Rory Adams did not know that Christmas in a small rural hospital in West Virginia would be the last time he saw his wife alive. She’d entered prison in early January 2021 to serve a 42-month sentence for failure to collect payroll taxes. She was supposed to return to North Carolina, their two adult children, and their quilting business this summer.
But when he saw her, she was heavily sedated. A ventilator was helping her breathe as she struggled with COVID-19. Rebecca “Maria” Adams, 59, died 18 days after Christmas in the same hospital bed.
The pandemic has proved especially deadly behind bars. Inmates are more than twice as likely to die of COVID-19 as the general population. And the deaths continue to pile up.
