On Dec. 3, the ACLU of Wisconsin sent a letter to the Wisconsin’s State Disaster Medical Advisory Committee asking that the Vaccine Distribution Subcommittee include incarcerated people in the 1b priority level for vaccine distribution, along with corrections officers due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

From the letter:

The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin is a non-partisan, non-profit organization working to protect civil liberties and civil rights, and we are writing to ask that the Vaccine Distribution Subcommittee include incarcerated people in the 1b priority level for vaccine distribution, along with corrections officers. 

Around the country, COVID-19 has spread at unparalleled rates inside jails, prisons and detention centers.  In Wisconsin’s prisons, 8,668 people have tested positive for COVID-19 as of the date of this letter, and 14 people have died from the disease.