November 28th, 2020 by WCBC Radio

Staff members and incarcerated individuals are beginning to see spikes in COVID-19 infections in Maryland prisons, echoing upward trends in other areas of the state. Maryland Matters compiled a database of confirmed COVID-19 infections among inmates and department staff at the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, finding that 1,349 inmates and 1,003 staff members have been infected since the pandemic’s start. The data, made publicly available by Maryland’s Open Data Portal, is a weekly snapshot of confirmed cases across state and local congregate living facilities dating back to April 29. These figures only capture new positive COVID-19 tests for the reported week, and do not account for any recoveries among either population. While cases continue to trend upwards across the department, some facilities are seeing alarming surges