One in five US prisoners has contracted COVID-19, more than 1,700 have died
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to surge across the US bringing with it a wave of death, a forgotten section of the population is being especially ravaged: prisoners in state and federal prisons. The Marshall Project has been tracking inmate cases and deaths since mid-March.
Bars inside a prison [Credit: Robert Crow/vividcorvid - Fotolia]
The non-profit news organization, in coordination with the Associated Press, reports that by December 15 at least 276,107 people in prison had tested positive for the illness, a 10 percent increase over the week before, far outpacing the previous peak in early August. As testing for the virus is limited, and all cases are not reported, this number is undoubtedly much higher.
Trump administration’s state-sponsored killing spree continues with two more federal executions
As Donald Trump presides over a pandemic that has so far claimed the lives of more than 300,000 Americans, his administration is rushing through the executions of five more federal death row prisoners before January 20. This accelerated state killing spree claimed the life of one inmate on Thursday and another on Friday, with three more scheduled the week before Inauguration Day.
Trump’s Justice Department under Attorney General William Barr is proceeding with a blood-thirsty disregard for life that is in keeping with the administration’s homicidal “herd immunity” policy, which is taking the lives of thousands of people a day as millions of workers are forced into COVID-ridden workplaces and students and teachers are sent into dangerously unsafe schools.