Risk and implications of COVID‐19 among the community supervised population

• Published date: 01 August 2021
• Author: Carmen Gutierrez,Evelyn J. Patterson
• Date: 01 August 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12563

DOI: ./- .

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON CRIME AND JUSTICE

Risk and implications of COVID-19 among the

community supervised population

Carmen Gutierrez1Evelyn J. Patterson2

Department of Public Policy, University

of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel

Hill, North Carolina, USA

Department of Sociology, Vanderbilt

University, Nashville, Tennessee,USA

Correspondence

CarmenGutierrez, Department of Public

Policy,University of North Carolina at

ChapelHill,  S. Columbia St., Chapel

Hill,NC .

Email:carmen.gutierrez@unc.edu

Fundinginformation

EuniceKennedy Shriver National Institute

ofChild Health and Human Development,

Grant/AwardNumber: PC HD

Research summary: Despite growing national aware-

ness that COVID- in jails and prisons constitutes a

public health emergency in the United States, remark-

ably little attention has been paid to understanding how

the virus affects people under community supervision.

Weused data from the National Survey on Drug Use and

Health (NSDUH) to explore differences in the extent to

which men under community supervision are vulnera-

ble to COVID- and have access to careduring the pan-

demic, relative to men who are not involvedwith the U.S.

criminal legal system. Results from this study highlight

the greater levels of risk for serious illness or death from

COVID- and the disproportionate lack of health insur-

ance among men under community supervision.

Policy implications: Jurisdictions across the United

States are currently relying on decarceration to contain

the spread of COVID- in jails and prisons. Decarcera-

tion efforts alone, however, are insufficient for address-

ing the spread of COVID- among people involvedwith

the U.S. criminal legal system. People released from

jails and prisons or diverted from incarceration during

the pandemic must be given the opportunity to receive

the COVID- vaccination upon their transitions. Like-

wise, individuals under community supervision must be

prioritized for immediate vaccination against COVID-

. People involved with the U.S. criminal legal system

should also be eligible for emergency Medicaid during

Criminology & Public Policy. ;:–. ©  American Society of Criminology 437wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/capp

438 GUTIERREZ  PATTERSON

the COVID- crisis, and their health insurance cover-

age should remain available beyond the pandemic.

KEYWORDS

Community supervision, COVID-, decarceration, health

1 INTRODUCTION

Carceral institutions in the United States have unsurprisingly become the world’sleading sites of

COVID- outbreaks. Due to overcrowded and close living conditions, poor ventilation, and lack

of protective equipment, jail and prison environments are particularly susceptible tothe spread of

infectious diseases (Altice et al., ; Dolan et al., ; Gough et al., ; Maruschak et al., ).

To date, carceral settings have accounted for  of the top  largest known clustered outbreaks

of COVID- in the United States (Smith et al., ). Reflecting their disproportionately high

prevalence of chronic medical conditions that contribute to the risk of severe illness from the

virus, the COVID- death rate among incarcerated people is approximately three times higher

in comparison to that in the overall population (Saloner et al., ). Given the constant cycling

of people in and out of jails and prisons, the threat of COVID- inside carceral institutions also

extends to the general public (Dumont et al., ; Reinhart & Chen, ; Spaulding et al., ;

Wang et al., ), and there are important reasons to expect that the effects of the virus may be

particularly devastating for people in the community on probation and parole.

People under criminal legal supervision in the community through probation or parole are a

group that overlaps significantly with the population in jails and prisons, who have been shown to

have disproportionately high levels of serious illness and death caused by COVID-(Altibi et al.,

; Saloner et al., ). The chances of serious illness or death upon exposure to COVID-

may, in fact, be greater for the community supervised population. Compared to those in jail and

prison, people under community supervision have higher overall levels of mortality and generally

worse access to health care (Mallik-Kane & Visher,; Wildeman et al., ). Without a doubt,

the risk of COVID- transmission is lower in the community than inside carceral institutions

(Franco-Paredeset al., ; Reinhart & Chen, ;Wangetal.,). Nevertheless, people under

community supervision likely face disproportionately high levels of exposure to the virus as a

result of their interactions with jails and prisons as well as home and work environments that

suffer heavy burdens of COVID- cases (Reinhart & Chen, ;Wangetal.,).

The community supervised population is also now partially composed of people who have been

released from jail and prison during the pandemic. In response to the rapid number of COVID-

outbreaks in jails and prisons, legal officials across the country began releasing individuals on an

early basis and diverting people from incarceration in attempts to contain the spread of the virus

(Brennan Center for Justice, ; Prison Policy Initiative, ;Soetal.,). While doing so

likely lowered the transmission of cases in carceral institutions, these actions also significantly

increased the size of the population under community supervision and relocated the risks associ-

ated with COVID- to their homes and communities. Prior to the pandemic, approximately .

million people ( in  adults, and roughly % of the total population supervised by the crimi-

nal legal system) were estimated to be under community supervision through probation or parole

(Kaeble & Alper, ; Maruschak & Minton, ). Recent reports suggest that nearly ,

individuals were added to this population between March and October  through efforts to