Nearly every inmate at Alaska’s largest prison has contracted Covid-19 because nationwide prisons have reached the highest level of positive cases this month.
State Department of Corrections spokeswoman Sarah Gallagher told Anchorage Daily News that about 1,115 inmates out of a total of 1,236 inmates at Goose Creek Correctional Center tested positive.
The Anchorage Correctional Center reported its first case of Covid-19 in November. Since Monday, 112 cases have been considered active, Gallagher said. More than 40% of the total population of state detainees contracted the disease and five prisoners died at the state level.
Prisons are one of the environments with the highest risk of spreading infectious diseases, as detainees cannot distance themselves socially and can depend on prison for health and safety.
In mid-December, new prison cases reached their highest level since spring testing began, according to the Associated Press and Marshall Project. Their data also showed that one in five US state and federal prisoners tested positive for Covid-19.
Of the more than 275,000 infected prisoners, more than 1,700 died. The total number of cases is probably higher, as not all detainees have been tested. Prison staff were also disproportionately affected by Covid-19.
The US is home to 22% of the world’s prison population, and public health experts have called for the release of medically vulnerable detainees and the elderly, near-term inmates and low-risk individuals. Lawyers have also demanded the release of the detainees because they cannot afford bail in cash, a payment to the court necessary to leave prison pending a hearing.
However, launches were slow. In the first three months of the pandemic, more than 10,000 federal inmates compassionately requested release, but only 156 requests were approved, according to the AP and Marshall Project.