While
many
Americans
are
following the urging of the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention
to practice social distancing due to
the COVID-19 outbreak, those in
prisons are often unable to comply
with this recommendation.
Nora Krinitsky, interim director
of the Prison Creative Arts Project
and director of the University of
Michigan Carceral State Project,
said one of the reasons the risk of
contracting COVID-19 is so great for
incarcerated individuals is due to
their close quarters. Krinitsky cited
an example of overcrowding in the
Women’s Huron Valley Correctional
Facility in Ypsilanti, which is the
only women’s correctional facility
in the state of Michigan. The facility
currently houses more than 2,200
women but was built to house a
capacity of only 1,100 inmates.
“If people are within proximity
with one another and have the
virus, the spread of it goes up
exponentially,”
Krinitsky
said.
“That
is
what
people
inside
are facing because they cannot
successfully
socially
distance
(from) one another. So that means
that we could see people become
infected and ill, potentially almost
wholesale, within a prison very
quickly, meaning in a number of
days.”
Krinitsky said many people
develop
underlying
conditions
while incarcerated due to the
stressful
environment
and
commonly inadequate health care.
These conditions have been cited
by the CDC to increase one’s chance
of contracting the virus and could
make fighting it off much more
difficult.
“Healthcare
in
prisons
is
sometimes difficult to access and
sometimes non-existent,” Krinitsky
said. “It’s already the case that
people who are inside or people
who come home from prison often
have really acute medical conditions
or chronic conditions that they’re
dealing with that have either been
caused by their incarceration or
exacerbated by their incarceration.”
Chris
Gautz,
Michigan
Department
of
Corrections
spokesperson, said the MDC is
taking
drastic
precautions
to
reduce the likelihood of the spread
of the virus inside their facilities.
Gautz spoke of precautions for
social distancing, such as reducing
General Educational Development
and substance abuse class sizes and
reducing the number of inmates
in the dining hall during meal
times. As of March 30, 80 currently
incarcerated people have tested
positive in Michigan.
“We are reducing the class sizes
that we have for different GED
classes, substance abuse, other
types of cognitive programming
that we do every day,” Gautz said.
“Typically less than 10 individuals
in those classes, and we’re having
them sit further apart while they’re
in the class. We’re doing the same
thing for our chow hall so when they
go out to eat meals, instead of having
an entire housing unit go out to eat
together, which could be anywhere
from 80 to 160 people at a time, we’re
doing half of that amount.”
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Incarcerated individuals face additional
risks as coronavirus pandemic progresses
Correctional facilities
are often unable to
meet recommendations
for containing outreak
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CAMPUS LIFE
Despite being unable to host
the event in-person due to the
coronavirus outbreak, VictorThon
attendees
danced
their
way
virtually to raising a preliminary
sum of more than $280,000 for
the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital
over the weekend.
VictorThon
has
been
the
culminating event for Dance
Marathon at the University of
Michigan since the organization
was first established on campus
23 years ago.
Virtual event aids C.S.
Mott Children’s Hospital
U-M Dance
Marathon
raises $280K
Students talk impact of social distancing
Shifting to online classes, new CDC guidelines affect mental health, productivity
LSA sophomore Sree Anumolu
thought staying in her apartment
in Ann Arbor after classes were
moved
online
would
be
fun.
However, as more of her friends
started to leave, she decided to
return home as well.
Anumolu
has
obsessive-
compulsive disorder, which she
said can affect her productivity
and well-being. She told The Daily
having a community and staying
busy with school helps her to
manage OCD triggers, but social
distancing prevents her from using
socializing as a coping mechanism.
“My OCD has been really bad
for the past two years, but this
year started getting a lot better
because I just talked to my friends
about it and just tried to actively
forget about it,” Anumolu said.
“Trying to get out of the habits
and being with people helped a lot.
I remember compared to freshman
year, I became much more social
this year because I just knew that
having a strong circle was what I
needed to get out of it. For classes,
I made sure I kept myself busy
because if I keep myself busy,
those thoughts don’t come to me.”
Music,
Theatre
&
Dance
freshman
Payal
Parida
said
she saw her friends on campus
every day and the lack of social
interaction has been the hardest
part about leaving campus.
“I had my friends, we would
spend 24/7 together,” Parida said.
“I would not go a day without
seeing them and they were pretty
much like my second family. So
having that be completely cut off
like, so abrupt, was extremely
hard. You realize how important
social interaction is and as a human
being, isolation is so difficult, at
least for me.”
Christine
Asidao,
associate
director
of
community
engagement
and
outreach
for
Counseling
and
Psychological
Services, and Todd Sevig, director
of CAPS, told The Daily in an
email how CAPS is offering virtual
and phone appointments to those
experiencing anxiety due to social
distancing.
See DMUM, Page 3
JENNA SITEMAN
Daily Staff Reporter
DESIGN BY CHRISTINE JEGARL
See MENTAL HEALTH, Page 3
JASMIN LEE &
VARSHA VEDAPUDI
Daily Staff Reporters
CLAIRE HAO &
IZZI NGUYEN
Daily News Editor & For The Daily