As of August 2021, KRQE news reports that more than nine months after vaccines were made available to vulnerable populations, the NM Corrections Department estimates 90 percent of the prison population is now vaccinated.
Previous post: Over 57 percent of New Mexico’s adult residents have had at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose (Romero, 2021). What percentage of the prison population are receiving vaccines in the state’s jails and prisons? The answer is not very clear. At this time, vaccination rate information is not available to the public, and there are low vaccination rates in prisons despite the vulnerability of incarcerated residents to COVID-19.
Phase 1b Vulnerable Populations included incarcerated persons and prison staff (NMDOH 2021). They were among the lowest priority for “vulnerable” populations under “populations in congregate settings.” NM DOH lists populations in congregate settings as “those persons unable to self-isolate or stay six feet apart from each other, which can result in increased spread of COVID-19 within and outside congregate settings. Congregate settings include homeless shelters, residential treatment centers, community homes, corrections or detention facilities, and juvenile justice facilities” (NMDOH 2021).
The state is past Phase 1b, yet not all incarcerated persons are vaccinated. According to #1-4, IPRA 159, (NMDOH, n.d.), data for the dates 12/14/2020-03/05/2021, just three months ago, 574 of the state’s 5801 prisoners have received one dose of a vaccine, under 10 percent of the population (NMCD, n.d.).
Publicly Available Data
According to the Marshall Project data sourced from state and federal prison agencies, one in five incarcerated individuals are fully vaccinated. One in three has received the first of two vaccine doses (Marshall Center, 2021). We called the following federal facilities to inquire about the total prison population in addition to estimates based on The Marshall Project figures. The following is the approximate prison population in New Mexico:
State Corrections Facilities: 5801 (NMCD, n.d.).
Federal Facilities:
Cibola County Detention Center: approximately 673 (facility REFUSED to provide accurate information)
Otero County Federal Prison Facility: 539 (Haywood, 2020)
Otero County Processing Center: 1000 (provided by facility staff)
Torrance County Detention Facility: 109 (provided by facility staff)
We estimate that about 1,600 individuals in state and federal facilities are partially vaccinated; however, given the secrecy of ICE facilities, in particular, we cannot provide an accurate number.
The Bureau of Prisons provides federal vaccine data, but combines it with data from The Indian Health Service and other agencies (NMDOH, 2021); this challenged our calculating the number of partially and fully vaccinated incarcerated individuals in ICE and federal facilities (NM DOH website, accessed on May 5, 2021). We found much of this data is difficult to source. For instance, as of April 2021, it was unclear if the Metropolitan Detention Center had started vaccinating incarcerated people, despite 1B vaccinations beginning in early February (Joseph Sullivan, Private Attorney, Phone Interview 2021). We were only able access answers via a partner’s Freedom of Information IPRA (Inspection of Public Records Act) request to NM DOH.
We know that prisons across the state continue to face outbreaks. Additionally, limited emails between NMCD staff and NM DOH staff note some vaccine hesitancy among incarcerated folks; this is understandable given the precarious and obscure information sharing in prisons throughout the pandemic. As state and federal agencies attempt to address misconceptions and decrease anxiety around the vaccine for the general public, what is being done internally for incarcerated persons in the dark about protective measures?
State plans should be transparent to incarcerated individuals, their loved ones, and their wider communities. The Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) recommends that every state prioritize incarcerated people and corrections staff in their COVID- 19 vaccination plans. In prisons, the COVID-19 rate is four times higher than in the general population (Prison Policy Initiative, 2020). In New Mexico, three in seven incarcerated persons have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, which is 4.8 times the rate in New Mexico overall (Marshall Project, 2021).
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