Rural prisons threaten rural healthcare
Rural Prisons threaten to sink already sunken healthcare systems with COVID-19 cases
When the traveling CEO of a small Montana county’s only hospital went for a five mile run in April, he chose to stay in the towns city limits, pounding sidewalks covered in colorfully chalked out #keeponkeepingon or the shortened #koko and past heart-covered windows.
Photo Marias Medical Center
The hashtag was started by the rural hospital to lift the spirits of the community pounded by COVID-19. It was William Kiefer’s sole run during the three weeks following his 21-bed hospital’s first COVID-19 positive patient. He and his team wrangled a facility tottering on the brink of collapse, and the rural community surrounding them rallied to help.
Toole County was Montana’s hotspot for COVID-19 deaths without a single case of the virus in a prison four miles from the outbreak which holds almost 15 percent of the county’s population.
Kiefer became emotional talking to me. It was hard to comprehend over a phone line the emotional tole that the surge in the Montana county had on the community and hospital staff.
The medical center has no ICU beds and is designed to stabilize and then transfer patients. They DID prepare early for COVID-19 in January, and the virus still overran their facility. Many rural healthcare facilities exist on a delicate knife edge to begin with.
Seventy percent of prisons are located in rural america according to John M. Eason (interviewed in the article), an associate professor in sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This story is another example of how criminal justice affects the ENTIRE community not just the people immediately impacted by incarceration.
Kiefer highlighted the resilience of rural communities, but he also echoed the fear that if the county’s hospital had closed, would it have reopened?
And make no mistake people die when rural hospitals close. So the question remains, will we see rural hospitals sink in the face of COVID-19 and especially in places with large prison populations?
The hospital was not just fighting the virus but also the precarious situation of most rural hospitals
“We fight day in and day out to scrap together funding and put multiple hats on people so that we can keep our expenses down so that we can continue to provide health care services to the communities where we live and work,” Kiefer said.
“We almost got pushed to the limit where we didn't have sufficient staff to maintain our emergency room open, and that would be catastrophic to a community,” he said.
“And we worried that in the event that it did close for a for a period of time, would we have the resources to reopen it?”
Photo Marias Medical Center
Context: “Even before the coronavirus, roughly 400 hospitals in rural America were at risk of closing, said Alan Morgan, the chief executive of the National Rural Hospital Association. On average, the country’s 2,000 rural hospitals had enough cash to keep their doors open for 30 days.” [New York Times]
Read my complete story here: Under COVID Cloud, Prisons In Rural America Threaten To Choke Rural Hospitals [Kaiser Health News]
News
Execution essential: Missouri is the first state to execute an inmate during the pandemic. [Mother Jones]
End of death row: While Oregon will end death row (listen) this summer. [Oregon Live]
Highest percentage: New Jersey ranks for the highest death rate in the nation in its prisons due to COVID-19. The release program that aimed to get people out is coming under fire. [NJ Spotlight]
Calls for accountability: A prison nurse died of COVID-19 in North Carolina. “The report points to a systemic failure of accountability, competence, and execution, and I want answers.” [Charlotte Observer]
Trump says no: The administration is asking the supreme court to stop inmates at high-risk to COVID-19 in Ohio from being released. [L.A. Times]
Worried for a reason: A Miami jail inmate complained about poor COVID-19 prevention then he tested positive. [Miami New Times]
Out with nowhere to go: Getting out of jail or prison is just half the battle for survival during COVID-19. [Philadelphia Inquirer]
Racial Bias: States are beginning to confront racist jurors. Is a totally white jury a fair trial? [The Marshall Project]
United in fear: An inmate and guard’s families unite to call for better protection in Tennessee prisons. [Washington Post]
A working death sentence: An investigation into America’s jails and prisons highlights risk to correctional workers. In Detroit four staff in the same jail died within a month of the pandemic’s start. [Reuters]
BOP must answer: Andrea High Bear’s grandmother writes: [The Washington Post]
“When she called me from Texas, Andrea told me how the BOP made her stand on the airport tarmac with no coat on, waiting to board the plane to take her to Carswell. Feeling sick, big pregnant belly, and they made her stand out there and wait with no coat on. In the South Dakota cold in the middle of a pandemic. She told me I shouldn’t worry. I can’t get that out of my mind.”
Immigration: “COVID-19 Cases at One Texas Immigration Detention Center Soared in a Matter of Days. Now, Town Leaders Want Answers.” [ProPublica]
Educate yourself: Older inmates are at higher risk, see where your state’s incarcerated population sits. [Prison Policy]
Long read: John J. Lennon writes about 28 to life in Sing Sing. [Plough]
There was a moment when I was holding my chest, piercing pain, stumbling. Everyone in the yard was ignoring what they had just seen. I thought about my life up to that point, how I had accomplished nothing, how I might die and nobody but my poor mother would care. I made a deal with God. If he would get me out of that jam, I would pursue a meaningful life.
He held up his end, and I hope he sees that I’m trying to hold up mine.
COVID-19 resources: State Policy Changes. News. Bureau of Prisons updates. State court changes.
We want to hear from you about how COVID-19 is impacting you and the people connected to you. What is not being talked about? What story do you have that needs to be heard? Who do you want answers or explanations from? Please reach out to lj@dawsons.us.
The Des drops into your inbox weekly with a collection of small and digestible snippets concerning the criminal justice system. It promises to be humanizing, spunky, and educational. Our name: The Des is short for Desmoterion or “place of chains”, used to describe prisons in ancient Athens. We like the idea of the chains because incarceration expands far beyond bars, connecting all of parts of this country. We are here to cover it all.