Monthly Archives: December 2020

MA Plans in Phase 1 to Vaccinate Incarcerated Populations #COVID-19

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Today in a press conference with Governor Charlie Baker and members of the Massachusetts COVID-19 task force, we got this news (also posted on Mass.gov website) that 80,000 people in “congregate settings” including those locked up and associated with correctional facilities will receive the COVID vaccine between December, 2020 and February, 2021. Since it is a two-part vaccine, it will take some time to work and administer. The info was reported by Dr. Paul Biddinger of Mass General.

The Boston Globe reported that Baker said there would also be a racial justice component to the vaccine rollout plan. He said, “We recognize that the pandemic has disproportionately affected communities of color and low-income people.”

Baker added. “Our vaccine advisory board has been intently focused on ensuring that these voices have been heard during the planning process, and included representatives from this community. Communities of color and at-risk populations are prioritized in distribution timelines, and our administration will be focusing intently on reaching these individuals and making clear that the vaccine is safe and effective.”

The non-profit Prison Policy Initiative has said, as of December 8, that five other states have definitively put incarcerated people in Phase 1 of their vaccine distribution, including Delaware, Maryland, Nebraska, Connecticut, and New Mexico. Many are putting corrections officers in Phase 1.

Please read my article here as to why it is so important to stop the spread in Massachusetts prisons which was up to 14% as of December 6, 2020.

 

COVID SURGES IN MASS PRISONS, STILL NO PLAN TO DECARCERATE

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Please see my newest article in DIGBoston which is really horrific about the spread of COVID in Massachusetts prisons and jails. In a week we went from 11.5% to 14%. It begins:

“For the second time since March, Prisoners’ Legal Services (PLS) is arguing against the Massachusetts Department of Correction (DOC) in the uphill battle to depopulate state prisons.

Neither DOC officials nor Gov. Charlie Baker has put forth a plan to decarcerate despite litigation, legislation efforts, and soaring COVID cases in correctional populations. By Dec. 2, per a Special Master’s Report commissioned to fairly assess the situation from all angles, Mass prisons, jails, and houses of correction had four times the rate of infection as the general population of the Commonwealth.

While the number of COVID cases in the state has risen to 3.6% of the general population, a total of 1,864 out of 13,049 prisoners—a whopping 14%—have been infected with coronavirus since March. (As of this writing, in the houses of correction and jails it is actually 1 in 5.5 prisoners who have been infected.)”  MORE