Thousands of inmates at state prisons have now been infected with COVID, and 39 have died, but state officials aren’t sure when they might start vaccinations behind bars.
If you’re a regular RADIO IQ listener, you may remember the story of Andre Daniels, a 32-year-old inmate at the Greensville Correctional Center, serving a 21-year sentence for carjacking. Daniels says he was in a bad mental state at the time, having lost his job in construction, and just wanted to leave Hampton Roads.
“My life was just spiraling out of control," he recalls. " I wasn't able to find a job, and I fell behind on my bills, got evicted from my apartment and everything was just happening so fast.”
Eight years after entering prison, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a form of blood cancer. He’s had treatments over the last four years, but doctors stopped chemo for two months when COVID hit Greensville, infecting more than 700 inmates and staff.
Under a court order, Daniels – whose immune system is compromised – might have qualified for a conditional pardon. Eden Heilman is with the American Civil Liberties Union which had sued the Virginia Department of Corrections on behalf of sick imates.
“In the settlement agreement, the governor agreed to prioritize people with COVID-related medical concerns," she explains. "We have not received any information from the governor’s office about how many people have been considered for conditional grants, how many people they are granting, and so we continue to put pressure on the governor to be transparent about what that process looks like, and why it’s moving so slow.”
Daniels requested a pardon in May but heard nothing. Then, in late June, he was diagnosed with COVID. He suffered a mild case of the virus, but now – at six feet tall – he weighs just 140 pounds and his cancer is spreading again. He says his life depends on God and the governor.
"Mr. Northam, I was wrong for what I did. I deserve to do time," he admits, "but at the same time I’m a human being just like you, Sir. I have made mistakes just like you, Sir. I want to live right and I want to do the right thing, and I will. I’m just asking for a second chance."
The state has freed nearly 1,300 people under a plan approved by the legislature to protect inmates with less than a year left on their sentence, but an unknown number of inmates at high risk of death if they contract COVID are only eligible for pardons, and Heilman says they deserve consideration too.
" They are forced into spaces that are tightly packed with people. They have limited access to cleaning supplies. They have very little control over where they go, so they’re at incredibly high risk, just like people in nursing homes and hospitals."
The ACLU is now asking lawyers to assist at-risk prisoners in preparing pardon requests, but Heilman isn’t sure how much that might help.
"Even if we get attorney volunteers and we get these great applications completed, if we don’t have assurances from the administration that they are actually going to review and potentially approve some of these, it’s basically all for naught, so we’re very concerned about the governor’s lack of accountability and prioritizing of this issue," she says.
During phase one, now underway, Virginia will inoculate prison staff and inmates in assisted living, but it’s not clear whether others who are incarcerated will get COVID shots any time soon. Officials cite a limited supply of vaccine and have created a committee of scientists, ethics experts, faith and community leaders to advise on which at-risk groups should be vaccinated earliest.
The American Medical Association supports including prisoners in phase one, noting they’re more likely than the general population to get sick, and those who develop bad cases of COVID could put further strain on hospitals. Nine states, including North Carolina and Maryland, say they will offer early vaccination to inmates in jails and prisons.
