1 in 5 U.S. prisoners have had COVID, a rate four times as high as general public

COVID-19 is spreading like wildfire inside America’s state and federal prisons, with an infection rate that is more than four times as high as the general population, according to data collected by The Associated Press and The Marshall Project. The data analysis found that one in every five prisoners have already been infected in the U.S., compared with a nationwide infection rate of about 5%. The virus has also killed at least 1,700 prisoners since the onset of the pandemic and its spread inside correctional facilities is actually accelerating despite repeated warnings by experts and activists.