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U.S. Prison Population Remained Stable as Pandemic Grew

The number of inmates in federal and state prisons in 44 states declined by 1.6 percent in the first three months of the year, even as prisons became hot spots for the coronavirus.

Officials said last month that almost three-quarters of the inmate population at a minimum- and medium-security prison in Marion, Ohio, had tested positive for the coronavirus.Credit...Megan Jelinger/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The United States prison population remained stable in the early months of the year, decreasing by just 1.6 percent from January through March even as prisons emerged as incubators for the spread of Covid-19, according to a report released on Thursday.

The prison population in five states — Idaho, Iowa, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming — was larger on March 31 than it was at the end of 2019, according to the study.

The report, which looked at shifts in the numbers of inmates in the federal prison system and in 44 states’ prisons, was produced by the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit research organization.

The steepest reduction was recorded in Vermont, where the prison population declined by 11.6 percent between Jan. 1 and March 31, followed by North Dakota and Oregon, where the number of prison inmates dropped by 9.8 percent and 8.3 percent. The smallest declines were in South Dakota, whose prison population dropped by 0.3 percent, and in Massachusetts and Ohio, whose declines were too small to register as percentages, according to the report.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons released 300 people in the first three months of 2020, for a decline in its population of 0.2 percent. The report covers the period through the end of March and has only limited data for April, when Covid-19 cases surged across the country, in many prisons and jails among other places.

“It was only after it was totally clear that prisons were a hot spot for the coronavirus that states began to take action,” Jacob Kang-Brown, a senior research associate at the Vera Institute and the report’s lead author, said on Thursday. “They ignored recommendations of public health officials, and they obviously need to do something to adjust during the crisis.”

The Vera Institute study looked only at state and federal prisons. It did not include data from local jails, which have released larger numbers of people during the pandemic.

Differences between the jail and prison populations may account for some of that discrepancy. People who are serving time in prison have generally been found guilty of serious crimes, while jails house people who have been convicted of less serious crimes and those who are awaiting trial and cannot afford, or have been denied, bail. Vermont has a unified prison and jail system, which might have affected its large decline, the report noted.

The inability to maintain social distance and a lack of hygiene products increase the risk that prisons and jails will be hit hard by a second wave of the virus, said Kevin Ring, the president of FAMM, a nonprofit group that opposes mandatory minimum sentences.

“Some prisons have been lucky to get soap or hand sanitizer,” Mr. Ring said. “In other areas of life, government actors have taken extraordinary measures,” such as mandating the closing of nonessential businesses.

It is not possible to eliminate the coronavirus without making prisons part of the solution, Mr. Ring said. A corrections officer who becomes infected at work could spread the virus in the community, he said.

“Prison health is public health,” Mr. Ring said.

But there is resistance to releasing prison inmates because of a fear that they will commit crimes after they are set free, said John Pfaff, a professor at Fordham Law School.

“Governors are all afraid that is what will happen,” Mr. Pfaff said. “For most governors, it is better to have 20 coronavirus deaths in prison than to have one furloughed inmate commit a crime.”

It has been easier for jails to release inmates during the pandemic because they have a higher turnover rate, with people coming in after being charged with a variety of lower-level offenses, according to Douglas Berman, a law professor at Ohio State University.

“There are less going in because of Covid, and they have more of an openness to getting people out,” Mr. Berman said. “It is politically and socially easier.”

Dr. Kang-Brown of the Vera Institute said that the lack of movement in the prison population reflected the country’s appetite for mass incarceration and that more care should be shown for the health of inmates, corrections officers and the communities where prisons operate.

“No state has shown that dramatic commitment to the care and concern for others that is needed in this moment,” he said. “We should be doing much more than this. It is an urgent public health issue. We should be saving lives.”

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 6 of the New York edition with the headline: Inmate Population in U.S. Decreased by Only 1.6% Even as Pandemic Grew. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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