In early 2021, the COVID-19 vaccination plan in Kansas was to vaccinate those in jails and prisons, in the second round of injections.
That placed inmates ahead of Kansas residents aged 18 to 64 with severe medical risks, who were scheduled in the third round.
The plan, based on CDC guidelines, also meant inmates could be vaccinated before victims, and family, affected by the crime for which the prisoner was being held.
The Kansas Senate reviewed the plan, and it is now a year later:
- Early in the pandemic two-thirds of Kansas prisoners had been afflicted with the virus.
- Seventy-eight percent of Kansas inmates were eventually vaccinated, where only about 50% of all Kansans had received at least one dose, by choice.
- As Delta-variant infections surged, COVID-19 infections among Kansas inmates were very low.
- There were just over 6,100 cases of the virus from early 2020, through February, 2021, at Kansas Department of Corrections facilities.
- The Kansas prison system saw only 72 cases from March, 2021, through August, 2021.
Photograph © 2021 Larry F. Levenson.
All rights reserved.
United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth, Kansas
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