Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
'They Acted Late': While Virus Spread Throughout This Prison, Actions Taken Were Scattershot, Too Slow
Roderick Keith Dirden has been trying for months to get out of an overcrowded dormitory at the California Institution for Men, where he has been in intermittent lockdown since Covid-19 started sweeping through the prison. 鈥淚鈥檓 not looking for somebody to jump out of a parachute to save me,鈥 he said in a phone interview with STAT. He鈥檚 simply looking, he said, for the system to keep inmates safe. (Guo, 6/12)
In April, amid growing fear that prisons could be tinderboxes for the coronavirus, Gov. Tom Wolf announced he would grant temporary reprieves to certain nonviolent state inmates who have medical conditions that make them particularly vulnerable.It was a power move by Wolf, who initially opted to wait for a plan from the GOP-led legislature, but reversed course after it became clear a bill would be limited to 450 people. At the time of the announcement, Wolf said, 鈥淭here is a premium on speed here. We need to move quickly." (Jaafari and McKinney, 6/11)
