Environmental Health Department, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
BMC Public Health. 2022 Mar 15;22(1):506. doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-12886-7.
To use the example of COVID-19 vaccine prioritization for incarcerated workers to call attention to the need to prioritize incarcerated workers' health.
From November to December 2020, we searched publicly available information (e.g. Department Of Corrections websites and press releases) for 53 US prison systems, including all states, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and Puerto Rico. Coders reviewed if states had prison labor policies, if states had COVID-19 specific prison labor policies, the location of work, industries both pre- and during the COVID-19 pandemic, the scope of work, and hourly wage. Findings were compared to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's occupational vaccine prioritization recommendations.
Every facility has incarcerated individuals working in some capacity with some resuming prison labor operations to pre-pandemic levels. All but one prison system has off-site work locations for their incarcerated population and many incarcerated workers have resumed their off-site work release assignments. Additionally, every state has incarcerated workers whose job assignments are considered frontline essential workers (e.g. firefighters). In at least five states, incarcerated workers are participating in frontline health roles that put them at higher risk of acquiring COVID-19. Yet, no state followed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended vaccination plan for its incarcerated population given their incarcerated workers' essential worker status.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that incarcerated people be prioritized for vaccination primarily due to the risk present in congregate style prison and jail facilities. Furthermore, our review found that many incarcerated people perform labor that should be considered "essential", which provides another reason why they should have been among the first in line for COVID-19 vaccine allocation. These findings also highlight the need for incarcerated workers' health to be prioritized beyond COVID-19.
以新冠疫苗为在押人员接种的优先级排序为例，呼吁重视在押人员的健康。
2020 年 11 月至 12 月，我们搜索了 53 个美国监狱系统（包括所有州、移民和海关执法局、联邦监狱局以及波多黎各）公开的信息（如监狱管理局网站和新闻稿）。编码员检查了各州是否有监狱劳动政策、各州是否有针对新冠疫情的监狱劳动政策、工作地点、疫情前后的行业、工作范围和时薪。结果与疾病控制与预防中心的职业疫苗优先排序建议进行了比较。
每个监狱系统都有在押人员从事某种工作，其中一些人恢复了疫情前的监狱劳动，所有监狱系统都有囚犯的场外工作地点，许多在押人员恢复了场外工作释放任务。此外，每个州都有被认为是一线基本工人的在押人员（如消防员）。在至少五个州，在押人员参与一线卫生工作，使他们面临更高的感染新冠病毒的风险。然而，鉴于在押人员的基本工人身份，没有一个州遵循疾病控制与预防中心为其在押人员推荐的疫苗接种计划。
疾病控制与预防中心建议将囚犯列为疫苗接种的优先对象，主要是因为集中式监狱和拘留设施存在风险。此外，我们的审查发现，许多囚犯从事的劳动应被视为“必要劳动”，这也是他们应该成为新冠疫苗分配首批接种人群的另一个原因。这些发现还强调了在押人员的健康需要超越新冠疫情而得到优先重视。
