This publication by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Justice Programs (OJP) discusses lessons learned from COVID-19 that could be useful in future public health crises.
This report aims to help confinement facilities prepare for and mitigate effects from the next pandemic as well as other infectious disease outbreaks and public health crises. It was developed as part of the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance’s COVID-19 Detection and Mitigation in Confinement Facilities (CDMCF) Training and Technical Assistance (TTA) Center, which assists state, local, and tribal agencies. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus, had significant impacts on people across the world and the nation, and some of its most significant impacts were on people who were incarcerated and the staff who support confinement facilities. Both staff and people who are incarcerated are in close quarters with very limited options for self-protection. They are also, in general, at higher risk for serious disease, due to pre-existing medical conditions, an aging population of people who are incarcerated, and very limited ability for social distancing. Most confinement facilities endeavored to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic, averting even worse outcomes. According to the COVID Prison Project, which tracked data and policy across the country to monitor COVID-19 in prisons, “a majority of the largest, single-site outbreaks since the beginning of the pandemic have been in jails and prisons.” As an example, almost a quarter of a million prison staff members became infected from COVID-19, as did 647,349 people who were incarcerated, leading to almost 300 staff deaths and 3,000 deaths of people who were incarcerated, between March 2020 and June 2023. This document shares the lessons learned from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on correctional systems, confinement facilities, a staff, and people who are incarcerated.