Prisoners were deeply affected by COVID-19 and have been dealing with the aftermath. A 2020 study found that 3,251 of every 100,000 people in U.S. prisons and jails contracted the virus that spring, more than five times the national rate, even as prisons locked down and for a time ended all family visits, recreational opportunities, religious services, and prison programming, Mother Jones reports. According to a study in the journal Health & Justice, 86% of corrections agencies acknowledged reduced programming during COVID-19. “When Covid restrictions were lifted, I thought we’d get the programs back,” says Antoine Davis, a Washington state inmate. Voicing a widespread complaint among prisoners and education advocates, he says that rather than reinstating vital programs and educational opportunities, his state's corrections department prioritized strategies to prevent individuals from reentering prisons after normal operations resumed, resulting in diminished programming options for inmates.
Chris Wright, the Washington Department of Corrections press secretary, acknowledges that since COVID, low staffing levels and a shortage of volunteers have prevented classes from taking place. “There were about 7,000” volunteer instructors, he explains, “prior to COVID and that number has dropped to roughly 1,500,” under a new security screening process. The state also put new restrictions on unsupervised peer-to-peer groups—programming that required leadership of prisoners and the participation of sponsors from the outside community. The situation in Washington is just one example of how the aftermath of pandemic cuts have lingered across prisons. While advocates report some states’ prison programming has returned to pre-pandemic levels, other states have not seen volunteers or educators who led classes return. “COVID wasn’t a single event,” says Lois Davis, a specialist in prison education programs and the co-author of a RAND Corporation study that documented how prisons’ responses to the pandemic lowered the quality of programming, as they offered fewer courses in vocational, basic, and secondary education.
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