Washington D.C., Mar 23, 2020 / 03:01 pm (CNA).- The worldwide outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) is beginning to touch one of the populations in the United States most vulnerable to disease: the incarcerated.
A growing number of prisons in the US have confirmed cases of COVID-19, and most have suspended visits for inmates.
In the face of such precautions, prison chaplains throughout the country have had to adapt their ministry.
Joe Cotton, director of prison ministry in the Archdiocese of Seattle, told CNA that all of his chaplains are currently blocked from entering the facilities where they normally minister.
Seattle has one the highest rates of infection in the United States, with more than 1,600 confirmed cases and more than 90 deaths. Washington State was also the site of the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the US.
“So we’re trying to be as creative as we can— some of our chaplains are doing things like developing their reflections and Communion services and programming, working from home and getting ahead, and using this time for getting things ready for when we can go back in, so that they’re well ahead of the game,” Cotton told CNA.
He said his team that normally ministers at a juvenile facility got especially creative, setting up a telephone answering service to forward calls from inmates directly to chaplains’ cell phones, depending on a schedule of chaplains’ availability throughout the week that they set up.
“Tonight’s my night, for example. So between five and nine, I’ll have my cell phone on me, and if the answering service calls me, it means someone on the inside wants to talk to a chaplain over the phone. So that’s one of the creative things that we’re doing to at least make chaplains still available…although that’s not happening in every facility.”
Art Alvarez, who has ministered at Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles for the past 14 years, told CNA that for now, he is still able to go into the facility to minister to the men, but must keep a safe distance to avoid bringing in the virus.
In L.A., chaplains are still able to enter county jails, though that may soon change. In state prisons, all the chaplains’ operations have been canceled.
Alvarez said he has had to adapt to speaking to the men through the doors of their cells through food slots that are no longer used for food, but which are once again serving a purpose.
He said the inmates are able to have access to the news and have a pretty good idea what is going on.
“They’re concerned about their families on the outside. But on the inside, with the deputies, they feel pretty safe,” he said.
At at least one major prison— Rikers Island in New York— authorities have released dozens of inmates over fears that they may have contracted the virus. Many county jails are doing the same.
At least 38 people at Rikers Island have contracted COVID-19 and dozens more have likely been exposed to it, the Associated Press reports.
Prison officers and staff in states including California and Michigan have tested positive for the virus, and in Wisconsin, 18 inmates at a prison were quarantined last week after a facility doctor tested positive for the virus, according to reporting from the AP.
In Los Angeles county, which has the largest prison population of any county in the United States, prisoners with non-violent criminal records and who have between two and three months left of their sentences are being released.
Alvarez said he is also continuing to assist with what are known as “extractions”— per state policy, if an inmate refuses to leave his cell, a doctor, a nurse, or a chaplain must be brought in and try to talk the inmate out of his cell before the deputies are allowed to use force.
He said he was recently asked to assist with an extraction whereby the inmate was informed that he was being released, but he didn’t believe that it was really happening.
“This guy didn’t want to go home. He didn’t want to leave,” Alvarez said.
Alvarez said the jail has prepared two entire floors for quarantine, but as of March 21, no inmates are there.
He said the inmates’ attitudes are mixed during this time of uncertainty, and he said the chaplains are trying to reassure the inmates that they are in many ways safer inside than jail
“Some want to stay in, some want to go home and be with their families and protect their families,” he said.
But:
“There’s nothing more that they can say or do.”
In at least two states, Arizona and Minnesota, prison officials have waived copays charged to inmates for medical visits and waived fees for personal hygiene supplies, NPR reports. A California senator is advocating that all low-risk inmates be released nationwide.
In California, prison officials announced that a prisoner at California State Prison, Los Angeles County, has tested positive for COVID-19, and in addition, at least five prison workers have the disease, the LA Times reports.
California Governor Gavin Newsom issued a statewide, mandatory stay at home order on March 19 that workers in critical sectors should go to work. Grocery stores, pharmacies, banks and more will stay open, the governor said.
Gonzalo de Vivero, director of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ Office of Restorative Justice, told CNA that he has been getting calls constantly from his chaplains, asking whether they can continue to do their ministry.
Every jail makes its own rules, he said, and for now the county jails are still allowing chaplains in.
“The mayor [of Los Angeles] is asking everybody to stay home, unless your work is essential. Well, the work of a chaplain is extremely essential. But on the other hand, we have families…and that’s very hard. And the uncertainties are very hard.”
Even before the governor’s order, a lot of the chaplains’ services have had to be reduced, de Vivero said.
As of last week, they could not have more than 10 people in their services in the jails, including the minister; a chaplain last week held a communion service that normally has 35 people, but this time had only nine, de Vivero said.
In Los Angeles County in 2019, de Vivero said, the archdiocesan prison ministry said over 2,000 Masses in jails, with over 25,000 attendants.
de Vivero said he worries that switching to virtual chaplaincy during this time could cause the jails they serve in to be reluctant to allow chaplains into the jails in person after the pandemic ends. He said many of his chaplains are against broadcasting Mass by videoconferencing, and he called it a “dangerous route.”
“The institutions will be very happy to say that all Masses should be via video from now on,” he warned.
“People need people. We cannot replace going to Church with watching Mass on TV.”
de Vivero related a story of one of his chaplains, who was determined to continue to go and serve inmates in the jails during the pandemic, and whose boss at work threatened to fire him if he continued to do so.
Above all, he said, this situation highlights how difficult it is for Catholics to serve the underprivileged, even in non-crisis times.
“We have two pandemics: the virus, and the fear. And I don’t know which one is more dangerous,” he mused.
“I am very concerned about the long-term effects in our jails, because people are going to get extremely sensitive, be more prone to violence…the enemy would like to use this opportunity to fuel disagreements, arguments, and they turn into altercations, and then fights, and we have more problems that nobody needs right now.”
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I suspect that Trump will not do that much for the working class, but perhaps throw them a few culture war bones. The real winners are the billionaires. They always are. Look for big tax cuts for Elon Musk & his buddies.
Hmmm. Well, perhaps. But my real spending power dropped around 25% during the Biden years. Go figure.
I notice absolutely no proof has been offered to back this hyperbolic statement up. You are a liar through and through.
Keep licking those billionaire boots with your crusty and diseased tongue. We all see what you are, Carl.
Between all of 2020 and not all of 2024 the average inflation rate is 4.94% per year, with a cumulative inflation of 21.20%. So, at least a 20 percent erosion on average, absent offsetting pay increases, if any.
Let me offer a few platitudinous condolences:
*Trash talk doesn’t have much staying power.
*Your cross fits you perfectly.
*You’ll be all right.
*Carl’s loss of spending power likely benefitted someone just like you, someone bereft of grace, without any idea of gratitude.
Dave R. I see you. You’ve unmasked yourself. I know Carl, and he is nothing like you, as your post reveals you.
There’s a special place prepared for the hateful. Make a change before you find yourself there.
“Keep licking those billionaire boots with your crusty and diseased tongue. We all see what you are, Carl.”
Oh, I’m sure you do, Davie. Meanwhile:
“Prices are still 21.4% more expensive since the pandemic-induced recession began in February 2020, with only about 6% of the nearly 400 items the Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks cheaper today.”
Your need to make personal attacks is interesting. And sad. You’re a sad guy, Davie boy.
William and Dave R.!
You want facts? During Trump’s first term, real wages — i.e., wages adjusted for inflation — rose by 7 percent, the largest increase for any four-year period since the 1970’s.
That’s according to Wisconsin Watch and Gigafact.
By the way, the largest increases occurred in the wages paid to those workers earning the least.
You need to question your assumptions, sirs. Otherwise you will end up engaging in cartoon thinking like so many on the left.
Dave R
Gas and food is through the roof. Any president, Dem or GOP, should be given at least 2 or 2½ years into their first term in order for their policies to start taking effect. Inflation has been dragging even before Biden took office, and it’s still hanging around almost 4 years later. Whatever he and Harris were doing obviously didn’t work or impress the vast majority of the working class voters who have now found a home in the new Trump Republican party. What we saw two days ago was a pissed off America that fired Kamala Harris for not doing her job.
The working class is now in charge of the ruling class.
“The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” Spoken like a true progressive. Working people voted for Trump. The progressives you support are all funded by billionaires.
Without expressing an election preference, and about the mentioned “numerous legal challenges from state and federal prosecutors,” here’s one fanciful path to be manicured into the White House lawn…
About the FEDERAL CASES in Florida and DC on the unconstitutional disruption of governance on January 6, 2020, and on the on mishandling of classified documents…in the first instance, why not acknowledge that disruptive court appearances for a president now constitute (!) a repeat, and just call it even?
And, regarding CLASSIFIED MATERIALS, why not just let stand the finding that prosecutor Smith was improperly appointed—an unconstitutional assault on the entire judicial system? Likewise, about the RICO charge in Georgia, as with the now past-tense Harris campaign, why not just let the disqualified prosecutor Fani Willis stay in the rearview mirror?
About the CIVIL LAWSUITS—about which even a sitting president is not exempt (sitting, or whatever), why not link the penalty amount for inflated property values (up to $454 Billion redefined as damages) to an inquiry into funny-money budgeting and the inflated national debt incurred by all members of Congress, some $34 Trillion (not billion) and counting…
And, about the coincidental 34 (!) counts on falsified BUSINESS RECORDS, if the conviction stands why not simply impose the least awkward sentence of “community service”? And, assign the next four years of community service (!) in the White House as sufficing, with the corresponding salary donated to some relevant cause?
Oh, wait, like Presidents Washington, Hoover and Kennedy, Trump didn’t accept a presidential salary, for his first four years in the White House. He donated it to the National Park Service, the Department of Education, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Small Business Administration, the Surgeon General’s office and the Department of Agriculture. Maybe this counts, something remotely like jail time already served?
Just sayin’ about these real but dangling-chads, why not just declare victory as smoothly and as unified as possible?
Oops, I slipped a decimal three places! Should read “$454 million,” not billion.
But, still, as the late Senator Everett Dirksen, Majority Leader of the Senate 1959-1969, elucidated: ” “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.”
“And it’s a great day to be alive
I know the sun’s still shining
When I close my eyes
There’s some hard times in the neighborhood
But why can’t every day be just this good…”
Travis Tritt
I voted for a write-in candidate, Thomas Massie, because I could not abide Trump’s greenlighting the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the re-emergence of neo-con Mike Pompeo as probable secretary of state. Our only hope is that the good forces within the Trump campaign–Tucker Carlson, RFK Jr., and Tulsi Gabbard will have his ear. These–and the Holy Ghost!
Fellow Catholics, keep praying that Trump will pursue peace, especially with Russia, and that he will cease to fund and arm the murderous state of Israel.
The “genocide in Gaza” is like unicorns and leprechauns. These are all things that exist only in people’s imagination. The terrorists in Gaza are getting exactly what they deserve.
One of the reasons I voted for Donald Trump was because he has been a true friend of Israel and is not antisemitic. That’s not always the case with populist type politicians.
From what I saw in his first administration I’m hoping he will keep us out of war, especially a global one. Israel’s neighbors, with the exception of iran, want peace.
And the markets spoke the day after the election: the Dow rose 1500 points – the largest increase in many years. The market has a collective intelligence unmatched by any one individual.