Prison Pandemic

Brianna Nguyen

Professor Turney

SOC 154

16 May 2021

The Ills of Incarceration During a Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic unexpectedly took the world by storm in 2020 that changed everyone’s lives forever. Though many of us felt like we were suffering with stay-at-home orders and public health regulations, it was not nearly as horrid compared to what incarcerated individuals had to endure. Approximately 0.7% of American citizens are incarcerated, meaning that about 2.3 million people endured the pandemic behind bars (Wagner & Bertram, 2020). These individuals were forced to adjust their strict prison schedules in order to accommodate new COVID-19 safety regulations that resulted in increased stress levels amongst inmates. In California, participating inmates were kind enough to document their experiences in prison during a pandemic through a UCI orchestrated project called PrisonPandemic. Inmates were asked to share stories about their living conditions, family, health, and mental state, but they all emphasized stress. Additionally, the stories reflect how stressful circumstances like lack of socialization and paranoia play a role in being a social determinant of health. Essentially, the PrisonPandemic stories illustrate how stressful conditions negatively impact the health and vitality of inmates and demonstrate how incarceration serves as a social determinant of stressors and health.

After listening to many of the inmates’ stories, I learned that many prison facilities lacked organization with COVID-19 protocols that created a stressful atmosphere for the inmates. Many inmates told PrisonPandemic that prison facilities were given more funding, but none of the funding went towards bettering the health and safety of the inmates. This brought on a lot of stress for the inmates because the environment they were living in remained the same except they were living with a chance of acquiring a novel virus. An individual from Avenal State Prison stated, “Well, it’s been out of control, honestly. Like there’s so many people that are just – well, there’s no social distancing here whatsoever” (A Lot of Stress). This individual’s statement speaks volumes because prison is tough as it is and living in a poorly managed facility during a pandemic makes being a prisoner even worse. This relates to the course material in that social conditions influence health because it dictates risk of exposure and susceptibility to diseases, where a lack of social distancing can cause higher risk of COVID-19 exposure for the inmates (Video Lecture 1.1). Inmates also reported that facilities did not separate COVID-19 positive and negative individuals which caused more stress because the facility did not care about protecting the inmates. In a 2012 study interviewing 25 former inmates from New York and Ohio, they listed fear of other inmates as a primary stressor, and in a pandemic, inmates are constantly in fear of encountering COVID-19 positive inmates (Porter, 2019). Inmates would not fear each other if safety precautions were implemented, but facilities have not been giving inmates protective gear or promoting positive social behavior, so inmates are constantly living in fear of acquiring COVID-19. An inmate from an institution in Chino, CA said, “We’re not provided hand sanitizer daily, we’re not given the ability to- to sanitize our bunk area in our living spaces, because we’re not given any of that type of stuff to be able to do that” (We’re Scared). His statement holds significance because social behaviors influence disease outcome during a pandemic; positive social behaviors like wearing a mask, social and physical distancing, and sanitizing reduce the spread of infectious disease (Video Lecture 2.4). The lack of sanitation was a huge stressor for inmates because that was the only way to reduce the spread COVID-19 since they were only given limited masks. As a result of disorganized and ignorant prison facilities, inmates experienced extreme amounts of stress by constantly worrying about COVID-19 due to poor social conditions and malpractice of positive social behaviors.

Furthermore, incarceration can be deemed as a social determinant of stressors and health because a lack of funding and resources has the ability to affect the health of incarcerated individuals. During the COVID-19 pandemic, incarcerated individuals were one of the most affected populations in the United States (Iturri et al., 2020). Even before the pandemic, incarcerated individuals were more susceptible to infectious diseases due to crowding, sharing of public spaces, and lack of medical care. The lack of personal space in prison facilities cost many inmates their health because they are forced to follow harsh regulations that have existed for centuries. An inmate from Deuel Vocational Institution writes, “How I feel about my safety during this time is intense by all these external factors, like cleaning supplies, PPEs, non-existent social distancing … My safety is so imperative that the more I project the concern, the more staff becomes dismissive of any effort to practice social distancing policies” (Days Are Dark). His words are evident that a shortage of COVID-19 safety supplies tremendously affected the well-being and health of inmates because they were left vulnerable to obtaining the COVID-19 infection. Since inmates have to share hygiene facilities, living quarters, and are always in close proximity to one another, they are more prone to infectious disease, which indicates that incarceration is a social determinant of stressors and health (Massoglia, 2008). The prisons’ unsanitary living conditions and low budget contribute to the inmates’ poor health because they’re forced to live in a way where their freedom and liberty is stripped from them. Inmates are disregarded from society, and correctional facilities make policies to further dehumanize inmates, including limiting their resources to be healthy while incarcerated. Unfortunately, incarcerated individuals are bound to live with an increased risk of negative health outcomes because society doesn’t recognize nor allow inmates to have the same health opportunities as regular citizens. Overall, incarceration should be recognized as a social determinant of health because hostile living arrangements negatively affects health outcomes for those who are incarcerated.

Ultimately, the PrisonPandemic stories shed light on the stress inmates faced during a global pandemic that affected their health, while also proving that incarceration is a social determinant of stressors and health. In many of the stories, the inmates addressed that their source of stress was caused by facilities not implementing COVID-19 safety measures to protect the inmates from disease transmission. This emphasized how important social conditions and behavior are when it comes to disease outcome during a pandemic that was taught through the course material. Since there was no implementation of positive social behavior like social distancing and sanitation, inmates were at high risk for COVID-19 exposure resulting in worse health outcomes. The sheer disregard for positive health outcomes for incarcerated individuals means that incarceration is a social determinant of health. The filthy living conditions and limited health rights that prisoners are given result in negative health outcomes for prisoners, which affects their health autonomy, confirming that incarceration is a social determinant of health. All in all, the PrisonPandemic stories allowed me to apply what I learned in this class to real life situations, while also deepening my empathy for incarcerated individuals and the stress they have to endure every single day in a pandemic.

 

 

 

Works Cited

Iturri, F., Gale-Bentz, E., Reinhard, E. E., Hunter, T. B., McCann, C. N., Zaman, A., Chibueze, U., & Tellez, A. (2020). Incarceration and pandemic-related restrictions during COVID-19: An empathic understanding of two worlds. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 12(S1), S233–S235. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0000842

Massoglia, M. (2008). Incarceration as Exposure: The Prison, Infectious Disease, and Other Stress-Related Illnesses. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 49(1), 56–71. https://doi.org/10.1177/002214650804900105

Porter, L. C. (2019). Being “on point”: Exploring the stress-related experiences of incarceration. Society and Mental Health, 9(1), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1177/2156869318771439

Wagner, P. & Bertram, W. (2020, January 16). “What Percent of the U.S. Is Incarcerated?” (And Other Ways to Measure Mass Incarceration). Prison Policy Initiative. www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/01/16/percent-incarcerated/.