Statehouse News Bureau

The Statehouse News Bureau provides educational, comprehensive coverage of legislation, elections, issues and other activities surrounding the Statehouse to Ohio's public radio and television stations.

Prisons Head: Staff And Inmates Should Be In Next Round Of Vaccines

By Karen Kasler

Published December 11, 2020 at 5:25 PM EST

A hallway at the Pickaway Correctional Institution in Orient. It was one of two national hotspots in the early part of the pandemic, with a huge percentage of inmates showing positive results for coronavirus after mass testing. [Dan Konik] — A hallway at the Pickaway Correctional Institution in Orient. It was one of two national hotspots in the early part of the pandemic, with a huge percentage of inmates showing positive results for coronavirus after mass testing.

When Ohio gets its first shipments of the COVID-19 vaccine, medical professionals, residents and staff at long-term care facilities and EMS workers will be first in line. But it’s unclear where those in the more controversial congregate setting of prisons might end up on the vaccine priority list.

109 Ohio inmates have been confirmed to have died from COVID-19 – another eight are probable COVID deaths. Seven prison workers died of COVID, including two recently.

So Ohio prisons director Annette Chambers-Smith said though it may be a challenge when discussing vaccine priority for offenders, she’ll push for inmates and workers to be near the top for the next round of vaccines.

“I definitely will be advocating for DRC to be a part of that mix," Chambers-Smith said. "We’re obviously a congregate setting. We obviously have people that have died. Congregate settings are just more vulnerable.”

Gov. Mike DeWine has said prison staff will be a priority for the next batch of vaccines, but he’s not sure about inmates.

The latest numbers show more than 620 staff and 370 inmates are COVID positive.

Two of Ohio's prisons - the Marion Correctional Facility and the Pickaway Correctional Institution - became national hotspots early in the pandemic, in part because of mass testing at those facilities.

The prison population is lower than it's been in 15 years. Chambers-Smith said it's gone down by about 5,000 people during the pandemic, and that's because of several factors, including fewer trials and some judicial releases of inmates near the end of their sentences.