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1. More than *five weeks* ago now I wrote this thread about how coronavirus was going to impact rural prison communities. https://twitter.com/davidminpdx/status/1240680883868168192?s=20
2. My main point in that thread, and in several other threads I wrote around the same time, was that we need to decarcerate prisons not only to protect prisoners from the coronavirus, but also to protect guards/staff, their families and their communities. https://twitter.com/davidminpdx/status/1240683133046902785?s=20
3. Now EXACTLY what I said would happen has begun to happen. In Ohio's Marion prison, more than 80% of prisoners are infected. And the virus has spread to 160 corrections officers – who go home each day to the their families/surrounding communities. https://www.dispatch.com/news/20200425/covid-19-outbreak-at-marion-prison-seeping-into-larger-community
4. And EXACTLY what I said would happen has happened:
"Even without counting the prisoners who have tested positive, Marion County still has a higher case count per capita than almost every other county in Ohio...." https://www.dispatch.com/news/20200425/covid-19-outbreak-at-marion-prison-seeping-into-larger-community
"Even without counting the prisoners who have tested positive, Marion County still has a higher case count per capita than almost every other county in Ohio...." https://www.dispatch.com/news/20200425/covid-19-outbreak-at-marion-prison-seeping-into-larger-community
5. And it's not just prison staff who account for the spike in infection rates in the county outside the prison. The staff have brought the infection home and spread it to others.
Of 112 cases of "community spread" in Marion County only 66 are staff. https://www.dispatch.com/news/20200425/covid-19-outbreak-at-marion-prison-seeping-into-larger-community
Of 112 cases of "community spread" in Marion County only 66 are staff. https://www.dispatch.com/news/20200425/covid-19-outbreak-at-marion-prison-seeping-into-larger-community
6. Marion county's public health commissioner is now describing EXACTLY the chain of events that I laid out:
the infection would be passed from prisoner to staff to their family to others in the community (including others that work with the old and vulnerable).
the infection would be passed from prisoner to staff to their family to others in the community (including others that work with the old and vulnerable).
7. And that point the Marion public health commissioner is making about the connection between prisoner infections and the survival of people in nursing homes – I literally made the same point weeks ago (w regard to jails, tho same is true for prisons). https://twitter.com/davidminpdx/status/1240691510699388929?s=20
