{"id":33938,"date":"2021-04-15T05:00:05","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T10:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=33938"},"modified":"2021-06-11T14:01:10","modified_gmt":"2021-06-11T19:01:10","slug":"oklahoma-prisons-ahead-in-vaccinations-but-advocates-say-earlier-access-could-have-saved-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2021\/04\/15\/oklahoma-prisons-ahead-in-vaccinations-but-advocates-say-earlier-access-could-have-saved-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma prisons ahead in vaccinations but advocates say earlier access could have saved lives"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_33260\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-33260\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/09\/MBCC-2019-e1600907935190-1920x1112.jpg\" alt=\"A woman waves from behind a barred window.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1112\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/09\/MBCC-2019-e1600907935190-1920x1112.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/09\/MBCC-2019-e1600907935190-672x389.jpg 672w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/09\/MBCC-2019-e1600907935190-768x445.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/09\/MBCC-2019-e1600907935190-150x87.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/09\/MBCC-2019-e1600907935190-300x174.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/09\/MBCC-2019-e1600907935190-620x359.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/09\/MBCC-2019-e1600907935190-1865x1080.jpg 1865w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Quinton Chandler \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A woman waves from a prison window at Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in 2019.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"width: 100%; height: 170px; margin-bottom: 20px; border-radius: 10px; overflow:hidden;\"><iframe style=\"width: 100%; height: 170px;\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless src=\"https:\/\/player.captivate.fm\/episode\/5cfb721e-ffc5-4d11-b527-7c976d21e861\"><\/iframe><\/div><p>The chance to see visitors without putting them at risk is a strong incentive for Oklahoma prisoners to take COVID-19 vaccines.<\/p><p>The Department of Corrections stopped allowing visitors in its buildings last fall to prevent spreading coronavirus. Earlier this month the agency decided it was safe enough to <a href=\"https:\/\/oklahoma.gov\/doc\/newsroom\/2021\/odoc-to-resume-inmate-visitations.html\">allow prisoners\u2019 family and friends to come back.<\/a><\/p><p>Ellen Stackable, executive director of Poetic Justice says the Oklahomans behind prison walls miss their families.<\/p><p>Poetic Justice is an organization that offers therapeutic writing classes to incarcerated women.<\/p><p>Stackable asked six women in her program from Eddie Warrior and Mabel Bassett Correctional Centers whether they\u2019d agreed to take the vaccines. All but two said \u2018yes.\u2019<\/p><p>\u201cOne of them has asthma. And she said, I would rather take a chance with a vaccine than take a chance with not being able to breathe,\u201d Stackable said.<\/p><p>Months after COVID-19 vaccines were approved in the U.S., most of the country&#8217;s prisoners had not been vaccinated.<\/p><p>The Marshall Project and Associated Press reported earlier this month <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarshallproject.org\/2021\/04\/06\/as-states-expand-vaccine-eligibility-many-people-in-prison-still-wait-for-shots\">fewer than 20% of state and federal prisoners in the U.S. had gotten a shot.<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Progress in Oklahoma prisons<\/h3><p>Vaccine distribution is more advanced in Oklahoma prisons, but some advocates say vaccines should have been delivered to prisoners sooner.<\/p><p>Nearly half the state\u2019s prisoner population had been vaccinated by late March. By April 12, that had increased to a little more than 53% of the population.<\/p><p>The Oklahoma State Department of Health and the Department of Corrections are working together to vaccinate prisoners.<\/p><p>Prisoners have to ask to get a vaccine. Justin Wolf, a spokesperson for the Department of Corrections, says the agency will keep giving shots to anyone who asks until everyone who is willing has been vaccinated.<\/p><p>Wolf says some prisoners have taken the Moderna vaccine, but he isn\u2019t sure which other vaccines may have been passed out.<\/p><p>\u201cWe use what we have available,\u201d Wolf said.<\/p><p>The Department of Corrections does not have the authority to require that prisoners take the vaccines. Wolf says it is also not compelling staff to be vaccinated.<\/p><p>About a third of the department\u2019s employees were vaccinated internally by the end of March.<\/p><p>Wolf says the agency doesn\u2019t track whether staff members get a vaccine outside of work.<\/p>\n<h3>Prisoners had to wait<\/h3><p>Some prisoner advocates say incarcerated people had to wait too long for a shot. The health department had given over 50 of the corrections agency\u2019s medical staff vaccinations by late January.<\/p><p>Incarcerated people were in the second phase of the state\u2019s vaccine distribution plan.<\/p><p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news9.com\/story\/5fe9e517afb6792f68694e42\/firefighters-other-frontline-workers-get-covid19-vaccine-as-phase-2-begins-\">state began distributing vaccines in phase two<\/a> late last year but <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/technology-oklahoma-coronavirus-pandemic-2403f90d41b39063cd6f668d76184b68\">the supply was limited. <\/a><\/p><p>Oklahoma prisoners did not <a href=\"https:\/\/oklahoma.gov\/doc\/newsroom\/2021\/odoc-begins-vaccinating-inmates.html\">receive shots until March<\/a>, despite data suggesting U.S. prisoners have caught the coronavirus <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/live\/2021\/04\/10\/world\/covid-vaccine-coronavirus-cases\">at much higher rates<\/a> than people outside prison.<\/p><p>Nicole McAfee with the ACLU of Oklahoma says she is happy people in prisons are getting vaccinated but disappointed in the speed of the rollout.<\/p><p>\u201cWe likely cost people their lives by waiting,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are still seeing (COVID-19) deaths, still seeing hospitalizations for folks in prisons because of (COVID-19).\u201d<\/p><p>The Department of Corrections reports since January, 11 people in its custody might have died from COVID-19. There were 543 positive coronavirus tests among state prisoners in that time. New cases declined shortly <a href=\"https:\/\/oklahoma.gov\/doc\/covid-19-stats.html\">after prisoner vaccinations began.<\/a><\/p><p>\u201cThe amount of vaccine \u2026 available has been and will continue to be an issue, but the prioritization is where incarcerated folks have been failed again and again,\u201d McAfee said.<\/p><p>She points out the state put people that live in other congregate living facilities such as nursing and assisted living homes in the <a href=\"https:\/\/oklahoma.gov\/content\/dam\/ok\/en\/covid19\/documents\/vaccine\/COVID-19%20Vaccine%20Priority%20Population%20Framework%20for%20Oklahoma%20-%2012-10-20.pdf\">first phase of its vaccine rollout.<\/a>\u00a0Those individuals are also at much higher risk of catching the coronavirus than the general population.<\/p><p>\u201cWe made the effort as a state to prioritize folks in congregate living facilities sort of across the board, except for prisons and jails in phase one,\u201d McAfee said.<\/p><p>She says incarcerated people are still a part of Oklahoma\u2019s communities and immunizing them is an important step toward ending the pandemic.<\/p><p>But vaccine availability is not the only obstacle impeding COVID-19 immunity behind bars. Hesitancy to take the vaccine must also be overcome.<\/p><p>Nearly every woman incarcerated in Eddie Warrior caught the coronavirus last year.<\/p><p>Ellen Stackable says that\u2019s played a role in why one woman there won\u2019t get vaccinated.<\/p><p>\u201cShe was one &#8230; who did not test positive for (COVID-19) last summer and she said, \u2018Well, I think I&#8217;m immune and I&#8217;m not going to take a chance,\u2019\u201d Stackable recalled.<\/p><p>Another woman Stackable spoke to said she was worried the vaccines hadn\u2019t been tested enough. They both repeated some of the same suspicions people outside prison have voiced.<\/p><p>McAfee from the ACLU says education will be key to overcoming the doubt.<\/p><p>Stackable thinks more people will volunteer as they see friends change their minds and roll up their sleeves, which is a trend also seen outside of prison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over half of Oklahoma&#8217;s state prisoners are at least partially vaccinated against the coronavirus. Prisoner advocates say incarcerated people needed access sooner than the state authorized. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":201,"featured_media":33260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"page-noFeature.php","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[1223,1238,1339,1343,1341,1318,1340,1342,1344],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33938"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/201"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33938"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34079,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33938\/revisions\/34079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}