Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Berliner Str. 130, 14467, Potsdam, Germany.
School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Center for Violence Prevention and Community Solutions, Arizona State University, 411 N. Central Ave., Room 600, Phoenix, AZ, 85004, USA.
BMC Public Health. 2022 Mar 11;22(1):482. doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-12813-w.
Since the novel coronavirus SARS-COV-2 was first identified to be circulating in the US on January 20, 2020, some of the worst outbreaks have occurred within state and federal prisons. The vulnerability of incarcerated populations, and the additional threats posed to the health of prison staff and the people they contact in surrounding communities underline the need to better understand the dynamics of transmission in the inter-linked incarcerated population/staff/community sub-populations to better inform optimal control of SARS-COV-2.
We examined SARS-CoV-2 case data from 101 non-administrative federal prisons between 5/18/2020 to 01/31/2021 and examined the per capita size of outbreaks in staff and the incarcerated population compared to outbreaks in the communities in the counties surrounding the prisons during the summer and winter waves of the SARS-COV-2 pandemic. We also examined the impact of decarceration on per capita rates in the staff/incarcerated/community populations.
For both the summer and winter waves we found significant inter-correlations between per capita rates in the outbreaks among the incarcerated population, staff, and the community. Over-all during the pandemic, per capita rates were significantly higher in the incarcerated population than in both the staff and community (paired Student's t-test p = 0.03 and p < 0.001, respectively). Average per capita rates of incarcerated population outbreaks were significantly associated with prison security level, ranked from lowest per capita rate to highest: High, Minimum, Medium, and Low security. Federal prisons decreased the incarcerated population by a relative factor of 96% comparing the winter to summer wave (one SD range [90%,102%]). We found no significant impact of decarceration on per capita rates of SARS-COV-2 infection in the staff community populations, but decarceration was significantly associated with a decrease in incarcerated per capita rates during the winter wave (Negative Binomial regression p = 0.015).
We found significant evidence of community/staff/incarcerated population inter-linkage of SARS-COV-2 transmission. Further study is warranted to determine which control measures aimed at the incarcerated population and/or staff are most efficacious at preventing or controlling outbreaks.
自 2020 年 1 月 20 日首次发现新型冠状病毒 SARS-CoV-2 在美传播以来，一些最严重的疫情爆发发生在州立和联邦监狱内。被监禁人群的脆弱性，以及对监狱工作人员健康和他们在周边社区接触人群的额外威胁，突显了需要更好地了解相互关联的被监禁人群/工作人员/社区亚人群中的传播动态，以便更好地为 SARS-CoV-2 的最佳控制提供信息。
我们研究了 2020 年 5 月 18 日至 2021 年 1 月 31 日期间 101 所非行政联邦监狱的 SARS-CoV-2 病例数据，并比较了监狱周边县夏季和冬季 SARS-CoV-2 大流行期间社区内工作人员和被监禁人群中疫情的人均规模。我们还研究了减刑对工作人员/被监禁者/社区人群中人均发病率的影响。
在夏季和冬季波次中，我们发现被监禁人群、工作人员和社区中疫情的人均发病率之间存在显著的相互关联。在整个大流行期间，被监禁人群的人均发病率明显高于工作人员和社区（配对学生 t 检验 p=0.03 和 p<0.001）。被监禁人群疫情的平均人均发病率与监狱安全级别显著相关，从最低人均发病率到最高人均发病率排列：高、最低、中、低安全级别。与夏季波次相比，联邦监狱在冬季波次中将被监禁人群减少了相对 96%（一个标准差范围[90%，102%]）。我们发现减刑对工作人员和社区人群中 SARS-CoV-2 感染的人均发病率没有显著影响，但减刑与冬季波次中被监禁人群人均发病率的下降显著相关（负二项式回归 p=0.015）。
我们发现 SARS-CoV-2 传播存在社区/工作人员/被监禁人群相互关联的重要证据。需要进一步研究以确定针对被监禁人群和/或工作人员的哪些控制措施最能有效预防或控制疫情。
