By Brittany Friedman
Prison has long been torturous, but now it is an inevitable death sentence — and the clock is ticking.
“She sacrificed herself for her job,” is how William Sullivan, president of PBA Local 105, solemnly described Maria Gibbs, a senior correctional officer with 19 years on the job until she died April 21 from complications of COVID-19.
Gibbs, 47, a married mother of four, was the third correctional officer in New Jersey to die due to COVID-19. As of April 29, 518 New Jersey Department of Corrections employees and 153 inmates have confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to state data. Three correctional officers and 29 inmates have died, and due to the current response, those numbers are likely only the beginning.
Although they are considered first responders, correctional officers are not guaranteed N95 masks, with department policy stating N95 masks are only provided “as medically prescribed to employees managing individuals with symptoms consistent with COVID-19.” Per NJ DOC policy, inmates and staff are routinely issued “surgical masks” despite living and working in close quarters where there are confirmed cases of COVID-19.
But what about staff and inmates who are asymptomatic? Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned as many as 25% of infected people will not show symptoms but are still contagious. If we have learned anything from research about this virus within other confined spaces like nursing homes, we know that once it enters the facility, rapid transmission occurs even without immediate symptoms. As such, N95 masks must replace surgical masks as the type of personal protection equipment (PPE) routinely issued by NJ DOC.
Space is a currency within confined institutions because it can buy you more time, and time makes the difference between life and death for those behind prison walls. And it doesn’t end with prisons. Incarceration also includes jails, migrant detention centers and juvenile confinement facilities, and New Jersey tops most countries with an incarceration rate of 407 people per 100,000. This means that in New Jersey, our institutions are overcrowded and ill-equipped to create the space necessary to social distance and stop the spread of COVID-19. Inmates’ families share grim stories of loved ones quarantining in solitary confinement, futile attempts to keep older inmates separate and waiting to contract COVID-19 like sitting ducks.
As Sullivan, the PBA Local 105 president, lamented, “We’re giving it to each other…Officers walk along a 3- to 4 foot-wide corridor up and down a tier with 90 inmates in cells with open bars breathing on them and each other.” The union is pushing the DOC for adequate PPE in the form of N95 masks and widespread testing of staff and inmates regardless of symptoms. Their urgent request must be met and is in line with new research about how quickly the virus spreads within confined spaces.
Essex County stands out as a local jail system that is using the blood-based antibody test to screen inmates and migrant detainees. Yet, the state would benefit from an even quicker solution that could meet the union’s pleas, such as the newly FDA approved saliva-based test developed by researchers at Rutgers University. This test could meet the demand for “rapid return testing” for the public and those employed or incarcerated within New Jersey’s correctional system.
The Rutgers test may soon be able to process as many as 140,000 samples per week, which would significantly boost New Jersey’s testing capacity. Focusing federal and state resources on expanding and staffing this test could be a part of the solution to the space riddle, both for the public and corrections as we collectively struggle to stop rapid transmission within our communities. Our goal must be to survive and not leave anyone behind.
Gov. Murphy’s recent executive order has strict stipulations for the potential release of inmates older than 60, those with underlying medical conditions, those recently denied or nearing parole and those approaching their release date. This attempt at reducing our prison population is combined with earlier judicial decrees temporarily releasing a tenth of the state’s jail population.
But without rapid testing, is this conservative approach fast enough given all 16 of the Department of Corrections’ facilities have confirmed cases of COVID-19? We need a two-part strategy in rapid testing and population reduction.
New Jersey, we must learn from Rikers Island in New York City and Cook County in Chicago, two systems that did not heed this warning. We cannot let this be our future.
Brittany Friedman is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and faculty affiliate of the Program in Criminal Justice and the Center for Security, Race, and Rights at Rutgers University.
Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.
The Star-Ledger/NJ.com encourages submissions of opinion. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow us on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and on Facebook at NJ.com Opinion. Get the latest news updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.com’s newsletters.