Epidemiologists and inmate rights advocates are urging officials to reduce the inmate population in local prisons due to the coronavirus outbreak, write Joseph Darius Jaafari and Cynthia Fernandez for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The virus may have already made it inside State Correctional Institution Phoenix, where a death row inmate Walter Ogrod fell ill last week. He developed a fever, a dry cough, and trouble breathing, causing his cellmates at the Montgomery County facility to panic. Still, he was not tested for coronavirus.

With the lack of testing, it is currently impossible to confirm if the coronavirus made it into the prison. However, corrections leaders and advocates believe that spread is inevitable.

“To the extent we can keep it out, we have some advantages,” said Corrections Secretary John Wetzel. “Once it gets in, those advantages turn to disadvantages.”

To minimize the health threat, advocates are now urging state government leaders to release inmates who do not pose a public safety concern.

“Without immediate action, jails and prisons will be the epicenter of the pandemic,” said Nyssa Taylor, policy counsel for the ACLU of Pennsylvania.

Read more about the issue at The Philadelphia Inquirer by clicking here.

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Top photo credit: Tony Webster In-Custody Defendant in Court via photopin (license)