Why are black folks dying of COVID?: The Simple Answer

By John Eason, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison

Some may have you believe that Black folks are dying of COVID-19 at a higher rate because we lack personal responsibility, have faulty moral character, or cannot escape the so-called “culture of poverty”.

However, the COVID-19 crisis exposes a simple but powerful reality—racism does not take a day off—even during a pandemic. In fact, years of racial disparities in the criminal justice system and access to healthcare will prove more important  in the battle to flatten the COVID-19 curve than life choices of the most disadvantaged individuals.

This map illustrates COVID-19 cases from March 1-April 5 across US counties suggesting that counties with prisons are hotspots for the outbreak. Given the disproportionate number of Black and Latinx corrections officers in these counties, prisons may unwittingly serve as vectors of the disease in communities of color.

Research shows that the prison is deeply immersed in American life, as over 60% of Americans know someone or have an incarcerated family member. This pattern is even more stark for African-Americans, as nearly 9 out of 10  know someone or have a family member in prison or jail. 

This explains why it came as no surprise to many Black folks that Cook County Jail is a top hot spot for COVID-19.

Although once designed to help prevent outbreaks, prisons, jails, and immigrant detention centers are now incubators for infectious disease as the number of infections inside these facilities continues to outpace the free world. While newly incarcerated people can bring COVID-19 into prisons, guards and other staff are the ones who come and go most often.

Given the acute, airborne nature of COVID-19, there is no way to effectively social distance inside facilities. In fact, early reporting of COVID-19 infections across prisons and jails show how guards suffer higher rates of infections than inmates.

What is not a widely known fact is that African-Americans are overrepresented in the front line correction staff. This means that Black workers in correctional facilities are possibly being infected at the highest rate of any population. So while some may express concern about prisoners being released as leading to increased infections in Black communities, Black corrections officers may unknowingly be culpable for this trend.

We see this phenomenon in racialized trends in employment with other essential workers. Frontline service from truck and delivery drivers, grocery store cashiers, public transportation operators, maintenance staffs, postal workers, and a host of other low-skilled professions are disproportionately occupied by people of color. Let us remember these professions were not often the first choice, but people settled into them because of the well-documented legacy of discrimination in educational attainment and the labor market. To be clear, every bus driver does not drive a bus because it was their childhood dream. Many faced discrimination in school and on the labor market and took the best job they could given the challenges they face. Because of this, many Black folks end up living in segregated, underserved neighborhoods after years of redlining and predatory lending. This thereby results in longer commute times to jobs that we must keep if we want health insurance during a pandemic.

So what can be done? Less racism would be great but we can start by remaking the narrative around the plight African-Americans in this current epidemic. To move beyond rhetoric will take a strong will. This crisis will certainly test our mettle to do simple things because they are right.

For starters, we need to make healthcare organizations more available to African-Americans in their neighborhoods. In analyzing COVID-19 deaths and infections across Chicago, we found that African-Americans living in neighborhoods with greater access to healthcare organizations (urgent cares, primary care doctors and facilitate, hospitals, clinics, etc.) have lower rates of COVID-19 and deaths from COVID-19. By placing HCOs in black neighborhoods we effectively reduce travel, reduce transmission, and flatten the curve.

The COVID-19 epidemic presents a series of policy choices where public health and public safety can be at odds. However, if we understand that health is foundational to public safety, we can take drastic measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In the wake of this crisis, some states and counties have pivoted towards doing the right thing amongst calls to “let my people go” from prisons and jails. However, there are some governors, sheriffs, and other elected officials that have stood firm in their “tough on crime” commitment.

For those involved with the criminal justice system, flattening the COVID-19 curve should not only be essential in bail decisions, but also releasing prisoners with underlying medical conditions, and ending technical parole violations. Governors and other local leaders also need to end admissions to all prisons and jails based on technical violations until this wave of the pandemic passes. We need to step up testing for everyone leaving prisons to divert those reentering from communities already suffering from high rates of COVID-19. We need to provide immediate early release for inmates (starting with non-violent offenders) over 50 with medical conditions with high comorbidity (e.g. diabetes, cancer). Even more importantly, early release for anyone whose sentence is within 6 months of completion. Finally, given that families cannot visit and the recent spike in unemployment due to COVID-19 has disproportionately affected families of those incarcerated, there should be free or reduced fees for calls for everyone in jails and prison.

John M. Eason

Associate Professor

Department of Sociology

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Author of Big House on the Prairie: Rise of the Rural Ghetto and Prison Proliferation

How many prisoners work in the US today? It's hard to say.

The following is a guest post by Michael Gibson-Light.

I recently replied to an inquiry from a reporter interested in prison labor in the United States. Expecting to respond to questions about the on-the-ground practice or management of penal labor, I was instead asked a basic question: How many prisoners actually work in the US? The answer to this, which should be easy to find, is actually a bit tricky. It is by now common knowledge that the nation's prison system is itself a massive institution, holding over 1.3 million individuals at any given time and over 2.2 million at some point throughout a year. But statistics on how many of the incarcerated engage in labor programs behind bars today is not as readily available. In hopes of assisting other folks who have the same question, I wanted to share what information is systematically available on the topic.

The most recent hard numbers on prison labor participation come from the "Census of State and Federal Adult Correctional Facilities, 2005" from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Estimates suggest that the trends observed in this census hold for state and federal institutions today (for a recent example see Hatton 2017), but BJS reports have not yet been updated to confirm this. 

So here's what penal labor looked like in 2005:

• Of the 1,227,402 prisoners in state prisons at the point of data collection, 775,469 (63%) engaged in some form of labor program behind bars (more, if we were to only count able-bodied prisoners not held at restrictive custody levels). The numbers for federal prisons weren't reported, but they hold a much smaller prisoner population overall and we might safely assume that the rates are the same if not higher. (As an illustration, state prisons in 2017 held over 1.3 million individuals while federal prisons held 197,000.)
• 88% of all state and federal prison facilities had some form (often several forms) of prisoner work programs.
• Such programs were more prominent in public prisons than private prisons. 97% of publicly managed institutions put prisoners to work, while only 54% of private institutions did so.
• Within prisons that rely on prisoner labor, the most common positions are "facility support" positions, which include things like kitchen work, maintenance, etc. around the institution. 74% of these state and federal prisons housed these program.
• In addition, 44% of facilities operated "public works" programs, in which working prisoners engage in highway cleanup, park and forestry maintenance, etc. in surrounding municipalities.
• Next, 31% of state and federal prisons housed "correctional industries" programs. These are state-run programs which find prisoners engaging in a variety of productive labors (and sometimes limited service work) to benefit state and sometimes private consumers. For instance, correctional industries programs manufacture license plates, office furniture, paper products, uniforms, street signs, etc.
• Finally, 28% of prisons allowed prisoners to engage in some form of "work release" in 2005, through which they engaged in work relationships with public institutions or private firms beyond the walls of the prison.

HERE is a direct link to the 2005 BJS report for those interested, which contains other information relevant to penal labor.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics has stated that they plan to release an updated report at some point, following further data collection (the last time I asked was around two years ago and I was told that they had plans to field another round of the census some time in 2017). With any luck, we'll have updated official numbers soon, but these are the best data available for now.

In the meantime, if anyone has their own data on prison labor programming that they're willing to share, please do! 

(Michael Gibson-Light is an ABD student at the University of Arizona School of Sociology. His dissertation entails an 18-month ethnographic study of the structure of penal labor, the practices and strategies of working prisoners, and the formal and informal economic outcomes of work behind bars in a US men's state prison. More information can be found on his personal website.)

"It's Bigger than Christmas": Thoughts on the Significance of the Super Bowl in Prison

[Note: A version of this essay was originally posted at www.gibson-light.com]

Last Sunday, millions of men and women around TVs everywhere watched the Patriots and Falcons compete in Super Bowl LI (51 to non-Romans such as myself). Many of these viewers followed from behind bars in US prisons. Indeed, during my 18 months in "Sunbelt State Penitentiary" (SSP) – the anonymous state prison where I conducted observations and interviews for my dissertation research – I learned just how central the NFL season and the Super Bowl in particular are to prison life. Here, I will share four insights into the power of football in the American prison (a lens through which we might catch a glimpse of other pressing prison concerns, such as diminishing services, economic inequality between the disenfranchised, and the alienation of the prisoner population).

1. Somebody Got a Big Payout

Like many a corporate office or friendship circle on the outside, prisons are home to competitive football pools. Behind bars, however, where cheap, durable food items have become the de facto money of choice in response to downturns in institutional food services, the incarcerated cannot easily bet with cash. Instead, at SSP, prisoners wagered packets of ramen noodles. Following the exciting comeback of the Patriots, the big winners collected the pot: a sweet stash of delicious and valuable soups.

With their newfound ramen bounty, these pool winners can purchase a variety of goods and services in the underground prison market. For instance, they can buy contraband fruits and veggies (smuggled out of the kitchens), clothes or other necessary wares from others looking to make a quick buck (or quick "bite" in this case), or arts and crafts goods (called "hobbycraft"), such as portraits or birthday cards, which they can mail to friends or family on the outs. Or, they can pay more entrepreneurial individuals for services such as bunk cleaning or laundry for a reasonable ramen fee.

2. Time is About to Slow Down

In prison, the biggest struggle is often that against time. This world of slow monotony can be more than challenging for its captive residents and they will resort to many means to help time slip by faster. One common strategy is to get a job. Many participants in my research discussed their prison sentences in terms of their prison work histories – X through Y months were spent in one work program, Y through Z at another. And getting lost in one’s work is not unique to the outside world. Many seek out the busiest, most physically or mentally engaging work in an effort to lose the hours of the day in the rush of the work week. Whereas many workers in the free world “live for the weekend,” many prisoners “live for the week,” dreading the long Saturday and Sunday hours when they must sit in their bunks or shuffle around the yard.

However, football season offers a perfect distraction from the typical drag. It was a common refrain at SSP that “once football season starts, time flies.” The entertainment of watching and rooting for a favorite team is a common enjoyment for the imprisoned and the free. Behind bars, however, it can also represent a lifeline amidst years of incarceration, distance from family and friends, and alienation from the workings of the outside world. In addition to helping speed along the day, the ritual of watching football helps connect the incarcerated to the rest of the world in some small way. These types of connections may be vital to coping with life behind bars. Now that the season has ended, it's back to prison as usual.

3. Not Everyone Gets a Good Seat

In some prisons, shared TVs occupy communal spaces. In such institutions, informal rules may dictate which individuals or groups are allowed prime seating (and when). In other prisons, such as SSP, prisoners must instead procure their own entertainment systems. Small TVs – like those that people on the outs might find at Walmart for $50 – cost hundreds of dollars in the prison commissary store. Such goods are all the more unattainable for the majority of men who make below $0.20 per hour for their labors in prison work programs.

Financial help from family and friends on the outside (often in need of financial assistance themselves) is rare for many on the inside, who must instead hustle and save if they hope to deck out their bunk with a television, portable CD player, or other approved entertainment device. For the select few who manage to secure competitive higher-paying jobs in penal labor sites (which can pay closer to $1.00, $2.00, or $3.00 per hour at some sites), saving may not be as much of a burden, relatively speaking. The rest, however, must rely on the good graces of their pals or neighbors in their housing units, who might allow them to sit in their bunks to watch the game. While it is possible to purchase a TV directly from another prisoner in the black market, this form of exchange is technically prohibited – those caught with entertainment items registered in another’s name face having their goods searched and confiscated, disciplinary tickets, Loss of Privileges, or other sanctions.

4. The Super Bowl is the Biggest Holiday of the Year

Despite the issues listed above, this year’s Super Bowl Sunday, as in past years, was the biggest holiday of the year at Sunbelt State Penitentiary. On this day, these men received a special meal in the chow line (last year it was roast beef sandwiches with actual tomatoes and onions, which was a big deal in an institution where any fresh vegetables are valued “like lobster”). Prisoners are served dinner early on Super Bowl so that they can eat it while they watch the game – a rare allowance of autonomy in a space in which every movement and activity is surveilled and controlled.

It is, in the words of one participant, “bigger than Christmas” and more people turn up for Super Bowl chow than for any other holiday or special occasion. That means that last Sunday, far more prisoners than usual ate the state-provided meal and did not turn to the formal or informal markets (via the prison commissary store or the underground ramen economy, respectively) to procure food that was healthier, tastier, and more filling than what the institution offers (in the words of incarcerated and staff member participants alike).

Monday, the off-season began. As we on the outside returned to routines as usual, the men and women in the nation’s penal institutions still face a range of issues. Economic disadvantage, stratification between prisoner groups, unequal access to goods and services, poor quality of food, and other hardships remain facts of everyday life. These and other aspects of the state of US prisons are unlikely to improve under the current presidential administration. Regardless of which team you root for (in athletics or politics), the conditions faced by the millions of Americans behind bars are in need of our attention. 95% of the currently incarcerated will one day return to their communities. Let’s hope they come back having gained more than just fond memories of the Super Bowl.

(Michael Gibson-Light is an ABD student at the University of Arizona School of Sociology. His dissertation entails an 18-month ethnographic study of the structure of penal labor, the practices and strategies of working prisoners, and the formal and informal economic outcomes of work behind bars in a US men's state prison. More information can be found on his personal website.)