tested for covid-19. prisoners has been released to mitigate the spread of covid-19 in prisons in the philippines. as of july 22, 21,858 prisoners from 470 jail facilities managed by the country's bureau of jail management and penology has been released. at least a thousand prisoners and jail staff have contracted covid-19. somaliland further information: covid-19 pandemic in somaliland president muse bihi abdi pardoned 574 prisoners and ordered them released to control the spread of the virus. syria further information: covid-19 pandemic in syria isil militants in the hassakeh province in eastern syria rioted, and four escaped from prison. while there are no reports of coronavirus infections in prisons in this area, there are concerns about a possible outbreak in overcrowded facilities. thailand further information: covid-19 pandemic in thailand a riot started at the prison in the buriram province in northeastern thailand on march 29 when a false rumor about a coronavirus infection spread as a cover-up for an escape attempt. seven of the 2,100 prisoners escaped but were recaptured. two prisoners at a different facility in the country have been diagnosed with covid-19, and families have been banned from visiting prisons in the country for 14 days. turkey further information: covid-19 pandemic in turkey on march 13, minister of justice abdulhamit gül announced that meetings in all open and closed prisons, the use of family meeting rooms, and transfers between prisons were all delayed for two weeks. on march 20, the human rights association, human rights foundation of turkey, the association of lawyers for liberty, the contemporary lawyers association, and the health and social service workers union of civil society in the penal system, published a statement on the covid-19 outbreak and urged immediate action in prisons. in their article, they emphasized the importance of informing the public, especially family and prisoners' lawyers, about quarantine practices and the health status of prisoners. the turkish parliament passed a law to free tens of thousands of prisoners on april 14. human rights organizations criticized the law because it did not include individuals convicted under anti-terrorism laws, journalists, politicians, and lawyers in pre-trial detention. united kingdom further information: covid-19 pandemic in the united kingdom the government released specific guidance to prisons in the event of covid-19 symptoms or cases, specifically the rule that states "any prisoner or detainee with a new, continuous cough or a high temperature should be placed in protective isolation for 7 days". on march 18, the first coronavirus case was reported in a uk prison. the prisoner, who had been serving time in hmp manchester (commonly referred to as strangeways), was moved to a hospital. while no other prisoners or staff tested positive for the virus, thirteen prisoners and four members of staff were put into isolation as a precaution. prison visits remained open, but the situation is being monitored. on march 19, it was revealed that around 75 officers at hmp berwyn in wales were off work due to sickness or self-isolation, and 22 prisoners showing symptoms of coronavirus were being isolated by the prison. however, the prison had enough staff members to remain fully operational. following the case in hmp manchester, public services think tank reform called for the release of 2,305 "low-risk" offenders on short sentences to reduce the risk of coronavirus within the prison population. their report argued that prison are "overcrowded insanitary conditions and poor-quality healthcare". similar actions have been taken in iran and the united states. on march 21, former justice secretary david gauke called for the suspension of short sentences and early release of some prisoners to avoid the spread of covid-19. united states further information: covid-19 pandemic in the united statesduring the first half of 2020, considering u.s. outbreaks affecting clusters of over 500 people, three-quarters of these large outbreaks occurred at correctional facilities. as of july 3, 2020, the hardest hit institution was marion correctional institution in marion, ohio with 2,439 cases, followed by pickaway correctional institution in scioto township, ohio (1,791 cases), san quentin state prison in san quentin, california (1,483 cases), harris county jail in houston, texas (1,390 cases), and trousdale turner correctional center in hartsville, tennessee (1,379 cases). these were the five worst outbreaks of covid-19 in the united states up to that point. at least 13 people incarcerated at marion died of covid-19. as of late august 2021, over 2,500 people had died from covid-19 while incarcerated in u.s. prisons; statistics on covid-19 deaths are generally unavailable for u.s. jails.april 24, 2020: protest event in columbus, ohio calling for 20,000 early prison releases on any given day, 2.3 million people are incarcerated in 6,000 facilities in the united states, presenting officials with the difficult task of preventing coronavirus outbreaks among prisoners and staff. prisoners often sleep close together. many prisons have poor sanitation, and alcohol-based hand sanitizer is often prohibited for inmates. the vast majority of these prisoners are in state or local custody. state governors usually have the power to choose to release prisoners, but generally they do not do so, a trend that has not changed even given the covid-19 crisis. for example, in response to the pandemic, california and kentucky released less than four percent of their prisoners, while arizona stated that it would release none. the remaining minority of prisoners are in federal custody. between march 22–26, 2020, 23 inmates escaped and at least one inmate tested positive for covid-19 in each of two prisons. judges ordered the liberation of thousands of prison inmates, and there were calls to release all medically vulnerable inmates. as of april 8, 2020, there were at least 1,300 confirmed cases of covid-19 and 32 deaths in prisons and jails across the united states. on december 18, 2020, the associated press and the marshall project stated that one in five prisoners in the united states had been infected with the covid virus. this was over four times the infection rate of the general population around the time of the report. in some states, half of prisoners had been infected. covid-19 has also spread at an elevated rate within immigration detention facilities in the united states. federal correctional system former attorney general william barr announced on march 26, 2020, that he had instructed federal prisons to free some inmates to lessen the impact of the coronavirus epidemic. this order favors inmates over 60 who have not been convicted of violent or sex crimes. this applies to about 2,000 of the 170,000 inmates in the federal correctional system. at the time of barr's announcement, there had been about a dozen cases of covid-19 among federal prisoners and staff. a high-profile release was paul manafort, the former campaign chairman of president trump, who, at age 71, left a federal prison in pennsylvania to serve the rest of his sentence in home confinement due to coronavirus concerns. another high-profile released prisoner was rita crundwell (68), the biggest municipal embezzler in u.s. history, went to live on her brother's farm. patrick jones, a 49-year old inmate at a minimum-security prison in oakdale, louisiana, became the first fatality of covid-19 in a federal prison on march 28. five other inmates were infected. the federal bureau of prisons is locking all its 146,000 inmates in their cells from april 1 to 14. covid-19 is so common at federal correctional complex, oakdale in louisiana that authorities stopped testing for it and instead assume that anyone with symptoms is infected with it. on july 14, 2020, daniel lewis lee became the first federal prisoner to be executed in 17 years. his victims' family had sued to delay the execution, citing their desire to witness it but asserting their fears of contracting covid-19. several days before the scheduled execution, a court ruled that it could be rescheduled to allow his victims' family to attend, but the u.s. supreme court subsequently denied that extension. on january 7, 2021, joseph lee fultz arrived at a federal prison in indiana to begin a 27-year sentence. there was a covid-19 outbreak at the prison, and fultz was diagnosed within days. although the government recorded his health status as "recovered," he died in his cell on february 8, 2021, raising questions about the overall accuracy of data from federal prisons. effects of covid-19 on minority groups although as of may 13, 2020, black prisoners make up 1⁄3 of the prison population in missouri, they have had 58% of the positive tests for the state's prison population. 43 prison agencies, including the federal bureau of prisons, have refused to provide any demographic information (besides ages) of prisoners affected by covid-19. this makes knowing which prisons have larger populations of non-english speaking prisoners who need help understanding preventive measures, such as social distancing, much more difficult. populations that are more likely to be incarcerated are generally disproportionately affected by pre-existing health conditions such as hiv, hepatitis c and tuberculosis. this creates high concentrations of these diseases within prison populations, with those affected by them having a higher susceptibility to contracting covid. health services many incarcerated people have preexisting conditions that worsen within prisons because of the settings such as lack of proper sanitation procedures and sharing close spaces in many already overcrowded prisons. the cost of medical services disincentivizes prisons from responding to incarcerated people's illnesses. even before the covid-19 pandemic, prisons had difficulties with managing incarcerated people's illnesses for reasons such as the inability to triage. "punitive solitary confinement" has also been employed as opposed to medical isolation during the covid-19 pandemic. with the use of solitary confinement, incarcerated people are less likely to report any sickness because they do not want to experience solitary confinement since it is often enforced in inhumane ways that have many damaging effects, especially emotional/psychological ones. this means that there are incarcerated people with unreported symptoms interacting with other incarcerated people and staff, which leads to higher chances of the spread of illness. with the covid-19 pandemic, there is also a lack of testing, trained and informed health services staff, and treatment resources available. immigration detention facilities main article: covid-19 pandemic in us immigration detention in the past decades, immigration and customs enforcement (ice) has turned to private, for profit companies to house the growing detainee population. facilities operated by private companies are not subject to the same standards of accountability and oversight as government-operated facilities. prior to the coronavirus, conditions in ice detention facilities were described as overcrowded, unsanitary, understaffed, and dangerous. detainees were not given sufficient access to medical care, and outbreaks of diseases such as mumps occurred. over the course of the coronavirus pandemic, ice has reported that 7,583 detention center detainees have tested positive for covid-19, and 8 have died (as of 12/03/2020). however, ice data has been criticized for having gaps and flaws. in march, detainees at several u.s. immigration and customs enforcement (ice) facilities went on strike to demand sanitary supplies. federal judges in california and pennsylvania have ordered ice to release several detainees who have sued. lawsuits are pending in maryland, massachusetts, new jersey, pennsylvania, and washington state. as of april 2, there were 35,000 people in ice custody. twenty-seven migrant children held by the office of refugee resettlement have tested positive for covid-19 as of april 13. six have recovered; three are in isolation in texas and illinois. in april and may, a series of letters were penned and signed by detainees in neighboring detention facilities in eloy, az. the letters described a lack of food, medical treatment, and adequate safety measures as well as inhumane conditions in quarantine. one detainee stated they were going to ask to be deported in order to escape the facility's conditions. the vera institute of justice released a peer reviewed model based on ice data from late may. of the 80,655 people vera estimates to be held in ice detention at any point over a 60-day time period, they calculate that 15,549 would contract covid-19. 235 of these would require hospitalization. 2-17 people would die in the first 60 days. arizona further information: covid-19 pandemic in arizona on march 21, it was reported that 50 inmates had been released in coconino county to reduce coronavirus risks. in pima county, the sheriff proposed measures to reduce the inmate population, such as releasing 135 people jailed for probation violations or relocating some