News Roundup

There have been a number of encouraging recent announcements about coronavirus vaccines, with several pharmaceutical companies saying that they have developed vaccines with a high degree of effectiveness and minor side effects.  This week, discussions about how to prioritize distribution of the vaccines raised interesting questions related to the criminal justice system.  Keep reading for more on this story and other news. Vaccination Complication.  As the Associated Press reports, the federal prison system is expected to be near the front of the line to receive coronavirus vaccines.  This is not surprising in light of the fact that prisons and jails across the country have been the sites of major COVID outbreaks throughout the course of the pandemic. Just this week, WBTV reported that the North Carolina Department of Public Safety has temporarily closed three facilities in order to shift staff to monitor inmates admitted to hospitals and create a medical surge unit to lessen the system’s use of regular hospitals already struggling to cope with increasing infection rates in communities throughout the state.  Another WBTV report notes that 65 inmates at Mecklenburg County Detention Center have tested positive for the virus and an addition 255 are in isolation or quarantine because of potential exposure.  The Mecklenburg outbreak has been traced to detention center staff who worked shifts while unaware they were infected. While there is widespread agreement nationally that detention center staff should be among the first to be vaccinated, there’s now a debate about when inmates should receive vaccines.  A [...]