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Correctional facilities are a lot like hospitals. Both
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AJA Conference
On Demand Library
Didn’t register for AJA’s Virtual
Conference & Jail Expo? Gain access to
the virtual training, presentations, and
jail expo until April 15, 2022 for a one-
time fee of $150.
60 Workshops discussing staff
wellness, leadership, medical and
mental health, inmate management,
classification and housing…and more.
Conference Presentations including
Rob Weinhold on crisis leadership, the
President’s Initiative on Staff Wellness,
a jail tour, and Dr. Randy Garner’s
discussion on why tough leaders last.
Product & Services Guide featuring our
exhibiting partners. Discover how they
can help your jail operate better by
clicking on their “booth.”
Register at www.aja.org
14 | JULY | AUGUST 2021 AMERICANJails
have high turnover rates, with 10.6 million people
cycling through U.S. jails each year (Prison Policy
Initiative, 2020). New inmates, like new patients, may
come in with undiagnosed illnesses, creating the condi-
tions for rapid disease spread. And inmates are not the
only ones at risk in jails and prisons. As essential work-
ers, correctional facility staff—like nurses and doctors—
are constantly putting themselves and their families at
risk of contracting disease.
Disease spread in correctional facilities has been an
issue for centuries, with highly contagious diseases like
MRSA, hepatitis, and tuberculosis running rampant. In
fact, tuberculosis incidences are up to 10 times higher
2007). If hospitals have HAIs, then jails have JAIs:
among inmates than in the general population (Bick,
jail-associated infections.
In the COVID-19 era, the situation has taken on
a new urgency. Nationwide, 1 in 5 state and federal
inmates has tested positive for COVID-19 since the start
of the pandemic, with more than 275,000 infected so
numbers don’t begin to take into account the impact on
far (Schwartzapfel, Park, & Demillo, 2020). And those
correctional staff and law enforcement.
Unfortunately, unlike hospitals, the staff in local gov-
ernments and correctional facilities may not possess the
resources or tools they need to tackle disease spread,
and crowded living conditions make social distancing
nearly impossible. But as law enforcement professionals
tell me all the time, the job still has to get done.
While this crisis places an enormous strain on jails,
it also delivers enormous opportunity. Now is the time
to rethink how we address infection prevention in jails
and work to create a new normal—one that can help
us tackle this pandemic today and prepare us for new
outbreaks tomorrow, whether local or global in scale.
Improving Infection Prevention in Jails:
The Path Forward
Correctional facilities have been among the hardest
hit by COVID-19, with outbreaks striking more than
850 facilities across the country and counting (Carlisle
& Bates, 2020). As COVID-19 sweeps the nation’s cor-
rectional facilities, local governments, law enforcement,
and correctional staff have added the responsibility of
preventing the spread of a highly-infectious disease to
their already demanding jobs.
As essential operations, jails face unique challenges.
They cannot shut down or relocate to a fully remote
structure as many organizations have. So, how do we
ensure jails can operate effectively while keeping the
vulnerable populations who live and work there safe
from disease? The good news is that this pandemic has
spurred the development and adoption of new tech-