Our Reporting on Coronavirus
Coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, criminal justice and immigration.
Stay up to date with our Opening Statement newsletter.
Over 40,000 prisoners, at least, have now tested positive for the coronavirus inside the nation’s prisons, according to our updated data. Big jumps in California and Texas, but corrections officials in only 16 states now report statistics on COVID-19 cases among guards and other employees. Here are the latest figures, in collaboration with the Associated Press. The Marshall Project Related: New study finds that one in six cases of COVID-19 in Chicago can be traced back to prisoners at the Cook County jail. WTTW Bobby Lee Medford, the former sheriff of Buncombe County, North Carolina, died this week at a hospital near FCI Butner. Read our story.
People who live and work in the justice system face unique challenges.
Women are the less visible victims of COVID-19 behind bars. Though only a small number have died their stories illuminate the unique problems women face in prison. Read more.
More on living and working conditions
We’re watching how the criminal justice system responds to the crisis.
A county trying to reopen its economy wrestles with a virus outbreak in prison. So local officials proposed a solution: Don’t count the prisoners. Read more.
More on accountability
