COVID-19 is rapidly spreading through prisons and jails, including those in Massachusetts, where people are housed in close contact with each other in dormitory style settings and double cells and forced to share showers, toilets, and sinks. Such conditions render social distancing impossible, putting incarcerated people and correctional facility staff, as well as the families of staff and their communities, at grave risk of infection. Already, at least 7 people detained in Massachusetts’ prisons and jails have died of COVID-19,
4 and 470 have tested positive.