MASS INCARCERATION POSES A UNIQUELY AMERICAN RISK IN THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

There are currently 2.3 million people incarcerated in U.S. jails and prisons. The U.S. accounts for 4 percent of the world’s population and 21 percent of its prisoners. While incarcerated people have been released in trickles across the country as the U.S. has become the global epicenter of the pandemic, those releases are hardly making a dent in the density of prisons and jails, and they pale in comparison to the tens of thousands of people freed by other countries with far lower incarceration rates. So far, at least 295 men and women in the U.S. have died after contracting the virus behind bars — a figure that is climbing by the day and remains “dramatically underreported,” according to experts who have been tracking it. The official number of positive cases reveals little beyond how few incarcerated people are being tested: In the handful of facilities with higher test rates, most people were found to be positive. Eight of the 10 largest outbreaks in the country are in prisons and jails.