By Brian Amaral
Providence Journal
CRANSTON, R.I. — More than three out of four inmates and all the staffers at the Adult Correctional Institutions who have been offered a COVID-19 vaccine have taken it as of Monday, according to state data.
After avoiding major problems through the first wave of the pandemic, the ACI was hit over the fall and early winter with large outbreaks in the medium and maximum security facilities. Two inmates and one correctional officer died after contracting the virus; 988 inmates and 243 facility staff members tested positive from the beginning of the pandemic through Dec. 31, according to state data.
Vaccinations began last month as infections continued at the state prison complex in Cranston. The state has now vaccinated 265 of the roughly 2,100 inmates at the ACI, starting with the most vulnerable — inmates over 65, inmates over 55 with comorbidities, and immunocompromised inmates.
Seventy-nine people incarcerated there have refused the vaccine, for a 23% refusal rate. Among high-risk inmates, the refusal rate was 9%, according to the state.
Of 113 staff members offered the vaccine so far, every single one has taken it, according to state data.
“As an agency, we’re very proud of the engagement percentage we have,” said J.R. Ventura, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections.
Inmates were vaccinated at clinics on Dec. 26, Dec. 29, then again on Sunday and Monday, according to data from the Department of Corrections. Ventura said they’d redouble their efforts to persuade people to take the vaccine if they’d previously declined it.
“Some of the refusals may just need more information,” Ventura said.
Staff clinics took place on Dec. 22 and 23. The state had 820 correctional officer positions as of last year, and there are other positions, like nurses, support staff and social workers, who will have to be vaccinated too.
Another 400 staff vaccinations are scheduled for next week. The state actually has a waiting list for staffers who have age or medical risk factors and are eager to get their shots, Ventura said.
Richard Ferruccio, the president of the Rhode Island Brotherhood of Correctional Officers, attributed the high rate of vaccinations among staff to two things: The fact that it was offered to the highest-risk people first, and the death of corrections lieutenant Russell Freeman. Freeman, 52, died of COVID complications in December.
Ferruccio said the vaccinations are expected to continue until February.
The shots — the state is using both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines at the ACI — require a two-dose regimen, spaced out a few weeks apart, and not enough time has passed for anyone at the ACI to get their second shot.
The outbreaks at the ACI have prompted some in the community to call for broader efforts to further reduce the prison population.
“Have we turned over every stone we can in terms of getting people out?” said Dr. Jody Rich, an infectious diseases specialist who’s also the director and co-founder of the Center for Health and Justice Transformation at The Miriam Hospital. “Somehow every other society in the entire world has been able to function without incarcerating nearly the proportion of citizens we do. We’ve just gone incarceration crazy.”
It’s a nationwide issue, Rich said. Throughout the country, high prison populations have created “tinderboxes” for outbreaks. Rich, before the pandemic, worked at the ACI.
“Now we’re paying the price,” Rich said.
Rich works at the ACI as a consultant to the Rhode Island Department of Corrections, taking care of patients with a focus on infectious diseases and addiction.
The rate of vaccination at the ACI “probably puts us at the top of the nation” in terms of vaccinating high-risk incarcerated populations, Rich said.
“It’s the right thing to do from a public health perspective,” Rich said.
The inmate population is now the lowest it’s been in decades, according to Ventura, the DOC spokesman. That’s part of broader efforts, including in the judiciary and police departments, to reduce the number of people living in a congregate and high-risk setting during a pandemic.
But “there are still too many people in Intake that are put into very high-risk situations of exposure, many of whom haven’t even been convicted of crimes,” said Nick Horton, co-executive director of Open Doors RI, a Providence-based nonprofit that provides services for people with criminal records.
Horton said he was happy about the prioritization of people working in and incarcerated at the ACI, and the work done to inform people about the vaccine. With low population numbers now, they should focus on keeping them low, potentially by closing some ACI facilities, Horton said.
“The pandemic has shown us a critical need to re-evaluate the use of mass incarceration,” Horton said.
Statewide as of Monday, 24,145 had received one dose of vaccine and 121 had received two doses of vaccine statewide. The very first shots went to hospitals in mid-December. First-responders and people living in Central Falls are also now getting vaccinated at clinics.
On Dec. 28, nursing home and assisted living facility vaccinations started. No data was available from the state as of Monday about how that was going so far.
But anecdotal observations from the industry were available. Scott Fraser, head of the trade group for nursing homes in the state, said his members are telling him that upwards of 90% of residents are getting the vaccine, in some cases as high as 99.5% or “all but one resident.” Staff participation has been around 60% or higher. The vaccine wasn’t slated to reach every home in the state until later this month.
That’s higher than the anecdotal observations he’s seen nationwide, said Fraser, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Health Care Association.
In other states, homes are reporting that more people have signed up for their first shot when the clinics come back for follow-ups, so participation might be higher as more people get vaccinated, Fraser said. The homes and their medical directors in Rhode Island are doing educational campaigns about the vaccines’ safety and effectiveness.
“We’d always like to see the numbers higher,” Fraser said.
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