The COVID-19 pandemic was responsible for thousands of deaths in its first year. But the death rate was even higher for incarcerated people in state and federal prisons.
From March 2020 to February 2021, nearly 2,500 incarcerated people in state and federal prisons died of COVID-19, according to data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.[1] This translates to a death rate[2] of about 1.5 deaths per 1,000 incarcerated people from the virus. By comparison, the CDC estimates a death rate of about 1.25 deaths per 1,000 people for the total US population in 2021, making the death rate 20% higher for incarcerated people than it was for average Americans.
