MN ‘Failed’ To Protect People In Prisons From COVID-19: Report

by Gracie Stockton, Minnesota Reformer

March 4, 2021

A Department of Corrections report Monday said the state “failed” to protect incarcerated Minnesotans from the spread of COVID-19.

In three out of 11 state correctional facilities, more than 70% of incarcerated people tested positive or are presumed to have had COVID-19, according to the Ombuds for Corrections, which is an independent auditor within the department. Overall, infection rates are 2.5 times higher in prisons than in the general population. About 27% of state prison staff have also tested positive, according to the report. Eleven incarcerated people and no correctional staff have died from the virus.

According to The Marshall Project, a nonprofit journalism outfit specializing in criminal justice issues, Minnesota has the nation’s 12th-highest rate of COVID-19 cases among people in prisons and the 37th-highest death rate.

Lockdown in prisons often means 23 hours in a cell a day, with limited or suspended hygiene, outdoor time, programming, exercise, religious and social activities. And many cells have multiple people, which means if one person tests positive, it’s nearly impossible to stop the others from getting sick.

Mark Haase, the Ombuds for Corrections takes complaints and investigates correctional facilities. The office was reinstated in late 2019 after a hiatus since 2003. Lawmakers hoped that the third-party involvement could help ease tensions around prisons and open more communication channels for inmates.

Haase stressed that if an equally transmissible but more deadly virus were to break out in a correctional setting, the results could be catastrophic.

Incarcerated people are also more likely to have underlying health conditions and be a part of marginalized communities, according to the Centers for Disease Control and the Prison Policy Initiative. Black and American Indian/Alaska Native are 10 and 12 times more likely to be incarcerated than white Minnesotans, respectively.

Minnesota’s prison population decreased 18% from March 1, 2020, to Feb. 15, 2021. The DOC is trying to further reductions through COVID-based medical release, expanding work release, and slowing prisoner intake. The report calls for all incarcerated people and staff to be vaccinated as quickly as possible.

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