Several states have started vaccinating people in prison. Such a large scale vaccination effort behind bars raises big questions:
How are facilities incentivizing prisoners to be vaccinated? How much information are people behind bars given before being vaccinated? Will people be punished or put in isolation if they refuse to be vaccinated? How many incarcerated people want to be vaccinated?
To answer these questions, and many others, we need your help.
The Marshall Project created a survey to gauge prisoners’ attitudes towards the coronavirus vaccine. The results of the survey will be included in an article about the challenges of vaccine roll out behind bars. We will also publish an explainer about the coronavirus vaccine based on people’s questions and concerns about the virus. Both articles will be published online and will appear in the seventh edition of News Inside, our print publication for incarcerated people that is distributed in over 500 facilities across the country.
If you have a loved one or friend behind bars, or if you are a lawyer, minister or educator that works with incarcerated people — please consider taking this survey together during your next phone call or email exchange. It should take no more than 15 minutes. The more people we hear from, the clearer a picture we will have about what’s working and what’s not as states set out to slow the spread of coronavirus behind bars.
If you’d like to get in touch directly, please contact Nicole Lewis at 212-803-5272 or nlewis@themarshallproject.org. Incarcerated people can add Lewis on JPAY or GTL using her email.
We take your privacy seriously, and will not share your information or publish your name without permission.