Behind Bars In Close Quarters: Numbers Of Infected Prisoners Spike Quickly In Tenn., Mass., Mich., Ohio

A medical director says one of the nation's largest outbreaks in a Tennessee prison where 583 inmates have been sickened might have come from the staff. While some states have responsibly updated websites daily about outbreaks in prisons, others provide very little information, according to a WBUR story putting the national infection tally at 15,000 inmates and jail staff with 130 deaths.

ABC News: COVID-19 Outbreak Infecting Over 500 Prisoners May Have Come From Staff: Medical Director

A novel coronavirus outbreak that has sickened 583 inmates at a Tennessee prison could to have come from members of the staff, according to the facility's medical director. The alarming cluster of infections at the Bledsoe Correctional Complex in Pikeville, Tennessee, accounts for 99% of the 588 total positive cases of coronavirus in all of Bledsoe County, according to the Tennessee Department of Corrections and the state Department of Health. (Hutchinson, 4/28)

WBUR: Mass. Prisons And Jails Among Hardest Hit By Coronavirus In U.S.

Five Massachusetts correctional institutions appear to be among the hardest hit by coronavirus infections among inmates and staff thus far at the roughly 4,900 jails and prisons in the United States. Those include the Shirley, Framingham and Bridgewater state prisons, as well as the Essex and Middlesex county jails, according to data compiled by WBUR from local, state and federal government websites and media reports. (Healy, Becker and Willmsen, 4/28)

WBUR: Mass. High Court Urges Governor To Use His Powers To Release Prisoners Because Of COVID-19

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court says it's up to Gov. Charlie Baker to take further steps to release more prisoners because of the coronavirus pandemic. The court, in an opinion addressing a request to revisit a previous decision on the matter, said that a broader release of prisoners is up to the executive, not judicial, branch of government. (Becker, 4/28)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Meeting On Coronavirus In Nevada Prisons Slated

For the second time in two weeks, the Nevada Sentencing Commission is scheduled to examine efforts to control the spread of the coronavirus in the criminal justice system. Earlier this month, the group narrowly recommended that the Board of Pardons Commissioners — composed of seven Nevada Supreme Court justices, Gov. Steve Sisolak and Attorney General Aaron Ford — decide the criminal justice system’s steps in response to the outbreak. (Ferrara, 4/28)

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