COVID-19 Infections Among Staff and Incarcerated Persons in Federal Prisons: A New Publicly Available Dataset

• In Event: Lightning Talk: On the Inside: Mass Incarceration, Correctional Staff, and the Inmate Experience

Abstract

The pandemic deeply impacted incarcerated populations, with some of the largest COVID-19 outbreaks in the US occurring in prisons. To understand how disease spread within prisons, we collected daily COVID-19 infections among the incarcerated population and prison staff members in all facilities in the US Federal Bureau of Prison (BOP) System by nightly scrapping of the BOP's COVID-19 dashboard. Information on the daily number of currently positive COVID-19 infections and deaths among incarcerated persons and correctional staff was collected between March 26th, 2020 and June 30th, 2021. Additionally, we also collected COVID-19 testing data, as well as information on the BOP-wide population numbers regarding home confinement, residential re-entry facilities, privately-run facilities, and the total BOP population. In this talk, we introduce the data and showcase some studies which used the data. This data would be valuable to researchers in multiple fields wishing to examine COVID-19, or any infectious disease, in prisons longitudinally.

Authors

• Danielle Wallace, Arizona State University

• John Eason, Brown University