April 7th, 2022

UPDATE: Data Reporting & Quality Scorecard, Round 6

A year ago, we launched our Data Reporting and Quality Scorecard to show the public whether carceral agencies were reporting comprehensive and reliable data about COVID in their facilities to the public. 

“Inconsistencies in data reporting practices across agencies,” we noted, “make our efforts to collect and standardize COVID-19 data in the carceral context extremely challenging.”

Since then, our team has periodically updated our scorecard as agencies have changed what data are reported and how, and as new categories of data have become relevant. For example, in April of last year, we added whether vaccination data is reported to our scorecard. In May, as a general trend of low vaccine uptake among staff emerged across the country, we added whether active cases among staff and total staff population are reported. 

Despite the proven public health value of this data, we are seeing the lowest levels of transparency since the start of the pandemic. In this round, 49 of 53 agencies received a failing score – the most ever. 

As we anticipate a likely case surge in the coming weeks, this public health data is more important than ever. 


Key changes:

This round, we have added another category of data that we believe all agencies should be reporting: data on booster vaccines. Only seven states received credit for reporting this data point (and only New Jersey reports them for staff), but without this information, it is very difficult to assess whether vaccination efforts remain robust or have stalled.

Since our last scorecard update in October, eleven states have lost points because they now report less data, or less clearly, than they did in June. 

Tennessee saw the sharpest decrease in transparency. The state’s prison system stopped regularly publishing COVID data about both incarcerated people and staff at the end of February; since then, it has only been reporting the number of people in state custody who have died of the virus. 

Several states have rolled back reporting on the incarcerated people in their custody:

  • Kentucky, Maine and Oklahoma have stopped reporting the number of cumulative cases among incarcerated people.
  • Maine stopped reporting the number of total tests administered to incarcerated people.
  • Utah stopped reporting the number of vaccinations among incarcerated people

Other states have removed previously reported data about correctional staff:

  • Kentucky stopped reporting the cumulative number of COVID cases among staff.
  • Virginia stopped reporting the number of vaccinations among staff.

Even after the Omicron surges, just four carceral agencies earned points for reporting more data than they did in October. Most notably, Rhode Island overhauled its system and began reporting active cases among incarcerated people and staff, vaccinations for incarcerated people, and other variables. 

As noted above, we included in our assessments this round whether agencies are reporting data related to booster vaccines. Just four states report these data at the facility level for incarcerated people: Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, and Washington. Three more – Delaware, Missouri, and New Jersey – report statewide booster figures for incarcerated people. Only Maryland reports data on the number of staff who have received boosters, and it does so at the state level.

Assigning Letter Grades

We assigned standard letter grades to each agency based on the percentage of points earned out of a maximum total of 36. The letter grades are associated with score ranges as follows:

A: 32-36

B: 30-31

C: 26-29

D: 22-25

F: <22

Please let us know if you use this scorecard as a tool to advocate for better data transparency and quality in your state.

Carceral Agency Scores

Carceral AgencyOverallData QualityReporting for
Incarcerated People
Reporting
for Staff
BOPF(17 / 36)4 / 87 / 146 / 14
ICEF(8 / 36)2 / 86 / 140 / 14
AlabamaF(20 / 36)4 / 88 / 148 / 14
AlaskaF(11 / 36)4 / 87 / 140 / 14
ArizonaF(9 / 36)2 / 86 / 141 / 14
ArkansasF(7 / 36)4 / 82 / 141 / 14
CaliforniaD(25 / 36)6 / 811 / 148 / 14
ColoradoF(16 / 36)4 / 89 / 143 / 14
ConnecticutF(9 / 36)2 / 85 / 142 / 14
DelawareF(12 / 36)2 / 87 / 143 / 14
District of ColumbiaF(8 / 36)4 / 82 / 142 / 14
FloridaF(0 / 36)0 / 80 / 140 / 14
GeorgiaF(0 / 360 / 00 / 140 / 14
HawaiiF(16 / 36)2 / 810 / 144 / 14
IdahoF(14 / 36)4 / 86 / 144 / 14
IllinoisF(12 / 36)0 / 86 / 146 / 14
IndianaF(20 / 36)4 / 88 / 148 / 14
IowaF(16 / 36)4 / 88 / 144 / 14
KansasF(18 / 36)2 / 88 / 148 / 14
KentuckyF(10 / 36)2 / 84 / 144 / 14
LouisianaF(6 / 36)2 / 82 / 142 / 14
MaineF(2 / 36)0 / 82 / 140 / 14
MarylandD(23 / 36)4 / 810 / 149 / 14
MassachusettsF(0 / 34)0 / 80 / 140 / 14
MichiganF(16 / 36)4 / 87 / 145 / 14
MinnesotaF(20 / 36)4 / 812 / 144/ 14
MississippiF(4 / 36)0 / 84 / 140 / 14
MissouriF(12 / 36)0 / 87 / 145 / 14
MontanaF(8 / 36)2 / 83 / 143 / 14
NebraskaF(9 / 36)4 / 85 / 140 / 14
NevadaF(10 / 36)2 / 84 / 144 / 14
New HampshireF(17 / 36)2 / 811 / 144/ 14
New JerseyF(7 / 36)0 / 84 / 143 / 14
New MexicoF(9 / 36)2 / 87 / 140 / 14
New YorkF(10 / 36)2 / 86 / 142 / 14
North CarolinaF(19 / 36)8 / 8 10/ 141/ 14
North DakotaF(18 / 36)2 / 88 / 148/ 14
OhioF(14 / 36)2 / 84 / 146 / 14
OklahomaF(4 / 36)0 / 84 / 140 / 14
OregonF(17 / 36)6 / 87 / 144 / 14
PennsylvaniaC(24 / 36)6 / 812 / 146/ 14
Rhode IslandF(18 / 36)2 / 810 / 146 / 14
South CarolinaF(16 / 36)2 / 88 / 146 / 14
South DakotaF(14 / 36)2 / 86 / 146 / 14
TennesseeF(4 / 36)2 / 82 / 140 / 14
TexasF(16 / 36)6 / 85 / 145 / 14
UtahF(9 / 36)0 / 88 / 141 / 14
VermontF(17 / 36)4 / 87 / 146 / 14
VirginiaF(12 / 36)2 / 87 / 143 / 14
WashingtonD(23 / 36)6 / 89 / 148 / 14
West VirginiaD(26 / 36)8 / 812 / 145/ 14
WisconsinF(19 / 36)6 / 89 / 143/ 14
WyomingF(7 / 36)2 / 83 / 142 / 14

next post

May 9th, 2022Lauren Woyczynski and Joshua Manson

What We Won't Know When the Next Surge Arrives

Public health experts are again predicting new COVID surges in the coming weeks, and incarcerated people are still at heightened risk for infection and death. But still, two years into the pandemic, there are enormous gaps in what the public will know.