From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov Transcript for: COVID-19 in Federal Prisons Description: Prison populations were particularly vulnerable to the spread of COVID-19 because of their confined communal spaces. Inmates also tend to have higher rates of underlying health conditions, such as diabetes and chronic health disease than the general population. So what steps did the Bureau of Prisons take to protect inmates and prison staff from getting COVID? We find out more from GAO's Gretta Goodwin. Related GAO Work: GAO-21-502, Bureau of Prisons: BOP Could Further Enhance Its COVID-19 Response by Capturing and Incorporating Lessons Learned Released: July 2021 [Intro Music] [Gretta Goodwin:] It's critical that BOP enhance the way it communicates guidance and develops approaches for capturing, sharing and applying best practices as it moves forward. [Holly Hobbs:] Hi, and welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report. Your source for news and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office—celebrating 100 years of fact-based, nonpartisan government oversight. I'm Holly Hobbs. Prison populations were particularly vulnerable to the spread of COVID-19 because of their confined and communal spaces. Inmates may have also been particularly vulnerable due to higher rates of underlying health conditions, such as diabetes and chronic heart disease. So what steps did the Bureau of Prisons take to protect this population, as well as the prison staff who guard them? Today, we'll find out more from Gretta Goodwin, an expert on federal prison systems and a director in our Homeland Security and Justice team. Thanks for joining us, Gretta. [Gretta Goodwin:] Happy to be here, Holly. [Holly Hobbs:] So, Gretta. What was the impact of COVID-19 on inmates in Bureau of Prison's custody? [Gretta Goodwin:] As of May of 2021, 45,660 inmates had tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, and 237 inmates had died from the virus. We also found that COVID impacted inmates in a number of other ways. So, for example, inmates face reduced access to certain programs like drug treatment programs and GED classes. They also face reduced access to certain services like routine medical care. And from March through October of 2020, visits from family and loved ones were suspended. Isolation and quarantine practices also impacted inmates. BOP quarantined more than 27,000 inmates in April of 2020, and more than 18,000 each month from July through December of 2020, when the COVID-19 cases were at their peak. [Holly Hobbs:] And how about prisons’ staff? [Gretta Goodwin:] So as of May, 6,972 BOP staff members had tested positive and 4 had died. Now, similar to inmates being affected in various ways, staff were also affected. For example, the number of staff who took administrative or sick leave for COVID-19 related reasons caused management to change staff shifts from an 8-hour shift to a 12-hour shift. Others mandated overtime shifts to maintain operations. BOP also reassigned staff to cover posts when other staff were not available, and BOP granted temporary job modifications to certain staff to reduce their exposure to the virus. Further, BOP deployed staff to other facilities for temporary duty when those facilities needed additional staff on site. [Holly Hobbs:] So what does this say about the bureau's response to COVID-19? [Gretta Goodwin:] So BOP developed agency-wide guidance for responding to the pandemic—like a phase action plans, modified operations plan, and its own COVID-19 pandemic plan. However, despite all this guidance, some BOP staff members expressed confusion about how to implement it. I will note that the Department of Justice's Office of Inspector General conducted a survey of BOP staff in April of 2020 and found that 59 percent of the respondents said the guidance that they received was not clear, and 53 percent thought that the guidance was not timely. We found that while BOP has some mechanisms for sharing lessons learned and best practices, it does not have an approach for ensuring that facilities captured these lessons and practices, or that they implement those most applicable. [Holly Hobbs:] So, how were preventative measures like testing for COVID used in prisons? [Gretta Goodwin:] BOP officials told us that they considered universal, daily testing of staff, but they determined that putting other protective measures in place was a more feasible route to mitigating the threat of the virus. BOP does test inmates, but not universally and not routinely. Instead, it tests inmates before and after they're transferred in and out of BOP facilities. It also tests inmates based on symptoms or known exposure. BOP officials told us that they had discussed internally and with the CDC the feasibility of regularly mass testing inmates across all facilities. However, the resources required for mass testing would be fairly significant, and they decided not to regularly mass test. [Holly Hobbs:] And what about vaccines? [Gretta Goodwin:] BOP issued an immunization plan in November of 2020, and that plan prioritized the vaccination of staff first, followed by inmates in certain housing situations, such as inmates in nursing care units. And then inmates with more serious medical conditions, and those 65 years or older or those with cancer and those with heart conditions were prioritized as well. As of May 2021, 56 percent of inmates in BOP managed facilities were fully vaccinated and 50 percent of BOP staff were fully vaccinated. [Music] [Holly Hobbs:] So it sounds like the Bureau of Prisons already faced significant challenges in preventing the spread of COVID-19 to inmates and staff just based on the structure of prisons' confined spaces and close proximity, for example. But that guidance meant to protect prisoners and staff was not clear or well communicated. Gretta, did we make any recommendations to the bureau about steps they could take to prevent similar future outbreaks? [Gretta Goodwin:] We made three recommendations. And each of them applies not only to how BOP manages COVID-19, but also to BOP's response to future public health emergencies. So our first recommendation is that BOP should routinely evaluate how it communicates guidance to facility staff and then modify its approach where necessary based on the results. We think the information gain from such an evaluation would help ensure that BOP staff and inmates can clearly understand the public health and safety protocols and are able to follow them. The second recommendation we made is that BOP develop and implement an approach to capture and share best practices and lessons learned based on the initial months of response efforts. And then the third recommendation we made is that BOP develop an approach to ensure facilities apply these best practices and lessons learned as appropriate. BOP agreed with all three of our recommendations. [Holly Hobbs:] And last question. What's the bottom line of this report? [Gretta Goodwin:] Federal prisons, by their nature and design, present some very challenging living and working environments during infectious disease outbreaks. The pandemic has highlighted key opportunities for BOP to better protect its inmates and staff who are especially vulnerable. It's critical that BOP enhance the way it communicates guidance and develops approaches for capturing, sharing and applying best practices and lessons learned as it moves forward. [Holly Hobbs:] That was a Gretta Goodwin talking about GAO's recent review of the Bureau of Prisons' response to COVID-19. Thank you for your time, Gretta. [Gretta Goodwin:] Thank you, Holly. [Holly Hobbs:] And thank you for listening to the Watchdog Report. To hear more podcasts, subscribe to us on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and more. And make sure you leave a rating or review to let others know about the work we're doing. For more from the congressional watchdog, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, visit us at GAO.gov.