The Pandemic and Prison
A little more than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, a picture is emerging as to the effect the pandemic has had on the nation’s prison and jail systems. The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world. This nation has effectively turned the judicial process of punishing criminal wrongdoers into what has become known as the “prison industrial complex.” The U.S. Justice Department has estimated at least 5,000 federal crimes in statute and 300,000 regulations with criminal penalties. It is estimated that the number of crimes has doubled over the last three decades. A December 9, 2019, opinion piece in The