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. 2021 Oct 5;16(10):e0257842.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0257842. eCollection 2021.

COVID-19 in corrections: Quarantine of incarcerated people

Morgan Maner  1 , Katherine LeMasters  1   2 , Jennifer Lao  1 , Mariah Cowell  3 , Kathryn Nowotny  4 , David Cloud  5 , Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein  1
Affiliations

COVID-19 in corrections: Quarantine of incarcerated people

Morgan Maner et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Carceral settings in the United States have been the source of many single site COVID-19 outbreaks. Quarantine is a strategy used to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in correctional settings, and specific quarantine practices differ state to state. To better understand how states are using quarantine in prisons, we reviewed each state's definition of quarantine and compared each state's definition to the Centers for Disease Control's (CDC) definition and recommendations for quarantine in jails and prisons. Most prison systems, 45 of 53, define quarantine, but definitions vary widely. No state published definitions of quarantine that align with all CDC recommendations, and only 9 states provide quarantine data. In these states, the highest recorded quarantine rate occurred in Ohio in May 2020 at 843 per 1,000. It is necessary for prison systems to standardize their definitions of quarantine and to utilize quarantine practices in accordance with CDC recommendations. In addition, data transparency is needed to better understand the use of quarantine and its effectiveness at mitigating COVID-19 outbreaks in carceral settings.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Percentage of DOCs that align with CDC recommendations according to DOC published definitions of quarantine.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Percentage of DOCs that follow particular CDC recommendations according to published definitions of quarantine.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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    1. COVID Prison Project. National Overview [Internet]. Available from: https://covidprisonproject.com/data/national-overview/
    1. The Marshall Project. A State-by-State Look at Coronavirus in Prisons [Internet]. Available from: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/05/01/a-state-by-state-look-at-c...

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