California needs to protect its prison staff and inmates during COVID-19 pandemic

[UCI associate professors] Naomi Sugie, Keramet Reiter and Kristin Turney write, “Closing the gap between policies and practices is challenging but critical. Promising efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19 infections have been undertaken at other vulnerable institutions, such as hospitals and nursing homes. Prisons must be the “third” institutional wave of attention. Prisons, and especially their staff, are as critical to containing COVID-19 and protecting our communities as our hospitals.”