Smart steps to prevent devastating coronavirus outbreaks in prisons (opinion)

But that will likely change, and soon. “We know that at some point we’re going to have a case,” said Patty Hayes, director of public health for Seattle and King County, Washington, this week, referring to a potential coronavirus case in local jails.

Of the 2.3 million incarcerated people in the US, roughly 165,000 are over the age of 55. And compared to the general population, people in jail and prison are more likely to have preexisting health conditions such as high blood pressure, asthma, cancer, arthritis and infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, hepatitis C and HIV. We’re still learning about the coronavirus, but what we do know so far is that these two populations are most at risk of falling ill or dying from it.

Failing to act could expose tens of thousands of people in prisons and jails across the country to the virus. Given the crowded nature of our correctional institutions, an outbreak is likely and the probability of correctional staff and visitors picking up the virus and carrying it back into their communities could be high.

Public officials must address this threat seriously. Here are five reasonable actions they can take:

1. Identify people who are scheduled to be released from prison or jail in the next six months and release them into home confinement, barring a specific reason against doing so. This is not a suggestion to carelessly unleash a flood of danger into the streets. Rather, we’re talking about individuals who aren’t considered to be public safety threats by state correctional departments and parole boards.

People who’ve successfully completed at least three years of supervision should be transferred to administrative supervision or have their supervision terminated altogether. And technical violations committed during supervision should be discarded to limit the unnecessary human contact of people being cycled back into jail and prison over noncriminal activity.

Even without the looming threat of a global pandemic, these are all smart on crime solutions that would improve the safety of our communities and restore dignity to people in the criminal justice system.

But in the face of a nationwide coronavirus outbreak, they’re particularly critical steps that policymakers should take. None of these common-sense measures would do anything to put society in harm’s way. But they could spare thousands of hospitalizations, relieve pressure on our nation’s strained medical resources and, most importantly, save lives.

People in prison or jail may have made bad decisions to wind up behind bars, but they’re still human beings worthy of God’s grace. As our country braces itself for the coronavirus, let’s make sure that those in the justice system are protected, too.