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Over the last decade, observers have noted that states have begun to play a greater role as regulatory enforcers a trend that increased with the federal regulatory rollback that began with the advent of the Trump administration.
Within the last couple of years, localities, including counties, cities and towns, have joined the states in flexing their muscles as key players in areas of regulatory enforcement traditionally dominated by the federal government. By enacting their own statutory protections, performing their own investigations independent of their federal counterparts, or pursuing overlapping litigation against potential violators, states and now localities are becoming an increasingly important source of regulatory authority.
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Prisons are hotspots for COVID-19, and criminal justice advocates are calling for reform to minimize ongoing spread.
The Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) only recently began testing asymptomatic prisoners. Horwitz explains how this change in testing revealed the drastic increase.
“The sudden increase as a result of this change validates what we have been warning about for months, which is that these infections are going unchecked, undocumented and untreated in DOCCS facilities. And that is a totally unacceptable outcome.”
Horwitz is also worried about the virus spreading to the community, as one documented case in Greene County spread from a prison to a nursing home. Correction officers’ health is also at risk. About 65% of them at one prison reported being unsatisfied with DOCCS’s response to COVID-19. Horwitz suggests a different approach.