New Yorkers Support Expanding Vaccine Eligibility to Prisoners and Detainees
By Isa Alomran
New York State has recently moved to phase 1B of its vaccine rollout plan. In this latest phase, in accordance with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), further categories of people in high-risk settings were made eligible to receive the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine. These groups include people deemed essential frontline workers such as first responders, and individuals in high-risk congregate settings like in-person college instructors and residents and staff of homeless shelters with communal facilities.
While this new phase also covers officers working in state and local corrections facilities, it makes no mention of those who reside in them despite recommendations by the federal government to vaccinate both inmates and staff of correctional facilities to reduce the risk of community transmission. Moreover, while inmates aged 65 and older are now technically eligible for the vaccine under New York guidelines, the lack of clear state guidance has meant that one 65 year old inmate with underlying health conditions had to go so far as suing the state in order to access a vaccine.
The state’s failure to take action to ensure the safety of inmates—especially those most vulnerable from age or underlying health conditions—is particularly concerning given the dangers correctional conditions pose to their residents, staff, and surrounding communities. Some studies suggest that incarcerated populations are four times as likely to contract coronavirus and twice as likely to die from it as compared to the rest of the population. Moreover, in facilities in places like New York City, the overcrowding of jails means that residents are unable to exercise social distancing measures, on top of not having access to a readily available supply of PPE.
In new New York state polling by Data for Progress, we asked New York state residents whether they would support including inmates and detainees in the state’s vaccine eligibility plan. We tested messaging around both public health concerns and fairness, and found that a majority of likely voters across the state support vaccinating people in jails and prisons when provided this framing.
To start, voters were informed of how the state’s latest expansion did not mention or include incarcerated or detained persons. Voters were also told of the recommendations by the CDC and public health experts to vaccinate those populations due to the risk of the local community spread. Finally, we asked voters whether or not they support vaccinating those incarcerated in jails and detained in prisons as a public health measure to protect surrounding communities from the coronavirus.
We find high levels of support for this proposal across party and race. Overall, likely voters back this proposal by a 41-point margin (66 percent support, 25 percent oppose). Voters that self-identify as Democrats, Independents or Third Party voters, and Republicans support expanding vaccine eligibility to cover people in jails and prisons by margins of 63-points, 30-points, and 7-points, respectively. Similarly, Black voters say they support this proposal by a margin of 73-points, and white voters back expanding eligibility by a 33-point margin.
We then approached testing voter support for this proposal by using messaging around fairness. Specifically, we provided messaging that argued that as the state’s latest expansion phase made people in high-risk congregate settings eligible for the vaccine—and since corrections facilities across the state and its localities are considered high-risk congregate environments—it is only fair to include incarcerated populations in the state’s new plan.
By a margin of 24-points, likely voters agreed. 58 percent of voters say they support New York state including incarcerated people in the new vaccine expansion plan. Similarly, likely voters that self-identify as Democrats and those who self-identify as Independent / Third Party voters also support this proposal by margins of 39-points and-21 points, respectively. And while Republican voters thought it was the wrong thing to do by a 3 percentage-point margin, 46 percent still support the proposal. Across race, both Black and white voters think people in jails and prisons should be eligible by 63-point and 14-point margins, respectively.
Governor Andrew Cuomo has spent months touting his coronavirus task force's reliance on data and expert advice in issuing responses to the pandemic. In this instance, both the expert advice and the data are clear: prison and jail populations must be included in any consideration of high-risk groups as recommended by public health experts and supported by voters. This move would also be an opportunity for the governor to keep his pledge of “ensuring social and racial justice for the vaccination effort” given the disproportionate make up of prison and jail populations and racial disparities in the effect of COVID-19 on black and brown communities.
Isa Alomran is an intern at Data for Progress.
Methodology
From January 16 to January 19, 2021, Data for Progress conducted a survey of 558 likely voters in New York using web panel respondents. The sample was weighted to be representative of likely voters by age, gender, education, race, and voting history. The survey was conducted in English. The margin of error is ±4.1 percentage points.
Question Wording
New York state has expanded vaccine eligibility to include additional categories of people in high risk congregate settings. The state's new vaccine plan does not currently include people in corrections facilities. Public health experts and the CDC recommend vaccinating incarcerated and detained persons as a public health measure, to protect surrounding communities from additional virus spread.
When thinking about this, do you support or oppose including incarcerated and detained persons in the states new vaccine plan?
Strongly support
Somewhat support
Somewhat oppose
Strongly oppose
Don't know
Recently, New York state has expanded its vaccine eligibility to include additional categories of people in congregate settings, including residents of homeless shelters, in-person college instructors, and corrections officers.
Some medical experts and advocates want the state to also include individuals in jails or prisons. They argue that correctional facilities are congregate settings, and since people in other high risk settings are becoming eligible for the vaccine, it's only fair that people in jails and prisons are too.
Others say that incarcerated people should not be included. Vaccines are limited, and many people will likely have to wait months to get vaccinated. Asking people to wait longer to be vaccinated so that incarcerated people can be vaccinated first is not fair.
Which of the following comes closer to your view, even if neither is exactly right?
People in jails and prisons should be eligible
Detained and incarcerated people should not be included in this new expansion
Don't know