Incarcerated in a Pandemic: How COVID-19 Exacerbated the “Pains of Imprisonment”

• Published date: 01 June 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/07340168231190467
• Author: Miltonette Olivia Craig,Mijin Kim,Dawn Beichner-Thomas
• Date: 01 June 2024

Incarcerated in a Pandemic:

How COVID-19 Exacerbated

the “Pains of Imprisonment”

Miltonette Olivia Craig

1

, Mijin Kim

2

,

and Dawn Beichner-Thomas

2

Abstract

Although the exact toll of COVID-19 in U.S. prisons and jails is relatively undetermined, estimates

show that deaths due to the virus in the nation’s correctional facilities are approximately six times

higher than deaths in the general population. During the pandemic, jail and prison structures as well

as significant overcrowding made it virtually impossible to institute protective measures against

infection in correctional settings. Jail and prison administrators suspended in-person visitation, leav-

ing those incarcerated even further isolated, and their friends and family in fear for the health and

safety of their loved ones. The present study examines narratives ofindividuals who spoke about

their experiences while incarcerated during the pandemic. The data for the study were gathered

from prison reform advocacy organizations that featured individuals’stories. The narrative findings

provide insight into the traumatic experiences that incarcerated people endured, how institutional

failures exacerbated their mistrust of the criminal legal system, andtheir efforts to cope.

Keywords

prisons and jails, COVID-19, system mistrust, pains of imprisonment

Introduction

On any given day in the United States, over two million people are incarcerated behind bars (Sawyer

& Wagner, 2020), and approximately 11 million people come in and out of the jail system (Zeng,

2020). Although individuals entering prisons and jails are among the most vulnerable in our

society, the levelof deprivation they experience in correctional settings exacerbates their vulnerability.

Especially in the face of the coronavirus disease 2019, prisons and jails have become the epicenter of

transmission, heightened crisis, and fear. In the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, prison popu-

lations had infection rates five to six times higher than in general populations in the community,

while mortality rates were two to three times higher (Piquero et al., 2020; Saloner et al., 2020).

1

Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX, USA

2

Department of Criminal Justice Sciences, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, USA

Corresponding Author:

Miltonette Olivia Craig, Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville,

TX 77340, USA.

Email: moc006@shsu.edu

Article

Criminal Justice Review

2024, Vol. 49(2) 244–266

© 2023 Georgia State University

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/07340168231190467

journals.sagepub.com/home/cjr

As of October 31, 2022, there have been 626,180 COVID-19 cases among people incarcerated in

U.S. prisons, including 2,907 deaths (COVID Prison Project, 2022). Correctional staff has also

been greatly affected by the virus, with 232,565 infections among staff and 279 deaths (COVID

Prison Project, 2022).

Correctional facilities are hazardous congregate settings, as living quarters are often heavily pop-

ulated and poorly ventilated, and physical distancing is often impossible. When these environmental

conditions are mixed with people who already have pre-existing medical conditions (e.g., diabetes,

heart disease, chronic lung or liver disease, and lower immune system), experiencing complications

of COVID-19 becomes prevalent across incarcerated individuals (Chin et al., 2021; Maruschak et al.,

2015). Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many studies on COVID-19 in carceral set-

tings have been published. Most of the literature, however, focused on the key messages and themes

that COVID-19 represents in correctional facilities—commonly discussing the degree of threat the

virus presents to the correctional population due to custodial incapability to adhere to traditional

safety protocols. Despite the existing literature portraying inherent risks and COVID-19 management

issues in correctional settings, very few studies involve face-to-face research with people in custody

(Maycock, 2022). To fully comprehend the true impact of the pandemic on prison and jail operations,

we must learn from the most vulnerable people—those who were directly affected by the risks,

inequalities, policy changes, safety protocols, and collateral damages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The paper aims to shed light on how the COVID-19 pandemic has deepened the “pains of impri-

sonment”for the people detained in custodial settings (Sykes, 1958) and exacerbated mistrust of the

criminal legal system. Although the statistical figures of confirmed cases and deaths in correctional

institutions manifest the pandemic’s seriousness, the degree of adequate care toward incarcerated

individuals is largely unknown. Thus, in the current study, we use a qualitative analytical lens to

understand COVID-19’s impact on the incarcerated through their own words. We explore the

themes and topics that emerge in interviews and letters written by people in U.S. prisons and jails

about the painful experiences they endured during the height of the pandemic.

History of Infectious Diseases inCorrectional Settings

The COVID-19 pandemic is not the first health crisis to put correctional populations at risk.

Historically, correctional facilities have been vulnerable to global infectious disease outbreaks of

influenza (Besney et al., 2017; Robinson et al., 2012) and tuberculosis (Lambert et al., 2016;

Tavoschi et al., 2018). Since the fives waves of deadly outbreaks of cholera spread during the

19th century, prisons continuously have been easy targets for influenza pandemics through the

20th and 21st centuries: A/H1N1 in 1918, A/H2N2 in 1957, A/H3N2 in 1958, SARS-CoV-1 in

2003, A/H1N1 in 2009, and MERS in 2012 (Bick, 2007; Chao et al., 2017; Marland et al., 2020;

Turner & Levy, 2010).

The outbreak of highly infectious influenza in 1918 and the swine flu pandemic in 2009 provide

two significant insights. First, prisons and jails used social distancing and isolation as primary pro-

tective measures (e.g., prohibiting visitors, halting religious activities, and limiting assemblies).

Second, vaccinations were never sufficiently available to incarcerated individuals. Especially in

the case of the 2009 swine flu, correctional officials failed to adhere to the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention’s (CDC) advisory recommendation that vaccines should include everyone

other than geriatric people with chronic conditions (CDC, 2009). As a result, incarcerated individuals

were left out of the planning efforts. Even if enough vaccines became available to the general public,

people in small jails never received one (Lee et al., 2014). For example, when the flu season was

highly infectious between 2017 and 2018, Oregon Coffee Creek correctional facility vaccinated

only 18% of the prison population (Dober, 2018). Other prisons and jails in Texas, Iowa, and

Kentucky also had low vaccination rates, as some facilities did not require vaccines for prisoners

Craig et al.245