,404 (10%) fewer people in 2020 than in 2019.
The decrease in the incarcerated population was not related to releases, but rather the 40% drop in prison admissions and 16% drop in jail admissions.
The BJS reports that 6,112 people under state or federal jurisdiction, serving sentences of over 1 year, were “released” due to death in 2020, compared to 4,182 in 2019.
Deaths increased 46% in prisons from 2019 to 2020
32% among people on parole.
6% among people on probation.
A total of 22,573 people on probation and parole died in 2020, which represents about 2,800 (14%) more deaths than in 2019.
Jail deaths in 2020 have not yet been reported.
The state-specific data reported by BJS revealed that some states seemed to largely ignore the urgency and seriousness of the pandemic’s impact on correctional populations:
Local jails held a larger share of unconvicted people than ever, and continued to hold far too many people for low-level offenses and technical violations:
But in the summer of 2020, almost 1 in 4 (23%) people in jail were still held for misdemeanors, civil infractions, or unknown offenses — that is, not felonies
For people in larger jails (holding over 500 people), the average jail stay was over one month, and in the largest jails (2,500 people or more) the average was over 39 days.
The capacity of jails nationwide grew by 6,000 beds in one year (compare that to an increase of 700 beds the year before)
Black people made up a larger share of the jail population than they have since 2015, because the 22% jail population drop among Black people was proportionally smaller than the 28% drop among white people.
Good news
The female prison incarceration rate (per 100,000) fell by 22%, while the male imprisonment rate fell by 14%.
Indigenous people experienced the greatest drop, proportionally, in jail populations and jail incarceration rates — nearly 35%.
The number of youth held in adult prisons dropped by almost half (46%), and three more states joined the ranks of those no longer holding anyone under 18 in adult prisons, bringing the total to 21.
Nothing to jump for joy about
Nationwide, jail populations have already rebounded to near pre-pandemic levels.
Jail populations were still too high, even when they were at their lowest in mid-2020.
Most of the drop in prison populations occurred within the federal Bureau of Prisons and just three states: California, Florida, and Texas. And even states that reduced prison populations didn’t necessarily reach “safe” population levels (if any prison can be called “safe”).
As with other forms of correctional control, the reduction in the probation population was due to the COVID-19 emergency, not policy changes, and probation populations were also trending up by the end of 2020.
By and large, the changes we saw during 2020 were temporary, but they suggest how much is politically and practically feasible when there is a critical mass of support to save lives put at risk by mass incarceration.
Read the whole study here.
COVID-19 resources: State policy changes. News. Bureau of Prisons updates. State court changes. Prison holistic self care and protection. Jailhouse Lawyers Handbook.
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