INSIDE AND OUT

摘要

RESTRICTIONS SOON LOCKED down the world beyond her walls. Denver canceled its St. Patrick's Day parade; concert venues closed; ski resorts suspended operations, then bars, restaurants, and schools. Finally, the governor ordered everyone to stay home. Triplett, of course, had no choice but to remain where she was: a prison, where cramped conditions make even basic public-health guidance hard to implement. Just before Colorado's outbreak, La Vista housed 694 male and female inmates, slightly below its capacity of 707; even so, seven other women shared Triplett's cell. Prisons' crowded, communal nature is the stuff of transmission nightmares. People live, work, eat, and recreate together-often in poorly ventilated buildings. "There are constantly new people coming in and out of this very tightly occupied setting," says Andre Montoya-Barthelemy, a doctor of occupational medicine who has studied inmate well-being for the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. "There are transfers from other facilities. There are medical and other staff who come in and have their own exposures." Even something as seemingly straightforward as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggestions for hand hygiene present challenges. Prisons often ban alcohol-based sanitizer because of the potential for abuse. Inmates sometimes must buy soap from a commissary.