THE SOCIAL ECOLOGY OF PRISON INMATE MORTALITY OBSERVED BEFORE AND AFTER THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Prison population health has been a consistent challenge that was further exasperated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Studies have documented the impacts of confined prison living on the public health of the prison population and how prisoners were at significantly higher risk of infection and death from COVID-19 than the general population, but there is insufficient scholarship on the protective and risk factors that COVID-19 may have had on the mortality characteristics of prisoners. The goal of this research is to determine whether the COVID-19 period was associated with significant increases in prison inmate mortality in the California and Texas prison systems compared to the pre-pandemic period.