Prison Populations Drop by 100,000 During Pandemic
RICHMOND, Va. — Stephanie Parris was finishing a two-year prison sentence for a probation violation when she heard she’d be going home three weeks early because of COVID-19.
It made her feel bad to leave when she had so few days left at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women. She said she wasn’t sick, and, as far as she knew, there were no cases at the facility. There were others still inside who could have used the reprieve.
"I would have helped someone who had nine or 10 months, someone who absolutely needed it,” she said recently. “There was a lady in there who was very elderly, and she has very bad health problems. I would have given my place to her.”
There has been a major drop in the number of people behind bars in the U.S. Between March.
