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Are you more likely to be infected by the coronavirus at home than in prison?

Thursday, September 3, 2020
By Jacqueline Agustin
NO

A July study in the American Medical Association's journal found that coronavirus infection rates in prisons are 5 1/2 times higher than that in the general U.S. population and that the death rate is three times higher. Statistics compiled by The New York Times rank prisons, correctional facilities and jails as the sixteen largest clusters of outbreaks so far.

There are a number of factors in prisons that make it difficult to follow recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit dedicated to criminal justice reform, cites overcrowding, the vulnerability of older prisoners and some other groups and a lack of quality medical care.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
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Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.
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