I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Tuesday, April 13th.

In the United States, nine out of every 100 people are known to have been infected with the coronavirus.

Inside United States prisons,

that number is not nine, but 34 out of every 100 people, more than three times as high.

Here in New York, it took a court ruling to force the city's hand to offer vaccinations to incarcerated people as a congregate living group. According to a recent

New York Times investigation, more than 1,400 new cases and seven deaths are reported inside

facilities, jails, and prisons every day. But despite the high risk, incarcerated people have not

been prioritized in the vaccine rollout

and vaccine hesitancy remains high, both among incarcerated people and very much among

corrections officers from what we're hearing.

And while the pandemic has certainly highlighted enormous failings, the problem of substandard health care for incarcerated

individuals long preceded COVID-19. Here's a stat. A year after returning home from prison,

formerly incarcerated people have a mortality rate nearly four times the national average.

That's in large part because many prison administrators

don't want to spend money on health plans that would offer preventative or personalized care,

instead opting for cheap plans from for-profit providers that cut corners at the expense

of keeping people healthy. At least that's the accusation.

Here with me now are Dr. Homer Venters, Clinical Associate Professor at NYU's College of Global

Public Health, also a newly appointed member of the Biden-Harris COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force.

He's also the former chief medical officer of the New York City Correctional

Health Services and author of Life and Death in Rikers Island. Also with us is Bianca Teleg,

executive director of the advocacy group Worth Rises. As many of you know by now, this segment

...