At MDC Brooklyn, inmates and their attorneys have been kept in the dark about plans to combat the coronavirus spread. Rachel said she’s been updating her husband as the situation unfolds, telling him to wash his hands constantly, especially before and after computer use. On Monday morning, Rachel said, her husband was handed a can of disinfectant powder without any explanation.
“You take a baseline of poor conditions and then you add to it,” said David Patton, executive director and attorney-in-chief for the group, a nonprofit focused on defending impoverished people accused of federal crimes. “It’s all just a recipe for disaster, so when we get no information from [officials] about what their plan is, [it] makes us nervous.”
Rachel worries a coronavirus outbreak in these facilities could result in federal officials restricting visits by family members and legal counsel for inmates. But that’s not something likely to happen in the U.S., and advocates say measures should be taken in correctional facilities that could halt the spread of infectious disease.include comprehensive testing protocols, greater precautionary measures such as “frequent cleaning and ready availability of soap and tissues,” and ensuring that anyone who tests positive for the virus be quarantined not at prisons but at hospitals.