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By Troy Closson<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n When New York announced new vaccine eligibility guidelines two weeks ago covering millions of additional state residents, one particularly hard-hit group remained unmentioned: the nearly 50,000 people incarcerated in the state\u2019s prisons and jails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, with state supplies dwindling and no clear plan for vaccinating incarcerated people, the virus that tore through the state\u2019s correctional facilities in the spring is roaring back behind bars. At least 5,100 people living and working in New York\u2019s prisons have tested positive and 12 have died in recent weeks, outpacing even the early days of the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But how and when to vaccinate incarcerated people as millions around the state wait has raised legal, logistical and ethical questions that the state has so far struggled to answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Across the country, the arrival of a vaccine was hailed as a harbinger of the pandemic\u2019s eventual end. But administering the limited supply has proved challenging, and correctional facilities \u2014 where more than half a million people<\/a> have tested positive for the virus since the start of the pandemic \u2014 present additional complications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n AdvertisementContinue reading the main story<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Officials grappling with the same difficult questions have come to different conclusions, creating a patchwork of policies and timelines that vary dramatically, according to an analysis<\/a> by the Prison Policy Initiative, a research nonprofit devoted to reducing mass incarceration. But at least 27 states directly name inmates in their public plans, and about a dozen place them in the first phases of vaccine distribution \u2014 including Massachusetts, where tens of thousands of prisoners are set to be vaccinated<\/a> by the end of next month. New Jersey began vaccinating people in prisons in December.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Subscribe for $1 a week.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Others plan to vaccinate prison and jail workers before incarcerated people, breaking with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which recommends vaccinating everyone at correctional facilities simultaneously. Some, like New York, do not address those behind bars at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe have people dying on a weekly basis,\u201d said Stefen Short, a lawyer for the Prisoners\u2019 Rights Project at the Legal Aid Society. \u201cWhat are the plans? There\u2019s got to be a consistent message coming out of Albany and coming out of these agencies on this. Otherwise, you\u2019re just generating a lot of fear.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vaccinating incarcerated people in the early stages of distribution has proved politically fraught. In New York, state senators have questioned whether prioritizing people in prisons makes sense. In Colorado, a draft plan to offer the vaccine inside prisons was met with fierce backlash for, as one district attorney wrote in The Denver Post<\/a>, prioritizing \u201cthe health of incarcerated murderers\u201d ahead of \u201claw-abiding Coloradans 65 and older.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n New York officials said the state was preparing a plan. But public health experts broadly agree that incarcerated people are at particularly high risk for contracting and spreading the virus, as at least 8,800 people living or working in New York\u2019s prison system have tested positive since the start of the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Did an Alien Life-Form Do a Drive-By of Our Solar System in 2017?<\/a>Treat Yourself to a Parisian Cocktail Snack That Is Easy to Make<\/a>Continue reading the main story<\/a>https:\/\/tpc.googlesyndication.com\/safeframe\/1-0-37\/html\/container.html<\/p>\n\n\n\n AdvertisementContinue reading the main story<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n And because guards, lawyers, workers and people entering and leaving custody move between the facilities and the community at large, the public health implications of outbreaks behind bars extend far beyond the prison walls. Officials said last fall that an outbreak at Greene Correctional Facility near Albany was linked to cases at an assisted-living facility and an elementary school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The absence of any clear plan for incarcerated people has left their relatives and advocates confused and concerned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI really don\u2019t understand it,\u201d said Dr. Robert Cohen, a member of the Board of Correction in New York City. \u201cBut the consequences will be quite severe.\u201d Your Coronavirus Tracker: We’ll send you the latest data for places you care about each day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Jeanette Velazquez, the uncertainty has been frustrating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her brother, Jos\u00e9 Leon, is incarcerated at Adirondack Correctional Facility in upstate New York with several underlying health conditions, including hypertension and colitis. But he was not among the thousands of inmates granted early release last year to stem the spread of the virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, Ms. Velazquez said, her brother has taken his own precautions out of fear: Mr. Leon, 62, stopped going to communal mess halls and began skipping meals; he stays as isolated as possible; and, after years of his calling her regularly, Ms. Velazquez said she has not heard from him in days, unsure whether he is avoiding public spaces or if something went wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr. Leon, who is one of three plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit over prison conditions during the pandemic, is serving a sentence of 15 years to life for sexual abuse, prison and court records show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m scared that he\u2019s not going to make it,\u201d she said, adding: \u201cHe\u2019s not getting the medical attention that he really needs, and him not making it home alive, that\u2019s my concern. It\u2019s like he has a death sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n To be sure, the first weeks of the state\u2019s vaccine rollout have not been seamless for the public at large either. Medical providers were forced to throw out shots<\/a> early on as other doses sat unused for weeks. Once the rollout sped up<\/a>, New York\u2019s reserve of first doses was depleted, and thousands of vaccination appointments were canceled. Even as inmates clamor for eligibility, millions of people who already qualify continue to wait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But incarcerated people are four times as likely to be infected and twice as likely to die from the virus compared with the general population, studies suggest. They often live in congested units and eat in crowded facilities where social distancing is nearly impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They also lack the political power and societal favor of other vulnerable groups \u2014 a dynamic that has pinned state officials between the ethical responsibility for the health of people in state custody and potential public backlash. A disproportionate number are also Black and Latino, racial and ethnic groups that have been hit harder by the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In October, the state released plans outlining the vaccine prioritization order. Individuals who live in \u201ccongregate settings\u201d were designated to receive doses after frontline health care workers but before people under 65 with underlying health conditions. Those guidelines, however, did not specify whether those in prisons and jails were included.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Contributing to the uncertainty, some lawmakers said they received conflicting information about the timeline. Several members of the Republican conference in the State Senate and Assembly said that in a Jan. 5 briefing, the state\u2019s health commissioner, Dr. Howard Zucker, said that incarcerated people would be allowed to receive the vaccine in Phase 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n AdvertisementContinue reading the main story<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n But two in the Democratic conference said they were told separately that would happen in Phase 1B, the state\u2019s current stage of vaccination, as first reported by NY1<\/a>. The current stage includes police officers, teachers and public transit workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Patrick M. Gallivan, a Republican from the Buffalo area on the Senate\u2019s health committee, said he was concerned about vaccinating incarcerated people in the earliest phases when many essential workers and residents of long-term care facilities have not been inoculated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI understand the issues in congregate settings,\u201d Mr. Gallivan said. \u201cMy concern is that if we were to use the short supply of vaccines, it\u2019s at the expense of some of these other priority groups.\u201dCovid-19 Vaccines \u203a<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Currently more than 150 million people \u2014 almost half the population \u2014 are eligible to be vaccinated. But each state makes the final decision about who goes first.<\/a> The nation\u2019s 21 million health care workers and three million residents of long-term care facilities were the first to qualify. In mid-January, federal officials urged all states to open up eligibility<\/a> to everyone 65 and older and to adults of any age with medical conditions that put them at high risk of becoming seriously ill or dying from Covid-19. Adults in the general population are at the back of the line.<\/a> If federal and state health officials can clear up bottlenecks in vaccine distribution, everyone 16 and older will become eligible as early as this spring or early summer. The vaccine hasn\u2019t been approved in children, although studies are underway. It may be months before a vaccine is available for anyone under the age of 16. Go to your state health website<\/a> for up-to-date information on vaccination policies in your area<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spokespeople from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo\u2019s office and the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said only that a plan for incarcerated people was still being developed. The first groups of people within Phase 1B were declared eligible<\/a> on Jan. 11, though the announcement made no mention of incarcerated people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the absence of a statewide plan, New York City officials received permission to start vaccinating the highest-risk people held at Rikers Island and other facilities on Jan. 5, according to a spokeswoman for Correctional Health Services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two days later, medical staff began distributing doses to the roughly 500eligible people incarcerated there. The group represents only about 10 percent of the more than 5,000 total people held at city-run jails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last week, a state judge also ordered the New York corrections department to vaccinate one 65-year-old inmate at the Adirondack prison with chronic lung disease, in what appears to be the first ruling of its kind in the state and could signal similar legal battles ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The prison has confirmed two virus cases during the pandemic, though there are widespread concerns over testing and reporting practices at several facilities \u2014 as well as the particularly high-risk population of seniors at Adirondack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In most areas, however, the situation is less clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peter Kehoe, the executive director of the New York State Sheriffs\u2019 Association, saidthat out of concern he had reached out to the state last month for details on vaccinations in county jails, which sheriffs oversee. \u201cBut we\u2019ve heard nothing back,\u201d he said, adding that he was not aware of anyone at jails outside of New York City receiving doses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He wondered whether the spotty communication was meant to avoid political pushback, which officials have yielded to elsewhere in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Colorado, following ire on social media and from conservative critics, the state eventually changed course<\/a>. \u201cThere\u2019s no way it\u2019s going to go to prisoners before it goes to people who haven\u2019t committed any crime,\u201d Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado, a Democrat, said in December<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even beyond eligibility, health experts worried that other obstacles would arise in New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine must be stored at extremely low temperatures, but correctional facilities do not have the required freezers. Many are also located in isolated areas of the state, creating potential challenges for distribution. And people are routinely transferred between correctional facilities, which could create difficulties in tracking who has received doses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is also growing concern among several advocacy groups that incarcerated people may be skeptical of the vaccine and be reluctant to accept doses, largely because of the government\u2019s history of medical experimentation<\/a> on prison populations and people of color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n AdvertisementContinue reading the main story<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Surveys in two Massachusetts counties<\/a> found that more than half of the inmates who participated would decline doses. Some states have even offered incentives<\/a> like snack bags, visitation time and days off sentences in exchange for their consent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Theresa Grady said those anxieties resonate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her husband, who is 66, is serving a 40-year sentence for robbery and attempted murder at Green Haven Correctional Facility in Dutchess County, prison records show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He has high blood pressure and diabetes, and has shared stories of breakdowns in safety and accounts of correctional officers not wearing face coverings, his wife said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms. Grady said her husband wants more information around the vaccine before he feels safe enough to take it, but little outreach has occurred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m afraid that by the time they offer this vaccine and get the education around it, it\u2019ll be too late for him,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\nEditors\u2019 Picks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Answers to Your Vaccine Questions<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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