Name: Michigan's D- grade on COVID-19 response behind bars is top of the class, report finds
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Michigan's D- grade on COVID-19 response behind bars is top of the class, report finds

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Detroit Free Press A new report evaluating how states have responded to the coronavirus crisis in prisons and jails gave Michigan a D- grade, one of the highest scores in an analysis that concluded&nbsp;states have "largely failed" to protect incarcerated populations and staff.&nbsp;Michigan was one of nine states to receive a D-.&nbsp;The remaining states earned&nbsp;an F+ or F for their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic behind bars, according to the&nbsp; published Thursday by the Prison Policy Initiative, a criminal justice think tank,&nbsp;and the ACLU."We find that most states have taken very little action, and while some states did more, no state leaders should be content with the steps they’ve taken thus far," according to the report authored by organizations that advocate for prison and jail reforms.Prisons and jails have been , with COVID-19 claiming the lives of more than 570 incarcerated people and 50 correctional staff nationwide as of June 22, the report said.&nbsp;&nbsp;The analysis to states based on the following factors: if the&nbsp;Department of Corrections provided testing and PPE to its staff and prisoners;&nbsp;if the state reduced its county jail and prison populations;&nbsp;if the state accelerated the release of medically vulnerable prisoners;&nbsp;and if the state published public data about COVID-19 cases in&nbsp;the prison system.The report collected data from 49 states. At 25.8 points, Michigan's score was the second highest,&nbsp;after Tennessee at 26.3.&nbsp;Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued&nbsp;an &nbsp;in late March that "strongly encouraged" county jails, lockups and juvenile facilities to consider the early release of certain inmates who don't pose a public safety risk. The order encouraged the release of&nbsp;older people, those who are&nbsp;medically frail, people incarcerated for a traffic violation, people held for failure to appear or failure to pay, or those with behavioral health problems who&nbsp; can be diverted for treatment.&nbsp;Meanwhile, prisoner advocates have continued to criticize&nbsp;Whitmer for not using her clemency powers to release elderly and medically vulnerable prisoners who are not likely to reoffend. By law,&nbsp;prisoners cannot be freed through the&nbsp;&nbsp;before their earliest release date. MDOC paroled 2,479 people between March and May, 289 more people than the same time period for 2019.&nbsp;Chris Gautz, MDOC spokesman, dismissed the analysis by the Prison Policy Initiative and ACLU as "ridiculous.""This isn’t really even a&nbsp;report on how well prisons have done dealing with COVID-19. It's really the ACLU's grading of how many people you've let out&nbsp;of prison," he said, adding that he thought the scoring for incarcerated population reductions was given too much weight compared with other factors in the analysis.The report deducted points from states for COVID-19 deaths in prisons. Sixty-eight Michigan prisoners have , the third-highest&nbsp;number of prisoner deaths nationwide after the Federal Bureau of Prisons and Ohio, according to . Michigan ranks second in prisoner deaths per capita after New Jersey.&nbsp;The analysis added points for comprehensive testing in prisons. The report said Michigan is among five states that have completed mass testing of its prisoner population. The others are&nbsp;Massachusetts, Tennessee, West Virginia&nbsp;and Vermont.&nbsp;Of , the Department of Corrections says 3,994 were positive for COVID-19, an infection rate of 10%, according to a website on coronavirus in state prisons that MDOC regularly updates.Across the state, 375 MDOC staff have tested positive, and two employees have died. Staff testing is not mandatory.&nbsp;Angie Jackson covers the challenges of formerly incarcerated citizens as a corps member with Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project, with support from the Hudson-Webber Foundation.&nbsp; to support her work. Contact Angie: ; 313-222-1850. Follow her on Twitter:

Detroit Free Press A new report evaluating how states have responded to the coronavirus crisis in prisons and jails gave Michigan a D- grade, one of the highest scores in an analysis that concluded&nbsp;states have "largely failed" to protect incarcerated populations and staff.&nbsp;Michigan was one of nine states to receive a D-.&nbsp;The remaining states earned&nbsp;an F+ or F for their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic behind bars, according to the&nbsp; published Thursday by the Prison Policy Initiative, a criminal justice think tank,&nbsp;and the ACLU."We find that most states have...

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Angie Jackson

The Detroit Free Press is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, US. The Sunday edition is titled the Sunday Free Press. It is sometimes referred to as the Freep (reflected in the paper's web address, www.freep.com). It primarily serves Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston, Washtenaw, and Monroe counties.  The Free Press is also the largest city newspaper owned by Gannett, which also publishes USA Today. The Free Press has received ten Pulitzer Prizes and four Emmy Awards. Its motto is "On Guard for 189 Years".

Michigan's D- grade on COVID-19 response behind bars is top of the class, report finds

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