In Baltimore, COVID halted prosecutions for low-level crimes

The global pandemic that infected more than 168 million people worldwide took a disproportionate toll on people housed in group settings.

“Any space you find that has people packed together, they will be at high risk for Covid-19,” said Lawrence Brown, Ph. D, a former associate professor in the School of Community Health and Policy at Morgan State University.

COVID-19 has killed 3.5 million over 12 months, according to Public health experts, who say African Americans are especially susceptible to the deadly virus.

Brown said the virus targets areas that are hyper-segregated, meaning a high degree of segregation exists between black and white people throughout the city.

“Black communities don’t get the same resources,” Brown said. “When you don’t get the same resources, you don’t get the same level of public health, you don’t get good grocery stores, you don't get good exercise facilities, and that's what leaves black communities vulnerable to Covid-19 or any other disease.”

Brown is now a visiting associate professor at the Population Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

In the Baltimore City Detention Center, two detainees were held in one cell that was hardly big enough for one. According to a research report from Prison Insight, the Baltimore City Detention Center is separated into five buildings, holding a total capacity of 4,000 inmates. In each building, up to 800 inmates are in close proximity with each other because they share a cell with another inmate.

The cramped jail space raised an obvious question: How can inmates practice social distancing if there is no space to distance themselves from other people?

According to the Frederick News-Post, Maryland jail cells “are 6 feet by 9 feet, smaller than the average parking space.”

If detainees cannot spread 6 feet apart from each other, it is extremely difficult to follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's guidelines advising everyone to practice social distancing.

“If there’s one thing that jails do,” Brown said, “it's to pack people closely together. If one inmate contracts Covid-19, you can't be 6 feet apart.”

Since the beginning of the covid-19 outbreak in March 2020, the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services reports Baltimore detainees and inmates contracted nearly 1,100 cases of the virus .( Cumulative Covid Cases, May 2021 https://dpscs.maryland.gov/covid-19/).

In an effort to reduce the number of incarcerations during the pandemic, States Attorney for Baltimore City Marilyn Mosby halted prosecution of people accused of low-level offenses, joining more than 30 other prosecutors throughout the U.S. who have adopted similar policies. (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-21/prosecutors-are-halting-arrests-amid-covid-19-outbreak)

In the state of North Carolina, hundreds of inmates have been released early from prisons over Covid-19 concerns. According to CBS17, “Inmates who are released early are non-violent offenders who have underlying health conditions, are pregnant or who are at high-risk for the virus, according to DPS.”

Several other states, including Michigan, Kentucky and New Jersey have also released inmates to relieve the number of people packed into jails.